 |
Kym Mazelle | |
|---|---|
 Mazelle in 2014 | |
| Born | Kymberly Grigsby August 10, 1960 Gary, Indiana, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instrument(s) |
|
| Labels | |
| Website | officialkymmazelle |
Kym Mazelle (born Kymberly Grigsby; August 10, 1960) is an American singer. She is regarded as a pioneer of house music in the United Kingdom and Europe. [1] [2] Her music combines R&B, soul, funk, house music, dance, and pop. [3] She is credited as "The First Lady of House Music". [1] [4]
Mazelle was born in Gary, Indiana. [5] She lived on the same street as the Jackson family and knew Michael Jackson's mother and uncle. [6] In 1981, she attended Mundelein College in Chicago. In 1982, she transferred to Columbia College Chicago, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Arts and Entertainment Media Management in 1986. [7] During college, she worked part-time as an intern and secretary at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
In 1987, she worked with record producer Marshall Jefferson (as House To House) on the single "Taste My Love", released on Police Records label. [6] In 1988, she released the single "Useless (I Don't Need You Now)", a hit on the club charts which reached at No. 53 on the UK singles chart. [8] Her next release, "Wait," a duet with Robert Howard from The Blow Monkeys in 1989, peaked at No. 7 in the UK. [8] In 1989, Mazelle's debut album Crazy was released in the UK and featured the single "Love Strain". [8] With the single "Was That All It Was" returned Mazelle to the UK Top 40 and "Useless (I Don't Need You Now)" was remixed by Norman Cook. [9]
In 1990, Mazelle joined British music group Soul II Soul. Her lead vocals on the single "Missing You" on their second album Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade achieved major success worldwide. She also toured with the group throughout the year and their concert DVD A New Decade: Live from Brixton Academy was released in September 1990. In 1991, Parlophone Records repackaged Mazelle's debut album as Brilliant!! with remixes of her singles, two new tracks and remixes of "No One Can Love You More Than Me" and "Crazy 'Bout The Man". [10] [11] Mazelle also appeared as "Pattie Roman" on the show Trainer, a sitcom originating from Great Britain. [12]
In 1994, she scored a No. 13 hit in the UK with a cover on "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", with Jocelyn Brown. Two years later, in 1996, Mazelle released a cover version of the song "Young Hearts Run Free", which appeared in the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and also appeared on the director's remix album Something for Everybody . [13] The soundtrack went triple platinum in the United States of America. [14] The success of the single re-invited Mazelle to perform on Top of the Pops. [15]
She has appeared on two live albums by Maceo Parker, Life on Planet Groove and My First Name is Maceo. Mazelle released her second album The Pleasure Is All Mine in June 2004 and undertook a tour in the UK. [16] The album spawned two singles: "Love Magic" and "On My Own". [17] [18] In 2005, Mazelle took part in the British version of the reality TV show, Celebrity Fit Club . In April 2007, she appeared in the Ray Charles's tribute show "I Can't Stop Loving You". [19]
In July 2010, Mazelle joined the cast of UK theatre production of Smokey Joe's Cafe . [20] [21] She also appeared on the BBC Television series, Celebrity MasterChef . In September 2010, she released an extended play titled Destiny. [22]
She headlined Liverpool Pride on August 6, 2011. [23] On November 3, 2011, she headlined Prince Charles's Prince's Trust Ambassador Ball in Glasgow and helped to raise £93,000.00 for the charity on the night. On April 6, 2013, her appearance on The Voice UK was broadcast on the BBC. [24] In 2017, Mazelle embarked on her 30th Anniversary Tour, celebrating thirty years in the music industry.
| Single | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [25] | US Dance [26] | AUS [27] | BEL [28] | FRA [29] | GER [30] | NED [31] | NZ [32] | UK [8] | |||
| "Useless (I Don't Need You Now)" | 1988 | — | 13 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 53 | Crazy(UK/EUR) Brilliant!(US/CAN) |
| "Wait!" (duet with Robert Howard) | 1989 | — | — | — | 20 | — | 26 | 32 | — | 7 | |
| "Got to Get You Back" | — | — | — | — | — | 57 | — | — | 29 | ||
| "Love Strain" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 52 | ||
| "Was That All It Was" | 1990 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 33 | |
| "Don't Scandalize My Name" | — | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Useless (I Don't Need You Now)" (Norman Cook Remix) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 48 | Brilliant! (European remix compilation) | |
| "No One Can Love You More Than Me" (Boilerhouse Remix) | 1991 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 62 | |
| "Woman of the World" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Trainer — OST | |
| "Love Me the Right Way" (with Rapination) | 1993 | 97 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 22 | Non-album single |
| "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (duet with Jocelyn Brown) | 1994 | — | — | 48 | 46 | — | — | — | — | 13 | |
| "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (duet with Jocelyn Brown) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 22 | ||
| "Love Me the Right Way '96" (with Rapination) | 1996 | — | 20 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 55 | |
| "Young Hearts Run Free" | — | — | 11 | — | 29 | 88 | — | 16 | 20 | Romeo + Juliet — OST | |
| "Have a Nice Day" | 1997 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| "A Place in My Heart" | 1998 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Love Magic" | 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Pleasure Is All Mine |
| "On My Own" | 2005 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Here Comes the Light" | 2010 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Destiny |
| "Can You Feel It" (with Junior and Sinitta) [33] | 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | non album single |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||||||
| Single | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US R&B [34] | US Dance [35] | IRE [36] | NED [37] | UK [8] | |||||||||||||
| "Taste My Love" (House to House featuring Kym Mazelle) | 1987 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||||||
| "Missing You" (Soul II Soul featuring Kym Mazelle) | 1990 | 29 | 39 | 24 | 74 | 22 | Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade | ||||||||||
| "Love Me or Leave Me" (Kamasutra presents Kym Mazelle) | 1995 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||||||
| "Searching for the Golden Eye" (Motiv-8 and Kym Mazelle) | 1996 | — | — | — | — | 40 | |||||||||||
| "Free, Gay & Happy" (Paradise People featuring Kym Mazelle) | 1997 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Truly" (Peshay featuring Kym Mazelle) | 2000 | — | — | — | — | 55 | Miles from Home | ||||||||||
| "Perhaps" (Sunray featuring Kym Mazelle) | 2001 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||||||
| "Dance Little Dreamer" (Infinito featuring Kym Mazelle) | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "Feel Like Dancin'" (House Bros. featuring Kym Mazelle) | 2003 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Change" (Yann Vedra featuring Kym Mazelle) | 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Lovin'" (David Morales presents The Face featuring Kym Mazelle) | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||||||||||||
| Year | Title | Role | Episode | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Trainer | Pattie Roman | "A Question of Loyalty" | [12] |
| "Business or Pleasure" | [12] |
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. He led the group from its 1955 origins as "the Five Chimes" until 1972, when he announced his retirement from the group to focus on his role as Motown's vice president. However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. Robinson left Motown Records in 1990, following the sale of the company two years earlier.
ABC are an English pop band formed in Sheffield in 1980. Their classic line-up consisted of lead vocalist Martin Fry, guitarist and keyboardist Mark White, saxophonist Stephen Singleton, and drummer David Palmer.
The Blow Monkeys are a British new wave/sophisti-pop band that formed in 1981. The first single, "Live Today Love Tomorrow," was released in 1982. They subsequently enjoyed a successful career with several hit singles and albums across the 1980s before splitting up at the beginning of the 1990s. Their first hit song was "Digging Your Scene," which hit No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1986. They had four albums and eleven singles in the UK charts between 1986 and 1990.
Soul II Soul are a British musical collective formed in London in 1988. They are best known for their two major hits; 1989's UK number five and US number eleven "Keep On Movin'", and its follow-up, the UK number one and US number four "Back to Life". They have won two Grammy Awards, and have been nominated for five Brit Awards—twice for Best British Group.
Jocelyn Lorette Brown, sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American R&B and dance singer. Although she has only one Billboard Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name, she has an extensive background in the music industry and is well known in the world of dance music. Brown sang on 23 hit singles from the Official UK Singles Chart, 8 of which have reached the top 20.
Caron Melina Wheeler is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. Born and raised in London, she performed in various singing competitions as a teenager and began her recording career as one of the founding members of Brown Sugar. She was also one of the founding members of the female backing vocalist group Afrodiziak. She officially rose to fame in the late 1980s as lead singer of R&B group Soul II Soul. Managed by her bandmate, Jazzie B, the group became one of the London's best-selling groups in the 1990s. Their debut album, Club Classics Vol. One (1989), which established them as a global success worldwide, earned two Grammy Awards and featured the UK and Billboard number-one singles "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life ".
Charlotte Kelly is a British singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and record producer. Kelly rose to fame in the mid-1990s as one of the lead singers of British R&B group Soul II Soul, one of the London's best-selling groups of all time. She performed lead vocals on their single "I Care" for their fourth studio album Volume V: Believe (1995). She continued to record and perform with the group until the release of their final studio album Time for Change (1997). During their hiatus, Kelly released her debut solo album Just Another Girl (1998), which sold exclusively in Japan. She released her second album Charlotte (1999), which included number-one dance hit "Skin".
Lamya Al-Mugheiry, better known as her mononymLamya, was a Kenyan-born English singer-songwriter and record producer. She rose to fame in the early 1990s as one of the lead singers of R&B group Soul II Soul, and later as a backing singer for Duran Duran. In 2002, she released her debut album Learning from Falling, which spawned the number 1 Dance chart single "Empires ".
Penny Ford is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, she rose to fame in the 1980s after signing a recording contract with Total Experience Records and releasing her debut solo album Pennye. The album spawned the singles "Change Your Wicked Way" and "Dangerous", which were produced and written by Ford.
Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade is a 1990 album by Soul II Soul. The album reached No. 1 in the UK in May 1990, and contained three UK hits, "Get a Life", which reached No. 3, "A Dream's a Dream", which made No. 6, and "Missing You", which reached No. 22.
"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" is a 1979 song recorded by American singers Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer. It was written by Paul Jabara and Bruce Roberts, and produced by Giorgio Moroder and Gary Klein.
Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before.
Choices – The Singles Collection is a compilation album by British band The Blow Monkeys, released in 1989 by RCA and distributed by BMG / Ariola. The album includes most of the band's singles and features genres from the new wave of their debut album to pop rock and funky evolution, up to their discovery of the potentialities of the new dance revolution, a genre that they embraced on their final album, Springtime for the World, which was released the following year, shortly before they split up.
CeCe Rogers, is a two time Grammy nominated American singer, songwriter and record producer from Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
"Young Hearts Run Free" is a disco song written by David Crawford and originally recorded by American soul singer Candi Staton in 1976. In 1996, it was covered by American house music singer Kym Mazelle for the triple-platinum selling soundtrack of Romeo + Juliet. Rolling Stone ranked "Young Hearts Run Free" number 150 their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in 2022.
The Hits Album 10 or Hits 10 is the tenth release of the Hits compilation series, compiled by BMG, CBS and WEA. It was released in the UK on 22 May 1989. With this release, the compilers returned to the tradition of a volume issue number and the revival of artwork used from Hits 6 to Hits 8, with the issue number forming a central graphic against a black background. It was a successful album and reached number one on the UK Compilation Album chart for six consecutive weeks and achieved a Platinum sales award.
Jessica Ellen Cornish, known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical Whistle Down the Wind. She studied at the BRIT School before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
"Too Blind to See It" is a song by American singer Kym Sims, written and produced by Steve "Silk" Hurley. It was released in 1991 as the first single from her eponymous debut album. The song peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, it reached the top 10 of charts in Denmark, Finland, and the UK, and reached the top 20 of charts in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, and Luxembourg. A music video was produced for its promotion.
Volume IV The Classic Singles 88–93 is the first compilation album by British group Soul II Soul, released in 1993. Along with the band's biggest hit singles released up to 1993, the album also includes one new song, "Wish".
"Missing You" is a song by British Contemporary R&B band Soul II Soul, released in November 1990 as the fourth and last single from their second album, Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade (1990). It features American singer-songwriter Kym Mazelle and was a top 30 hit in Ireland and the UK. Outside Europe, it peaked at number nine in Zimbabwe, number 39 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in the US and number 166 in Australia. A black-and-white music video was produced to promote the single. It shows Mazelle and Jazzie B dancing together on a dancefloor while performing it.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
