Journalist, Political Reporter, Cultural Critic, Editor/Proofreader
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr
September 2014
Fonzi Thornton
The Leader
By the time RCA Records released Fonzi Thornton’s debut solo album, The Leader, in 1983, the native New Yorker had established himself as one of R&B’s top session vocalists. And in addition to providing background vocals for major R&B stars such as Chic, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Change, Sister Sledge, Candi Staton and the late Luther Vandross, Thornton was making his mark in the rock world by appearing on albums that included Roxy Music’s Avalon, the J. Geils Band’s Freeze Frame and Deborah Harry’s KooKoo. Thornton had such an impressive track record as a background vocalist in the early 1980s that Vandross and Chic leaders Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards urged him to pursue a solo career.
“I had a good working relationship with Nile and Bernard,” Thornton recalled during an August 2014 interview, “and after they signed me to a production deal, we did six or seven songs that they co-wrote for me that were never released. We used the entire Chic band. They shopped them to the record labels, and a lot of the labels liked them. But the price tag was really huge: Nile and Bernard were in their stride. They were trying to get a lot of money, and so, that didn’t happen.”
However, another opportunity to record as a solo artist was just around the corner. In 1982, producer Robert Wright (who was RCA’s vice president of A&R at the time) hired Thornton to sing background on Give It Up, an album by the Portland, Oregon-based funk/soul band Pleasure (best remembered for their 1979 hit “Glide”), and it wasn’t long before Wright offered to sign Thornton to RCA. Thornton remembers: “Robert Wright at RCA called me up and said, ‘Hey, I’ve signed this band called Pleasure. Would you come in and sing background?’ That was my first time working with Robert, who offered me a contract at RCA and said, ‘We really need to start working on an album for you.’ I remember telling Luther Vandross, ‘I don’t know about signing with RCA. I don’t know how they do with their black artists.’ And Luther said, ‘What are you gonna do? Wait until you’re 80 years old to sign a record deal? Go and sign that deal. It’s time for you step out and do your own record.’ So I signed the deal with RCA, and Robert and I started conceptualizing the album.”
Collaborating on the production and songwriting, Thornton and Wright put together an album that had soul roots yet reflected the urban contemporary scene of 1983. The Leader has its share of infectious funk-dance grooves, including “(Uh-Oh) There Goes My Heart,” “Perfect Lover” and the title song. But Thornton shows his romantic side on the quiet storm ballads “Sha ‘N’ Da (Happy Love Song)” and “Forever Like This.” Meanwhile, the album’s lead single, “Beverly” (which reached #43 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the United States) is funk with a touch of new wave rock.
An intriguing cover of the Ronettes’ 1963 smash “Be My Baby” finds Thornton successfully putting an early 1980s R&B spin on one of the definitive gems of the girl group era. The Ronettes—along with the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Chiffons and the Dixie Cups—were huge in the early 1960s, and the late Ellie Greenwich (who wrote “Be My Baby” with Jeff Barry and producer Phil Spector) admired Thornton’s willingness to take the gem in a different direction. “Ellie Greenwich called me one day and thanked me for bringing ‘Be My Baby’ into the ‘80s,” Thornton notes. “She was really cool with what I did with her song.”
The credits on The Leader read like a who’s-who of early 1980s R&B in New York City. Among the participants are Vandross on background vocals, Kashif on synthesizers, Tawatha Agee (of Mtume fame), Jocelyn Brown, Robin Clark and B.J. Nelson on background vocals, and Marcus Miller on electric bass. And Thornton is joined by at least four people who had been part of Chic: Rodgers on guitar, Edwards on bass, and Alfa Anderson and Michelle Cobbs on background vocals.
Interviewed in September 2014, B.J. Nelson described the sessions for The Leader as having a family-like atmosphere. “In 1983, when The Leader was being recorded, Fonzi put together a stellar cast of musicians and singers—which I was blessed to be a part of,” Nelson recalls. “Some of New York’s finest were on that session, and though it was 31 years ago, what I remember distinctly is not only was there great singing and musicianship, but we all knew each other and were pretty much like family. So there was a lot of love in that recording studio.”
In a separate September 2014 interview, Robin Clark had equally fond memories of contributing to The Leader. “Working on Fonzi’s first album, The Leader, was a pure joy,” Clark asserts. “It was exciting particularly for me because Fonzi, Luther Vandross and I started our careers singing together. I have known Fonzi since we were teenagers, and I knew that this was a dream fulfilled for him..….All of the artists that contributed to the album were singers, musicians and engineers that knew each other and had worked together on several projects over the years. It was like working with family and making great music at the same time.”
After The Leader, Thornton went on to record another solo album for RCA: 1984’s Pumpin’…… Let Me Show U How Ta Do It. But he continued to be in heavy demand as a background vocalist, and many years later, Thornton maintains a busy schedule and is still working with major artists like Aretha Franklin and Roxy Music founder Bryan Ferry.
“The Leader was definitely important in the history of Fonzi Thornton whether it was a big hit or not,” Thornton stresses. “It gave people a chance to say, ‘Wait a minute, this guy knows how to hold his own. He’s a good singer, he’s a good writer. He has a way of expressing himself that is his own.’ I’ve had a long and fascinating career, and The Leader is one of those bright spots.”
—Alex Henderson, September 2014
Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.
Copyright 2022 Alex V. Henderson. All rights reserved.
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr