Maxine Nightingale (born 2 November 1952, in Wembley, London) is an English… Read Full Bio ↴Maxine Nightingale (born 2 November 1952, in Wembley, London) is an English R&B and soul music singer, best known for her hits in the 1970s.One of the three children of Guyanese-born comedian Benny Nightingale and his wife Iris (the couple had another daughter, Rosalind, and a son, Glen1), Maxine Nightingale first vocalized with her school band. When Nightingale was aged thirteen she and a friend visited a neighbourhood house where a band called Unisound was rehearsing: Nightingale was asked to sing with the band and resultantly became a member performing extensively on the British cabaret circuit: the manager of a club where Unisound performed arranged for Nightingale to cut a demo which he shopped to Pye Records[2] for whom Nightingale made her first recordings. Despite being overseen by label a&r head Cyril Stapleton, Nightingale's three Pye single releases - issued in June and July 1969 and 26 March 1971 - went unnoticed.[3]

In 1969 Nightingale began a tenure of roughly a year and a half in the West End production of Hair playing a supporting role and understudying the female lead role of Sheila: Nightingale then relocated to Germany, having formed a relationship with an actor from the German production of Hair whom she had met when he visited the West End production. In Germany, Nightingale continued her stage musical career in Hair (as Sheila), Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell, and she began a relationship with Minoru Terada Domberger, the director of the German production of Hair, which led to marriage and a daughter, Langka Veva Domberger, born in 1973.[4]Nightingale returned to London with her husband and daughter and appeared in the West End production of Savages, after which she withdrew from professional performing. According to Nightingale, "I started doing session singing. I didn't do a lot but it was easy to go out in the evening when the baby was sleeping."[5] Her vocalizing on the recording of Al Matthews' "Fool" caught the attention of the session's producer Pierre Tubbs, enough that he asked composer J. Vincent Edwards to write a song for her. Edwards, who had worked with Nightingale in the West End production of Hair, convinced her to record the song, "Right Back Where We Started From", overcoming Nightingale's initial refusal and disinterest in a second attempt at a recording career. She recorded "Right Back Where We Started From" with the understanding it would be issued under a pseudonym. (Nightingale also had to be convinced to take a royalty rather than a onetime $45 session fee.)

After being released on United Artists Records (in Nightingale's true name), "Right Back Where We Started From" reached #8 in the UK in the autumn of 1975. It was released in the US early 1976 to enthusiastic reaction, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1976. Nightingale, who had accompanied her husband to his native Japan, was motivated by her single's US success to return to London to complete a Right Back Where We Started From album. She then proceeded to the US, which has since remained her home base.