Sharon Redd ~ Beat The Street 1982 Funky Purrfection Version

I'll bet you did not know that Sharon Redd used to back Bette Midler as one of three Harlettes, the other two are Charlotte Crossley, Ula Hedwig. The original Harlettes were Melissa Manchester, Gail Kantor and Merle Miller, but were replaced by the trio for live performances and are first noted on Bette's "Live At Last" LP from 1977.

Sharon was born on October 19, 1945 in Norfolk, Virginia into a musical family where dad Gene was a producer and musical director at King records, brother Gene Jr wrote and produced Kool & The Gang and her half sister Penny Ford who sang lead vocals on songs for Snap!, SOS Band and Soul II Soul.

She was signed to United Artists label and released four singles in 1968 that established her as an R&B artist. Branching out into musical theatre, she joined the Australian cast of Hair from 1969 to 1971. She believes she and a fellow castmate were forced out of Australia by the Immigration Dept in April of 1971 because of the color of their skin. She then moved to London and worked in several musical productions, even earning a recurring role on "Rhoda" as Sherrye.

In 1974, Bette's original Harlettes were moving on to bigger and better things, and she auditioned more than 70 hopefuls to form the new Harlettes to replace them and Sharon was the first.

She was still working hard and she provided backing vocals on singles for Carol Douglas ("Burnin'", "Night Fever") and Norman Conners ("You Are My Starship"). In 1977 the three new Harlettes were out of a job so they recorded and released the LP "Formerly of the Harlettes" on Columbia, but it was not a big seller. Redd was then asked to be the lead voice on Front Page's "Love Insurance" in 1979 and that song peaked at #5 on the Hot Disco chart with her urgent and soulful redering.

The next year, she was signed to Marvin Schlacter's Prelude Records which had risen from the ashes of the US Division of Pye International Records. The new name came from a group the label had on their roster, Prelude. She became a prolific hitmaker for the dance floor and her biggest hits were "Can You Handle It" at #5, all cuts from LP Redd Hott (that included "In The Name Of Love and "Beat The Street") hit #1 then "Love How You Feel" placed at #16 disco.

After her run of hits quieted down, she returned to backing vocals for gigs and joined Soirée, an ensemble that included Luther Vandross and Jocelyn Brown (Somebody Else's Guy) . In 1992 she re-recorded "Can You Handle It" with remixers DNA (Tom's Diner ft Suzanne Vega) and performed the song on the BBC Tops Of The Pops. She then recorded "All The Way To Love" that same year with L.A. Mix's Les Adams that has yet to see the light of day.

Sharon was HIV positive and passed away on May 1, 1992 from complications that arose from pneumonia. The following year her half sister Penny Ford included a duet with Sharon named "Under Pressure" (not the Queen song) on her self titled 1993 solo album.

Prelude Records shut down in 1986 the French Canadian label Unidisc has purchased their library. Prelude Records was one of very few disco labels that successfully continued to keep the dance floors packed from the disco era. I recognized her voice from the Front Page single when I heard "In The Name Of Love" in 1982. I went with Beat The Street, which technically is a #1 Disco hit since the entire album was listed as ALL CUTS. I will complete "In The Name Of Love" for a later date.