Fern Kinney
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Fern Kinney is an American R&B and disco singer, who is best remembered for her releases, "Groove Me" and "Together We Are Beautiful".
Career
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Kinney originally sang in The Poppies with Dorothy Moore.
In the early 1970s she began working as a session musician and backing vocalist. Among the songs she sang on were King Floyd's "Groove Me", and her former "Poppie" bandmate Dorothy Moore's 1976 Top 10 single, "Misty Blue".
By 1979, then having settled as a housewife, Kinney decided to attempt a comeback, and she recorded her own version of "Groove Me", but changed the rhythm on the song to turn it into a disco dance track. The song reached number 6 on the Billboard dance chart. Her next single "Together We Are Beautiful", released in 1980 was another disco song, but with a slower and more sultry beat. It had been recorded by the British vocalist, Steve Allan, eighteen months earlier.
It failed to chart in the United States, but reached number one in the United Kingdom.
Kinney's subsequent releases attempted to continue in the disco style, however by this time the disco fad had reached its peak and Kinney was unable to repeat her success. By 1983 she had returned to her earlier career as a backing vocalist. In 1994 Music club released a album (MCCD 167) of Fern Kinney's records called "Chemistry The Best Of" under the licence from Malaco Records, which contained 17 tracks. Kinney is regarded as a one hit wonder.
See also
- One-hit wonders in the UK
- List of number-one singles from the 1980s (UK)
- List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
- List of disco artists (F-K)
- List of people from Mississippi
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
