Josephine Superstar

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Josephine Superstar
Josephine Superstar.jpg
Album cover, featuring Phylicia Rashad
Studio album by
Phylicia Allen
Released5 August 1978 (1978-08-05)
Studio Can't Stop Productions, Inc., 65 East 55th Street, New York City
Genre Disco music
Length32:05
Label Casablanca Records
Producer Jacques Morali & Henri Belolo
Singles from Josephine Superstar
  1. "Colors (A Side) / Josephine Superstar (B Side)"
    Released: 1979 in Mexico [1]

Josephine Superstar is a disco concept album by Phylicia Rashad, released by Casablanca Records in 1978. [2] [3] [4] It is a musical biography, dedicated to Josephine Baker, [5] [6] detailing Baker's life as she runs away from home and finds fame and love in St. Louis, Broadway, and eventually Paris. [7] It was performed by American actress Phylicia Rashad, and produced by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo. [8]

Contents

It was Rashad's only album, and was created during Rashad's brief marriage to Village People lead vocalist Victor Willis. [9]

Village People [10] and The Ritchie Family [11] contributed background vocals.

Production

The album was produced by Morali and Benlolo's Can't Stop Productions, Inc. (then located at 65 East 55th Street, New York City) with Sigma Sound Studios. [8]

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Phylicia Allen: Josephine Superstar, Full Album and Televised Performances (1978)

Album photography was done by John Galluzzi, who also photographed contemporaneous album covers such as Village People's Macho Man and The Ritchie Family's African Queens . [3]

The prologue states Rashad's intentions for the album:

My name is Phylicia Allen. It gives me great honor to dedicate this album to the first Black female international star, Miss Josephine Baker. May her spirit live forever. [12]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Prologue"0:29
2."St. Louis"3:48
3."Broadway"2:48
4."Star of Paris"4:12
5."Around the World"4:38
6."Two Loves Have I (J'ai Deux Amours)"4:15
7."Josephine Superstar"3:20
8."Colors"4:05
9."Don't Cry Mommy"4:26
Dancer, singer, and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, the subject of the album. Baker Harcourt 1940 2.jpg
Dancer, singer, and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, the subject of the album.

Release and reception

The album was released on August 5, 1978. [13] It peaked on August 19, 1978 at #28, [13] running for 5 weeks on the Dance Club Songs chart. During its peak day, it was superseded by contemporary chart-toppers such as "Dance (Disco Heat)" by Sylvester (#1), "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey (#4), "Last Dance" by Donna Summer (#5), "In The Bush" by Musique (#6), "Miss You" by The Rolling Stones (#8), "American Generation" by The Ritchie Family (#19), and "You Got Me Running" by Lenny Williams (#25). [14]

Personnel

Legacy

In 1989, as-yet-unidentified song(s) appeared in the revue Phylicia Rashad & Co. [15] in Las Vegas, Nevada, which featured the actress and her costar Bill Cosby. [16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Colors Discography on Discogs". | single1label = RCA Victor
  2. ↑ Harris, Larry Alan (2009). And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN   978-0-87930-982-4. Catalog #: NBLP7108. Album: Josephine Superstar. Artist: Phylicia Allen.
  3. 1 2 Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series: Commercial prints and labels. Part 11B. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1978.
  4. ↑ Aletti, Vince (2009). The Disco Files 1973-78: New York's Underground, Week by Week. DJhistory.com. ISBN   978-0-9561896-0-8. Phylicia Allen's musical biography of Josephine Baker, "Josephine Superstar" (Casablanca)
  5. ↑ Aletti, Vince (2009). The Disco Files 1973-78: New York's Underground, Week by Week. DJhistory.com. ISBN   978-0-9561896-0-8.
  6. ↑ Jordan, John H. (November 2013). Black Americans 17th Century to 21st Century. Trafford Publishing. p. 439. ISBN   978-1-4907-1732-6. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco Concept album telling the life story of Josephine Baker.
  7. ↑ Jeffery, Alex (2021-05-06). Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   978-1-5013-5548-6. Curiously, Morali's 1978 concept album about Josephine Baker (Josephine Superstar, sung by later Cosby show star Phylicia Allen) charts the reverse march eastwards [as compared to Village People's Go West], as Baker passes through "St. Louis" and "Broadway," en route to success and infamy in Paris.
  8. 1 2 Billboard. Vol. 90 #37. Nielsen Business Media. 1978-09-16.
  9. ↑ Shapiro, Peter (2015-06-23). Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. Macmillan + ORM. ISBN   978-1-4668-9412-9.
  10. ↑ Jones, Randy; Bego, Mark (2008-12-30). Macho Man: The Disco Era and Gay America's Coming Out. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 91–92. ISBN   978-0-275-99963-6. During Victor and Phylicia's short marriage, from 1978-80, Phylicia actually recorded an album, Josephine Superstar, for which Village People contributed background vocals. She also was the opening act for several of the early Village People concerts.
  11. ↑ Phylicia Allen - Josephine Superstar, 1978, retrieved 2025-02-13
  12. ↑ Søren Jensen (2023-02-04). Phylicia Allen: Josephine Superstar [Full Album + Bonus] (1978) . Retrieved 2025-02-13– via YouTube.
  13. 1 2 ""Josephine Superstar (LP)"". www.racpro.com. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  14. ↑ "Dance Club 1978-08-19". RacPro, a deluxe music chart archive.
  15. ↑ Motion Picture Almanac. Quigley Publishing Company. 2003. ISBN   978-0-900610-71-4. Jospehine Superstar (1979). Conceived (with Michael Peters) and appeared in revue Phylicia Rashad & Co. in 1989 in Las Vegas.
  16. ↑ McDougal, Dennis (1990-03-04). "Mom and Dad Huxtable Do Vegas : A showroom act by Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad is part of the gaming resort's wooing of families". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
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