Cheryl Lynn

Disco

Cheryl Lynn (born Lynda Cheryl Smith, March 11, 1957, Los Angeles, California) is a disco, R&B and soul singer best known for her 1978 disco classic, Got to Be Real.Lynn's singing career began when she was a young girl in her church choir. But her professional singing career started in 1976 when she landed a job as a backing singer in the national touring company of The Wiz. Eventually she would land the role of Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, during the six month national tour run. Prior to her appearance on The Wiz, Cheryl taped an episode of the Gong Show in the early part of 1976. She went on to win the competition while singing Joe Cocker's You Are So Beautiful. Lynn later told Dick Clark during her appearance on American Bandstand that after the episode aired, in the fall of 1976, record industry executives were calling about her soon after the win. [edit] Success and later career After signing with Columbia Records, Lynn released her first and biggest hit, Got to Be Real, which was penned by Toto keyboardist David Paich and Lynn. The song peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the R&B chart. The success of the single promted a full scale debut album. Titled, Cheryl Lynn, it was produced by Paich. The album sold over a million copies and peaked at #5 on Billboard's R&B albums chart and #23 on Billboard's top 200 album charts. The follow-up single, Star Love, also became a hit. During the Cheryl's debut album's run, members of the rock group Toto were putting together their debut album. During the production Lynn was asked to provided the female backing vocal on the single, Georgy Porgy,. The single peaked at #48 on Billboard's Pop charts. Although the Toto would go on to chart more than a dozen pop hits throughout the years, it was Lynn's vocal on Georgy Porgy that aided the group in charting their one and only R&B (#18) and Dance (#80) hit on the Billboard charts. In 1981, Ray Parker, Jr. produced Shake It Up Tonight, a major club R&B hit from Lynn's third album, In The Night. The following year, Luther Vandross was called on to produced Cheryl's fourth album, Instant Love. The 2nd single off the album, If This World Were Mine - a 1982 duet with Luther Vandross that covered a Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell song, has become an urban contemporary classic. For her fifth album, Preppie, Cheryl took it upon herself to produced most of the tracks with the exception of the single Encore (#1 R&B hit) - which was written and produce...