Diva Gray
Once again an artist that deserves recognition is sorely overlooked on the … Read Full Bio ↴Once again an artist that deserves recognition is sorely overlooked on the world wide web! My search for info on Diva Gray has led to little tidbits and some interesting facts. Diva's first
documentation of work comes in 1976. Like many of disco's greatest artists she comes from the session singers/background vocalist mold. That year she appeared on an Atlantic Record's Jazz
Sampler recorded at the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival. Seems she also did work for George Benson and David Sanborn that year as well.
In 1977 she did vocal work on Roy Buchanan's "Loading Zone" album and had her first brush with disco. Seems Diva travelled in the same circles and did many of the same sessions with future
soulster/disco star Luther Vandross. It was Vandross in fact that brought Gray into the sessions with Bernard and Nile for what would become Chic's first album. Gray can be heard on the mega-hit
"Dance, Dance, Dance."
By 1978 her career was picking up steam and it seemed to be the year that exploded for her. She joined future disco divas Ullanda McCullough and Gwen Guthrie on the highly-anticipated
soundtrack to "The Wiz." She found herself being a highly sought after sessionist and appeared on Ray Barretto's "Can You Feel It?" album as well as George Benson's "In Your Eyes," Jimmy
Ponder's "All Things Beautiful," Gene "Kiss" Simmons self-titled solo outing, and David Spinozza's "Spinozza."
As disco was hitting it's stride she found herself on 1978 releases by Joe Thomas ("In The Wind") and T. Life ("That's Life"). But her real success that year was through her alliance with Nile
Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Not only did she come back for work on the sophomore Chic album, "C'est Chic," but they hired her for Norma Jean Wright's solo outing and Sister Sledge's "We
Are Family" sessions.
Though it seems Gray's musical tastes ran towards jazz and pop it was hard to ignore the success of disco music and her own visibility within it's genre. By 1979 disco was at it's peak and
almost all of her session work was on disco themed albums. She can be heard on Richard T. Bear's "Red Hot & Blue," Duke Jupiter's "Taste the Night," Wilbert Longmire's "Champagne," Spyro
Gyra's "Morning Dance," and John Tropea's "To Touch You Again." A third appearance for Nile and Bernard on Chic's "Risqué" album led to her being offered her own chance to step forward and
bask in the spotlight.
Released in 1979 on the Columbia label "Hotel Paradise" was a head-on disco triumph. The album spawned two singles. "St. Tropez" peaked at #-25 on the Billboard club-play charts and "Magic Carpet Ride" bubbled up
to #-72 on the black singles charts. Both charted in early 1980 and it seems Gray was yet another casualty of the disco back lash. As a D.J. at the time I also remember spinning "Up And Down" from the album to packed
dance floors. 1979 had two more achievements. She appeared on the soundtrack to "Sunnyside." A box office bomb that featured Joey Travolta. The album was listed as "New York City Band" and featured the sleaze classic
"Got To Have Your Body" sung by Luther Vandross. But the other big event was a chance meeting with Bette Midler. Midler was shopping around for a new "Harlette." She had recently lost Sharon Redd who had left to
pursue her own solo career. Gray was asked to sing on Bette's 1979 disco offering "Thighs And Whispers." The chemistry worked and Diva was asked back to record and appear in Bette's 1980 film/soundtrack "Divine
Madness."
1980-81 saw her time taken up mainly with her duties as a "Harlette." In 1980 she did find time to do session work on George Benson's wildly successful "Give Me The Night" album, Ray Gomez' "Volume," Wilbert
Longmire's "With All My Love," The Marshall Tucker Band's "Tenth," David Sanborn's "Voyeur," and Steely Dan's "Gaucho." It's obvious with the disco back lash that occurred at the decade's beginning that her options for
session work were more or less rock-oriented. 1981 saw even less session work. She did join Ex-raspberries Eric Carmen on the Euclid Beach Band album which produced a very rare 12" single, "There's No Surf In
Cleveland." And she signed on for the Change album "Miracles." After a decade of touring, session work and great behind the scenes success Diva seems to have lightened her work load in the 1980's. She can still be heard
on David Bowie's "Never Let Me Down" (1987), Peabo Bryson's "Take No Prisoners" (1985), Roberta Flack's "I'm The One" (1982), Garland Jeffrey's "Guts For Love" (1983), Trevor Jones "Labyrinth" (1986), Scritti Politti's
"Provision" (1988), The Weathergirls' "Success" (1983), Andreas Vollenweider's "Dancing With The Lion" (1989), Steps Ahead's "Magnetic" (1985), Talking Heads' "Little Creatures" (1985) and self-titled albums by "Charlie
Sexton" (1989) and "Phantom Rocker And Slick" (1985). And she managed to score another solo hit in 1983 with her stunning dance rendition of "Memories (Theme From "Cats")" on a Prelude Records 12" single.
In the middle of the decade she had another unusual project that she became involved with. In 1985 she joined other disco divas, Vicki Sue Robinson and Ullanda McCullough, as the singing voices in the animated T.V.
show "Jem And The Holograms." The show was well received but sluggish ratings forced it's cancellation.
In the 1990's session work, which has always been her bread and butter, continued. Her credits in that decade include: Roberta Flack's "Christmas Album" (1992), The Alvin Ailey "Musical Retrospective" (1998), David
Berger's "Sultans Of S.W. Harlem Nutcracker" (1999), Marc Cohn's "Rainy Season" (1993), Natalie Cole's "Snowfall On The Sahara" (1999), Judy Collins' "Fires Of Eden" and "Judy Sings Dylan" (1990 and 1993), Celine Dion's
"These Are Special Times" (1998), Dr. John's "Television" (1994), Debbie Gibson's "Think With Your Heart" (1995), Dave Grusin's "West Side Story" (1997, Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Let's Go Bang" (1995), Jewel's "Joy: A Holiday
Collection" (1999), Tim Rice & Elton John's "Aida" (1999), R. Kelly's "R" (1998), Yvonne Lewis' "No Strangers In Paradise" (1995), Dianne Schuur & B.B. King's "Heart To Heart" (1994), Spin Doctor's "You've Got To Believe In
Something" (1996) and finally longtime friend Luther Vandross' "I Know" (1998).
After over 30 years in the music business Gray has branched out into acting as well. Her two appearances on celluloid so far include the roles of a nanny in Woody Allen's 1996 hit "Everybody Says I Love You" and a choir
singer in Daryl Hannah's 2002 movie "A Walk To Remember."
In the new millennium Diva is still lending her fantastic pipes to a variety of sessions. So far she can be heard on Fito Paez' "Abre Paez" and The Spin Doctor's "Just Go Ahead Now" as well as albums by Jimmy Ponder,
Sean Delaney, Jazzanova and David Morales. We're glad to see that she is still alive and well and going strong. We believe she must surely be one of the hardest working singers to be included in The DiscoMuseum. We're
proud to share this info, however minor it is, with you and to give the "Diva" her acknowledgement. The info above is surely only a partial list of her many credits. And to you....Ms. Gray ...."THANK YOU!" You are a DIVA!
documentation of work comes in 1976. Like many of disco's greatest artists she comes from the session singers/background vocalist mold. That year she appeared on an Atlantic Record's Jazz
Sampler recorded at the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival. Seems she also did work for George Benson and David Sanborn that year as well.
In 1977 she did vocal work on Roy Buchanan's "Loading Zone" album and had her first brush with disco. Seems Diva travelled in the same circles and did many of the same sessions with future
soulster/disco star Luther Vandross. It was Vandross in fact that brought Gray into the sessions with Bernard and Nile for what would become Chic's first album. Gray can be heard on the mega-hit
"Dance, Dance, Dance."
By 1978 her career was picking up steam and it seemed to be the year that exploded for her. She joined future disco divas Ullanda McCullough and Gwen Guthrie on the highly-anticipated
soundtrack to "The Wiz." She found herself being a highly sought after sessionist and appeared on Ray Barretto's "Can You Feel It?" album as well as George Benson's "In Your Eyes," Jimmy
Ponder's "All Things Beautiful," Gene "Kiss" Simmons self-titled solo outing, and David Spinozza's "Spinozza."
As disco was hitting it's stride she found herself on 1978 releases by Joe Thomas ("In The Wind") and T. Life ("That's Life"). But her real success that year was through her alliance with Nile
Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Not only did she come back for work on the sophomore Chic album, "C'est Chic," but they hired her for Norma Jean Wright's solo outing and Sister Sledge's "We
Are Family" sessions.
Though it seems Gray's musical tastes ran towards jazz and pop it was hard to ignore the success of disco music and her own visibility within it's genre. By 1979 disco was at it's peak and
almost all of her session work was on disco themed albums. She can be heard on Richard T. Bear's "Red Hot & Blue," Duke Jupiter's "Taste the Night," Wilbert Longmire's "Champagne," Spyro
Gyra's "Morning Dance," and John Tropea's "To Touch You Again." A third appearance for Nile and Bernard on Chic's "Risqué" album led to her being offered her own chance to step forward and
bask in the spotlight.
Released in 1979 on the Columbia label "Hotel Paradise" was a head-on disco triumph. The album spawned two singles. "St. Tropez" peaked at #-25 on the Billboard club-play charts and "Magic Carpet Ride" bubbled up
to #-72 on the black singles charts. Both charted in early 1980 and it seems Gray was yet another casualty of the disco back lash. As a D.J. at the time I also remember spinning "Up And Down" from the album to packed
dance floors. 1979 had two more achievements. She appeared on the soundtrack to "Sunnyside." A box office bomb that featured Joey Travolta. The album was listed as "New York City Band" and featured the sleaze classic
"Got To Have Your Body" sung by Luther Vandross. But the other big event was a chance meeting with Bette Midler. Midler was shopping around for a new "Harlette." She had recently lost Sharon Redd who had left to
pursue her own solo career. Gray was asked to sing on Bette's 1979 disco offering "Thighs And Whispers." The chemistry worked and Diva was asked back to record and appear in Bette's 1980 film/soundtrack "Divine
Madness."
1980-81 saw her time taken up mainly with her duties as a "Harlette." In 1980 she did find time to do session work on George Benson's wildly successful "Give Me The Night" album, Ray Gomez' "Volume," Wilbert
Longmire's "With All My Love," The Marshall Tucker Band's "Tenth," David Sanborn's "Voyeur," and Steely Dan's "Gaucho." It's obvious with the disco back lash that occurred at the decade's beginning that her options for
session work were more or less rock-oriented. 1981 saw even less session work. She did join Ex-raspberries Eric Carmen on the Euclid Beach Band album which produced a very rare 12" single, "There's No Surf In
Cleveland." And she signed on for the Change album "Miracles." After a decade of touring, session work and great behind the scenes success Diva seems to have lightened her work load in the 1980's. She can still be heard
on David Bowie's "Never Let Me Down" (1987), Peabo Bryson's "Take No Prisoners" (1985), Roberta Flack's "I'm The One" (1982), Garland Jeffrey's "Guts For Love" (1983), Trevor Jones "Labyrinth" (1986), Scritti Politti's
"Provision" (1988), The Weathergirls' "Success" (1983), Andreas Vollenweider's "Dancing With The Lion" (1989), Steps Ahead's "Magnetic" (1985), Talking Heads' "Little Creatures" (1985) and self-titled albums by "Charlie
Sexton" (1989) and "Phantom Rocker And Slick" (1985). And she managed to score another solo hit in 1983 with her stunning dance rendition of "Memories (Theme From "Cats")" on a Prelude Records 12" single.
In the middle of the decade she had another unusual project that she became involved with. In 1985 she joined other disco divas, Vicki Sue Robinson and Ullanda McCullough, as the singing voices in the animated T.V.
show "Jem And The Holograms." The show was well received but sluggish ratings forced it's cancellation.
In the 1990's session work, which has always been her bread and butter, continued. Her credits in that decade include: Roberta Flack's "Christmas Album" (1992), The Alvin Ailey "Musical Retrospective" (1998), David
Berger's "Sultans Of S.W. Harlem Nutcracker" (1999), Marc Cohn's "Rainy Season" (1993), Natalie Cole's "Snowfall On The Sahara" (1999), Judy Collins' "Fires Of Eden" and "Judy Sings Dylan" (1990 and 1993), Celine Dion's
"These Are Special Times" (1998), Dr. John's "Television" (1994), Debbie Gibson's "Think With Your Heart" (1995), Dave Grusin's "West Side Story" (1997, Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Let's Go Bang" (1995), Jewel's "Joy: A Holiday
Collection" (1999), Tim Rice & Elton John's "Aida" (1999), R. Kelly's "R" (1998), Yvonne Lewis' "No Strangers In Paradise" (1995), Dianne Schuur & B.B. King's "Heart To Heart" (1994), Spin Doctor's "You've Got To Believe In
Something" (1996) and finally longtime friend Luther Vandross' "I Know" (1998).
After over 30 years in the music business Gray has branched out into acting as well. Her two appearances on celluloid so far include the roles of a nanny in Woody Allen's 1996 hit "Everybody Says I Love You" and a choir
singer in Daryl Hannah's 2002 movie "A Walk To Remember."
In the new millennium Diva is still lending her fantastic pipes to a variety of sessions. So far she can be heard on Fito Paez' "Abre Paez" and The Spin Doctor's "Just Go Ahead Now" as well as albums by Jimmy Ponder,
Sean Delaney, Jazzanova and David Morales. We're glad to see that she is still alive and well and going strong. We believe she must surely be one of the hardest working singers to be included in The DiscoMuseum. We're
proud to share this info, however minor it is, with you and to give the "Diva" her acknowledgement. The info above is surely only a partial list of her many credits. And to you....Ms. Gray ...."THANK YOU!" You are a DIVA!
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