Reply With QuoteHere's a photo of Leonore O'Malley (at least I believe so):
http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/4948_0_2_0_C/
Acetate [Level 1]
She had that one song "First Be A Woman". Did she have any other songs? Does anyone know what she looks like? Is she black? I always guessed that she was black, but with a last name like O'Malley it's hard to imagine...
What happened to her?
DiscoMusic.com Owner / Administrator
Here's a photo of Leonore O'Malley (at least I believe so):
http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/4948_0_2_0_C/
Bernie (Bernard Lopez)
Owner/publisher of DiscoMusic.com - on the web since 1996.
DiscoMusic.com on Facebook and MySpace
Acetate [Level 1]
Wow, thanks for that! I can't believe that's what she looks like, almost like someone who should be on the poster for one of Marilyn Chamber's 70's flicks.
I always thought Lenore was a fat black woman.
Gold Record [Level 7]
I remember hearing FIRST BE A WOMAN in a disco back in the late 70's.Originally Written by DawnOfTheDead
The next day I went hunting for the record ; I ended up finding it years later for 1$.
The whole album was good.Done by the same people who produced the early MADLEEN KANE albums.
KRIS
Indie Release [Level 4]
good stuff, Lana & Paul Sebastian production from France
C'est La Vie (Here You are Again)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC2sb4LaDKA
Boogie Dancer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fE72heCGs
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Here's a rare live one of her.
Last edited by discodevil; August 26th, 2011 at 06:58 AM.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Great post Disco Devil! I always imagined her as a sassy black woman..so I guess I was wrong. The song was rather big wasn't it? Think it got to #53 pop on the American charts...I first heard it on the "Horsemeat Disco 2" compilation....cool song...
Join D I S C O M A D N E S S on FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/groups/303583563027591/
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Dawnofthedead: Does anyone know what she looks like? Is she black? I always guessed that she was black, but with a last name like O'Malley it's hard to imagine...
that wouldn't be because FIRST BE A WOMAN sounds very much like I WILL SURVIVE
and Lenore O' Malley's vocal delivery on it sounds very much like the black sassy lady performing it
would it ???
*****
Last edited by remicks; August 30th, 2011 at 05:02 PM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Gloria Gaynor did do a version of this song.
Last edited by discodevil; August 31st, 2011 at 05:46 AM.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
*****
Wow I didn't realize Gloria's repertoire was so thin she was even doing songs people only thought were her!!!
FIRST BE A WOMAN :
sounds like a netflix set-up:
"If you should 'first be a woman' , what should you be second?"
"Hmmm, ..... on time?"
"Correct!!"
******
Last edited by remicks; September 3rd, 2011 at 05:47 PM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I had lunch with Lenore during the Disco Forum in '79. Her father was an undertaker and she was from Evoka, Pennsylvania. Like Madleen Kane, she was blonde, beautiful and I was obsessed. L'Amour Tojours L'Amour is one of my favourite songs by her.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
I don't remember it at the time (it got under my radar!). When did it get to #53 in the US bn?
...ya gotta beat the street......
Chart Hit [Level 6]
?? Voices have no colours. What's a black voice, a white voice or a yellow voice?Dawnofthedead:*Does anyone know what she looks like? Is she black? I always guessed that she was black, but with a last name like O'Malley it's hard to imagine..
boogienights:*Great post Disco Devil! I always imagined her as a sassy black woman..
remicks: that wouldn't be because FIRST BE A WOMAN sounds very much like I WILL SURVIVE
and Lenore O' Malley's vocal delivery on it sounds very much like the black sassy lady performing it
would it
The only clue we have in hand is the cover of the album but during the disco era many of them weren't good indications: remember Musique, Lorraine Johnson (the second lp), Chilly, U.N. etc.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Her second and last album (1981). Same production credits.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Just been looking thru the US charts from 1980 & it seems strange that 'First Be a Woman' got to 53 in the main pop chart but didn't seem to make that much of an impression on the dance/disco chart (i only have the top 20 though). I can understand it was probably too trad 'disco' for many clubs who were getting into the likes of Devo & Geraldine Hunt but there was still alot of 'disco' that was popular such as Viola Wills & Lipps Inc. Maybe the mainstream US audience didn't think that 'disco sucked' that much after all...
Last edited by SandraDee; September 11th, 2011 at 01:01 PM.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
While Lenore O'Malley is a Caucasian woman, the actual "voice" of her records is in fact an African-American singer by the name of Catherine Russell. You can find her name in the credits of the background singers on Lenore's records...but she was also the ghost lead singer for both albums. Catherine went on to tour and record with artists ranging from Madonna to Steely Dan. She is now a successful jazz and blues singer who previously taught at Berklee College of Music. Though she sings in a different style, you can probably tell it's her after awhile of listening to her records.
Of interesting note, though, there is one Lenore single not on her albums called "Is It Because of Love," on which Catherine is not the singer. My guess is it could actually be Lenore singing on this record (which is much more of a "pop" record -- it was used as a TV show theme)...and for lack of better way of saying it, the vocalist sounds much more like a white woman.
Justin
http://blogcritics.org/writers/Justin-Kantor
DiscoMusic.com Owner / Administrator
Justin,
Welcome! Great to have you here with us at DiscoMusic.com and thank you for the revelatory information about Lenore O'Malley.
Bernie (Bernard Lopez)
Owner/publisher of DiscoMusic.com - on the web since 1996.
DiscoMusic.com on Facebook and MySpace
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I’m devastated, so a bit of a Milli Vanilli thing that went down back then. Bummer.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
That's a surprise! So, unlike the Lorraine Johnson LP "Learning to dance all over again" where they hired a white woman solely for the album cover; in this case the white woman did the album cover, the singing and had her name on the record but they hired a black singer.
It's the reverse of what Boney M did; as we now know, Frank Farian (white) was the male singer and Bobby Farrell (black) did the miming, dancing and album covers.
I don't believe any of this sort of thing goes on now - instead, the singers who can't sing are just auto-tuned and synthesised until they sound good!
____________________________
Darren, Arborfield, Berkshire, England
Acetate [Level 1]
Discodevil: I was disappointed at first when I learned this too...as we sort of build our own images around these artists we know so little about. I even wrote reviews of the two Lenore albums for All-Music Guide many years ago...at that time not realizing that she was not the singer!
Darrens: The one distinguishing (and somewhat relieving) factor between this and the Milli Vanilli/Boney M/Martha Wash-type situations is that Catherine was (according to her) in fact hired as a ghost singer and paid for her work accordingly. So there wasn't the deceit element for the artists involved which seemed to be present in those other situations.
Bernie, thanks for the welcome!
'
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