Melba Moore - The Fabulous Melba Moore

 Moore was born Beatrice Melba Smith on October 29, 1945, in New York City to Gertrude Melba Smith (1920–1976), who was a singer professionally known as Bonnie Davis, and Teddy Hill (1909–1978), a big band leader.^[5][6] Moore grew up in the Harlem section of New York until age nine, when her mother remarried, to jazz pianist Clement Leroy Moorman and the family relocated to Newark, New Jersey. For high school, Moore attended Newark Arts High School,^[7][8] graduating in 1958.^[9] In 1970, she graduated from Montclair State College with a BA in music.

 

In 1975, Moore signed with Buddah Records and released the critically successful R&B album Peach Melba, which included the minor hit "I Am His Lady". The following year, she scored her first significant hit with the Van McCoy-penned "This Is It",^[13] which reached the Billboard Hot 100, the top-20 position on the R&B chart,^[14] and top-10 in the UK Singles Chart, and became her biggest success in that country.^[15] "This is It" also became the number 1 disco track in the UK for that year.^{[citation needed]} Eighteen years later Australian singer Dannii Minogue covered this song, which this time made it to number 10 on the ARIA chart.

In 1976, she scored her third Grammy nomination with the R&B ballad "Lean on Me", which had been originally recorded by Vivian Reed and later by Aretha Franklin, who recorded the song as a B-side of her 1971 hit "Spanish Harlem". The song is notable for Moore's extended long note at the end. In 1983, she re-recorded the song as a tribute to McCoy, who had penned the song and had died four years earlier. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Moore struggled to match the success of "This Is It" with minor R&B/dance hits. However, her hit 'Pick Me Up, I'll Dance' released in May 1979, produced by McFadden & Whitehead and released on Epic Records, did have considerable UK disco success, reaching UK chart position 48. She had another hit that same year, also produced by McFadden & Whitehead: a cover version of the Bee Gees' hit "You Stepped into My Life",^[13] which reached the top 20 on the R&B charts and 47 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[14]

In 1982, Moore signed with Capitol Records and reached the top 5 on the R&B charts with the dance-pop/funk single "Love's Comin' at Ya",^[14] which also hit the top 20 in the UK^[15] (on EMI America EA 146) and became a sizable hit in some European countries for its post-disco sound, followed by "Mind Up Tonight", which was another top 40 hit in the UK, reaching position number 22.^[15] A string of R&B hits followed, including 1983's "Keepin' My Lover Satisfied" and "Love Me Right", 1984's "Livin' For Your Love", 1985's "Read My Lips"—which later earned Moore a third Grammy nomination (for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance),^[13] making her just the fourth black artist after Donna Summer, Michael Jackson and Tina Turner to be nominated in the rock category—and 1985's "When You Love Me Like This".

In 1986, she scored two number 1 R&B hits, including the duet "A Little Bit More" with Freddie Jackson and "Falling".^[14] She scored other popular R&B hits including "Love the One I'm With (A Lot of Love)" and "It's Been So Long".^[14] That same year, Moore also headlined the CBS television sitcom Melba; its debut aired the same night as the Challenger explosion, and the show was abruptly cancelled, though five episodes aired that summer. Her success began to wane as the decade closed, although she managed two further Top 10 R&B hits, "Do You Really (Want My Love)" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".^[14] Moore had a starring role in the 1990 horror film Def by Temptation.