Brenda Russell

Surprisingly few black women singers give a strongly singer-songwriter-like impression. Alicia Keys is a more recent example; Brenda Russell was a pioneering presence before her. Born in New York and raised in Canada, she was drawn to the Beatles and began her full career with the rock musical Hair—not a particularly stereotypical starting point for a black female singer. Later, Elton John discovered her, and she made two albums with her white husband in the latter half of the 1970s. Following their divorce, she went solo with this record, her third in all.

Her own ‘Piano in the Dark’ reached No. 6 in America in 1988, but Earth, Wind & Fire, Donna Summer, Oleta Adams and Lalah Hathaway have also sung her songs. ‘If Only for One Night’ from this album was recorded by Roberta Flack and Luther Vandross. Above all, her gift lies in melodies that make pictures appear before the eyes. From her first hit ‘So Good, So Right,’ through ‘Think It Over,’ supplied to Cheryl Ladd, to the mellow ‘In the Thick of It,’ I know no other black woman who can write such imaginative songs.