テルマ・ヒューストン (Thelma Houston)

Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston, (born Thelma Jackson May 7, 1946) is an African-American R&B and Club/Dance singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a #1 hit in 1977 with her cover of the song Don't Leave Me This Way.

The daughter of a cotton picker mother, Houston was born in Leland, Mississippi. She and her three sisters grew up primarily in Long Beach, California. After marrying and having two children, she joined the Art Reynolds Singers gospel group. There, she met Marc Gordon, who signed her as a recording artist with Dunhill Records.

In 1969, Houston released her first album titled, "Sunshower". In 1971, she went on to sign with Motown Records, but she failed to score any big hits for some time. The most successful single during that time period was You've Been Doing Wrong For So Long whick peaked at #64 on the R&B chart in 1974. In April of that same year she joined the cast of The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, playing various characters during the shows skits. However, the show was canceled in August and for the next several years Thelma's work was limited to demo recordings and performing at small venues. So she went into acting in 1975, appearing in the made-for-TV movie Death Scream. The year 1976 would prove to be the year that Thelma would finally make it to the mainstream pop culture. She started the year off by recording songs for the soundtrack to the movie The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings starring Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones. She was then invited to sing backing vocals for Motown labelmate Jermaine Jackson on his 1976 album My Name Is Jermaine...
(Wikipedia: Thelma Houston)