Linda Clifford was the last successful act on the Curtom label. She was discovered by Marv Stuart while she was performing in the Windy City’s top lounges. He signed her to a recording contract in 1977. She had a powerful voice that worked very well for disco music that was in fashion in the mid-1970s. Clifford’s first studio album for Curtom Records was produced by Gil Askey, who was originally a staff in-house songwriter and producer at Motown Records. He was recruited to the label because, according to Stuart, he did not believe that the then current in-house staff could produce disco music effectively to meet the demand of the market for dance music, both domestically and internationally.
The first album was simply titled “Linda”, which created a lot of interest from several key regional markets within the United States. The first single released from her debut album was “From Now On”, which generated a great deal of air play across America.
Her next album, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, was co-produced by Gil Askey and Curtis Mayfield, and features the Jones Girls on background vocals, Keni Burke on bass guitar, with strings and horns conducted by Sol Bobrov. Guitar players on the session were Curtis Mayfield, Ronnie Vann and William Ross Traut. Calvin Bridges, Richard Tufo and Eric Hackett were on keyboards.
It was released in 1978 to a positive reception from industry critics across the world. The record sold over half a million copies in America. The album sales level was helped by two singles extracted from the album. First released was the title track “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, which peaked at number one on Canada’s official dance chart that same year.
It was followed by “Runaway Love and Gypsy Lady”, which spent a total of five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Singles Chart, week ending April 29th 1978. The single also did extremely well by reaching the number three position on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart the same week ending July 8th 1978.
With Curtom now linked with RSO for distribution, four more albums were released, two in 1979 and two in 1980, including “The Right Combination” on which she was joined by Curtis Mayfield. All four albums entered the Hot 200 Albums chart and the R&B albums chart, but none attained the level of success of her second album.
However, in 1980 Clifford found success with the single “Red Light” which she recorded for the Fame soundtrack album. The track went to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Singles Chart along with the tracks “Shoot Your Best Shot” and “It Don’t Hurt No More” from the “I’m Yours” album, which reached number one on the dance charts for four weeks, week ending November 15th 1980. The strings, horns and vocals on both these tracks were arranged by the late Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote the songs. The entire album’s vocals were recorded at the Curtom Recording Studios in Chicago and the rest of the album was recorded in the city of Atlanta.
After leaving Curtom Records, Clifford signed to Capital Records in 1981, where she went on to have further chart success.
Header Image: Linda Clifford 2007 (Photo: Kira – personal page at Flickr (Wikimedia Commons)
