Rufus Thomas and
Aretha Franklin were the two guiding spirits for Wendy Moten on a
Saturday night, July the 20th, at the Porretta Soul Festival this
year. She stirred the audience up with two funky Rufus’ numbers, All Night
Worker and The Breakdown, and kept the excitement up with equally
exhilarating versions of Aretha’s Since You’ve Been Gone and Think.
Backed by the excellent Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra, in between she
brought the tempo down for Baby I Love You and the intense Ain’t No
Way. The closing number was the danceable cover of the Staple Singers’ Oh
La De Da, but prior to that Wendy did two duets: a mid-tempo interpretation
of Eddie Floyd’s Raise Your Hand with Jerry Jones and the
highlight for me, the beautiful True Love with Wee Willie Walker.
Wendy had originally recorded this Glenn Frey’s ballad with Vince
Gill on a CD released last year (see later in the article, part 2). Still
on Sunday evening – along with the rerun of Since You’ve Been Gone –
Wendy delighted us with a soulful rendition of Mable John’s 1966
recording, You’re Taking up another Man’s Place.
On the pic above: Rev. James Moten Sr., Mona, Yvonne, Jr., Celina, Wendy, Mrs. Viola Moten, Debbie (photo courtesy of Wendy Moten)
FROM CHURCH TO LIBERTYLAND
Wendy Renea
Moten was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 22 in 1964. “My mom Viola was
a housewife, and my father James was a minister. I have four sisters and one
brother and we all were musical, but I’m the only one that made it a
profession. I lived in South Memphis on Kyle Street, off Lamar. It was great
growing up in there, because I grew up across the street from this huge park.
There were activities for kids, and they maintained the park real well. You
came home every day from the school and played in the park. It was safe, and I
just remember having a beautiful childhood. I was born into integration. That’s
all I’ve ever known.”
These days Wendy
resides in Nashville, Tennessee. “I moved to Nashville 25 years ago, when I met
my guy, David Santos, an amazing bass player. He was playing with Billy
Joel at the time, and he was moving from New York to Nashville. Memphis
people don’t usually move to Nashville. They’re rivals. No way! But I loved
him, so I moved to Nashville. He’s touring with Melissa Etheridge right
now.” Any children of her own? “Every time we would talk about having children,
I would get a tour and then I’ll be gone for two years... and then two years
turns into four years... and then, you know – twelve years have passed, and
then it’s too late.”
Among Wendy’s
early musical influences you can spot such names as Aretha, Stevie, Marvin,
Dionne... “There’s just so many, because I love so many genres of music.
There are country artists that I love like Patsy Cline and Tammy
Wynette. Among jazz artists the queen is Ella Fitzgerald, and then I
love Julie London. I also love Doris Day and Anita O’Day.”
Current favourites include Michael McDonald, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and
– above all – Julio Iglesias. “We just finished a tour last year. We did
a year-and-a-half arena tour. This year I toured with Vince Gill, who is now
one of the Eagles after Glenn Frey died.”
Wendy’s father
was the musical director in a church, which was located in northeastern Memphis.
“I got my first training in St. Stephen Baptist Church. It wasn’t an option. My
dad just made us sing. We didn’t get a chance to choose (laughing). We were in
church four times a week. We got choir rehearsals, we got Bible studies, we got
church all day on Sunday; but he was there and my mom was there. They knew
where I and all my sisters were.”
“I was singing
probably at around six or seven years old. I didn’t know then I had a voice.
And I was very shy – and I’m still shy. The last thing you want to do is to be
in front of a lot of people looking at you. I hated singing most of my life,
because I was shy.”
“My father
branched off from St. Stephen Baptist Church and he had his own church called
Grace Tabernacle. St. Stephen was considered a Baptist church, and his church
was nondenominational. He didn’t want to have denomination. He wanted to
welcome everybody.”
If Wendy’s first
training took place in a church, she confronted the more laborious aspect of
singing in high school at 5th and 6th grades. “Overton
High School was a performing arts school, like a ‘Fame’ school. They had
theatre, they had singing, they had orchestras – all the programs. It was very
hard to get into their program. I got accepted at the school, and my mentor and
the teacher was Miss Lulah Hedgeman. She really taught us not only play
the music, but she also taught us mind over matter. In real life you got to get
over things and work through things, and if you want it you have to work hard.
We had to do extra rehearsals and practise, practise, practise...”
Still as a
teenager Wendy found work at a Memphis theme park called Libertyland. “The
first time I did that was maybe from 16 years old till 18-19 years old. It was
great, because it was summer. It was a way to make money performing in this
theme park. The shows were only twenty minutes long and you had three of them,
so there were hours in between. The show was traditional, like ‘on Broadway’
type of music, so we had these dresses and tap shoes. It was the first time
doing a regular show in front of an audience, and getting paid.”
MVP AND CHARISMA
In 1986 Wendy
joined a band called MVP in Memphisand worked with them for
about three years. MVP comes from “most valuable player”, and it was the house
band at Captain Bilbo’s on the bank of the Mississippi River. “We were a live
band. We didn’t record anything. It was another great learning place, because
you had this 10-piece band and you got paid weekly to be there five days a
week, with a two-week vacation. It was like the best band in town, and they ran
it like a good business. We had choreography and we had outfits. The music we
performed was whatever was current for the day. We had rehearsals weekly
staying current to new songs.”
Kevin
Paigeis a blue-eyed pop-soul singer, who was born in Memphis in 1966
and who had two charted singles on Chrysalis Records, Don’t Shut Me out in
1989 and Anything I Want early next year. Together with his wife Bethany
they performed regularly at Alfred’s on Beale Street but these days they’re
concentrating more on Christian music. Kevin earned a spot as an opening act
for the pop singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson, who at the time was riding
high with her number one hits, Foolish Beat and Lost in Your Eyes.
“Kevin Paige
also went to Overton High School, and he was the first one out of our group to
get a big record deal. I was working with MVP and he was like ‘hey, why don’t
you come on tour with me? I’m going on a tour with Debbie Gibson.’ It was good
for me, because it was the first time I would ever play on an arena and it was
the first time I would do a big tour, so once I got out there I realised that
‘oh, if I ever get out there, I want to do this. I know what it’s like now’.” Debbie
Gibson’s Electric Youth World Tour took place in 1989.
“After Kevin
Paige’s tour I got together with this other band called Charisma, and we
would tour the United States in Marriott hotels. At that time the Marriott Hotels
would hire bands three weeks at the time and then they’ll have you drive into
another city. It was great and you saved a lot of money because you would stay
in a hotel.”
MVP performing at Memphis in mid-80s - Wendy singing Anita Baker's Same Old Love (365 Days a Year)
(Video courtesy of Charles H. Darden)
“I did that for
a while, and that’s when I met this guy Daniel Abbote, who heard me
singing in a Marriott Hotel bar, before the 1990s. He took my phone number and
saved it for seven years. Then he called me and said ‘Julio Iglesias is looking
for a singer’.”
Prior to Julio,
there, however, was one Michael Bolton. “I was signed with EMI Records
(see later) out of New York City, Charles Koppelman. They tried to find
opportunities to get creative exposure for you, so they put me on this benefit
that Michael Bolton was headlining in New York City in 1992. He was going on a
tour that following year and it was up between myself and Regina Belle,
who he was going to choose to open up. He chose me and I’m sure he chose me,
because I was the least known (laughing). Regina Belle had a career already. So
I started doing arena tours with Michael Bolton. I was terrified, of course,
but I did a research on my favourite artists to see what they do that I don’t
already do.”
“As a person
Michael was wonderful. The first month I didn’t see him at all, which is a good
thing and a bad thing. Good thing is that you’re not causing any waves and
everything’s going smoothly. Bad thing is: okay, you chose me, I’m here, but
are we going to meet. But later on, after about a month, he called me to his
dressing room and told me ‘you’re doing a great job.’ We got standing ovations
every night.”
EPONYMOUS DEBUT ALBUM
“I had no desire
to really be a recording artist, but I would sing some jingles sometimes with Niko
Lyras. There really weren’t that many jingles done in Memphis. At this
particular time Dick Williams, who was living in Michigan, was in
Memphis looking for a band.” Niko is a guitarist, engineer, producer, studio
and label owner and a recording artist in his own right, too (www.nikolyras.com). On his solo album, Chunk
of Space Funk (on Icehouse Records in 2016), Wendy is one of the guest
vocalists. Niko was born in Athens, Greece, moved to Memphis and now runs his
Cotton Row Recording Studios.
“Dick stopped by
just to say hello to Niko. I was in the studio singing, and he was like ‘who is
that girl?’ Niko had a band that played regularly in Memphis, so Dick asked
Niko, could he sit in with this band. I sang Whitney Houston’s Saving
All My Love for You and Aretha Franklin’s Freeway of Love,
and then Dick said to me ‘I think I can get you a record deal.’ I said ‘okay,
no problem, we can check this out.’ About three months later Dick flew back to
Memphis. He had songs that he wanted me to record, and they were written by Curtiss
Boone, who is a Michigan songwriter. We recorded Come in out of the
Rain, Once Upon a Time and another song. After we recorded three songs,
Dick said ‘okay, I’m gonna go and get you a record deal.’ Literally two months
later there was a bidding war going on between Elektra, Warner Brothers and
EMI. Dick Williams chose EMI.” Those days Dick worked in promotions at Warner
Brothers and he also owned Thunderbird Records.
Released on
August 25 in 1992, Wendy’s debut album simply called Wendy Moten was
recorded at Cotton Row and for the most part produced by Niko Lyras. Some of
the musicians include Ernest Williamson on keys, Steve Potts on
drums, Dave Smith on bass and the Ridgeway Sisters on background
vocals.
On this 11-track
set there are six dancers such as the hooky Matter of Fact, the similar Nobody
but You and Magic Touch. One poppy song called Make This Love
Last was released only as a promo single and Forever Yours appeared
two years later on the soundtrack Beverly Hills, 90210: The College Years.
Wendy’s very first single was the uptempo Step by Step, which hit #
66-r&b in the fall of 1992 and was written by Troy Taylor and Charles
Farrar, collectively known as the Characters.
A powerful
ballad called Come in out of the Rain became the draw on this album and
it was picked up as the second single off the set. In the U.S. it peaked at #
55-pop and # 67-r&b, but as high as # 5 on AC, adult contemporary. In the
U.K. it became more popular, as it reached # 8 in 1994. “I did Top of the Pops
TV show on that song in the U.K.” The similar So close to Love, another
big ballad from Curtiss Boone, was tested next as the third single, but it was
commercially rated only in the U.K. (# 35). Curtiss’ closing ballad on the
album, Once upon a Time, belongs to the same category of MOR songs with
rich orchestration. Curtiss himself is also a musician, who has worked with Gerald
Alston, Oleta Adams and L.J. Reynolds, to name a few.
“I love Come
in out of the Rain, of course, and Forever Yours... I really love
them all. They were all new for me and all these were written for me.” Another
big ballad, Whatever It Takes, is a duet with Michael Webb and especially
soul music lovers have praised this delivery. “Michael is a local singer in
Memphis and he was popular. We have been friends, and he needed an r&b
singer, so he asked me to do it.”
Another
favourite among soul music fans is the mid-tempo Wonderin’, which was
written by Vini Poncia and Alfredo Scotti, and on this track Najee
plays the saxophone. Vini is a musician, songwriter and producer and a former
member of the Videls (Mr. Lonely in 1960) and the Trade Winds
(New York’s a Lonely Town in 1965). Alfredo is a vocal coach as well as
a singer, songwriter and musician.
In Japan Come
in out of the Rain went all the way to the top, to number one, and since
then Wendy has been immensely popular in that country. “There’s some kind of a
connection. The best thing they could ever have said to me was ‘you are very
Japanese.’ I think it’s the personality, how I carry myself, and I’m really
connected with their culture. In the 90s I was probably there twice a year. I
just resonated with them and they resonated with me.”
When listening
to Wendy’s music and especially her big ballads, the name Whitney Houston is
the first one to come up. Inevitably listeners make these comparisons and
furthermore Whitney’s I Will Always Love You was released approximately
at the same time as Wendy’s debut album. “In the United Stated it’s very
complicated, because there’s only one Whitney Houston, and you only need one Whitney
Houston. But I’m a realist. I don’t take it personal.”
The first album,
however, wasn’t a big success. Actually it charted only in the U.K. (# 42). “I
was so young. I didn’t know what was going on. I sang whatever they said to
sing, because I had no idea. Dick Williams was driving the situation, and then
the record company got involved. Today I know what kind of artist I am. I wish
I knew then, I could have helped them figure it out. So we just threw
everything up against the wall to see what was going to stick. I was just
thrilled to have the opportunity, because I didn’t see it coming. I never
wanted to be a singer.”
TIME FOR CHANGE
“I went on tour
with Michael Bolton. David Foster told this story about how he heard my
song Come in out of the Rain on the radio and wanted to know who I was.
He found me and that following year he produced a few songs on my Time for
Change. He asked the record company and in 1994 he took myself and other
people to Japan and we performed in live concerts with the Tokyo
Philharmonic Orchestra. He was trying to break me out and we were getting
ready to work on my second record.”
Wendy’s second
album, Time for Change, was released on EMI on February 22 in 1995, two
and a half years after her debut. Clearly the company invested in this record
by inviting such in-demand producers of the day as not only David Foster, but
also Michael J. Powell, Dan Shea and Keith Thomas to create new
music.
The opening
track and also the first single off the album, Your Love Is All I Know,
is another pretty “Whitney” ballad with a big sound. On charts, however, it
flopped with the exception of Japan, where it climbed up to number two. Michael
Thompson is on guitar here and the track was produced by Canada’s gift to
music, David Foster (https://davidfoster.com/,
who during his career has worked with
dozens and dozens of luminaries, including EWF, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Stevie
Wonder, Dionne Warwick and on the pop side coincidentally with Michael
Bolton, also Dolly Parton, Michael Bublé etc. etc.Based on her
recording output so far, in this list of David’s collaborations closest to
Wendy must be Whitney, Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion. In style
the opening and closing tracks of this CD are quite similar, and – surprise,
surprise! – David produced and co-wrote also the tender concluding ballad, All
That My Heart Can Hold.
The second
track, Forever Yours, is a beautiful MOR ballad written by Bruce
Roberts, Carole Bayer Sager and James Ingram. “This song was going
to be in a movie, but - when they heard my voice - Carole Bayer Sager asked me
to sing this one. That was a great honour. The interesting thing is that I have
Forever Yours also on my first CD, but it’s a different song with the
same title.” Kirk Whalum plays the tenor saxophone on this track.
Once again, Change
of Heart is a big and memorable ballad and one of the co-producers is Dick
Williams. The song was written by Cliff Downs and Randy Goodrum.
Cliff has written songs for numerous pop and country artists and he was a
member of a recording duo called Downes & Price in the 1980s, while
Randy is a pianist, producer as well as a writer also for pop and country
artists. Change of Heart was the second single off the CD, and in Japan
it hit the top spot but went practically unnoticed elsewhere.
On the European
edition of the CD, Change of Heart was replaced by Whatever You
Imagine, produced by Keith Thomas. This sentimental ballad was written by Barry
Mann, Cynthia Weil and James Horner for a movie titled Pagemaster.
“It was a big movie. Macaulay Culkin was the star of the movie. It’s his
first animation. People still come up to me and say ‘when I was a kid, I heard
that song in the Pagemaster.’” The song was nominated for a Grammy, but in that
category - “best song written specifically for a motion picture or for
television” - Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas won in 1995.
Hear the
Angels Cry is another sentimental big ballad written by Barry Mann and
Cynthia Weil, and on the CD the producer’s credit goes to Daniel Martin Shea,
who during his career has worked, among others, with Mariah Carey, Celine
Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Toni Braxton, Luther Vandross andMichael
Bolton. Wendy, however, remembers the process differently. “Maybe Shea had
something to do with this, but Walter Afanasieff produced this track.
When they put me together with him, this was the song that we did.”
COMIN’ BACK
Michael J.
Powell is best known for his work with Anita Baker, but since those Chapter
8 and Songstress & Rapture etc.days he has worked with
numerous other artists such as Peabo Bryson, Aretha Franklin, Gladys
Knight, Patti LaBelle, Randy Crawford, L.J. Reynolds and Nancy Wilson.
For this CD he produced four tracks.
Michael not only
produced, but also plays guitar on a melodic mid-pacer called Comin’ Back,
which is a duet with Keith John, the son of Little Willie John.
“Keith is a great person. He loves, lives, eats and drinks music. He’s been
touring with Stevie Wonder for at least thirty years. We became friends, and
this song was written for us.” On this CD Wendy and Keith share vocals also on
another song, Curtiss Boone’s down-tempo “show tune” called Sharin’ My Love.
The title song, Time
for Change, is another show tune, very sweet and nearly operatic and something
that Barbra Streisand might do. “Aaron Zigman wrote it and produced it,
and he was a known producer in L.A. but was trying to get even more known. He’s
done music for a lot of movies now, arrangements and scores. I recorded this
song in L.A.” The co-writer on this number is Brock Walsh, who earlier had
written Automatic for the Pointer Sisters, and Jerry Hey is
the arranger on Time for Change.
After one more
power ballad named Consider This Love, we get a chance to listen to the
first funkier track on this set. The mid-tempo This Will Never End was
penned by two long-standing songwriters, Anne Breven and Jeff Hull.
Jeff is best known for co-writing Piano in the Dark. “It was more on the
rocky side. I guess we tried to speed the music up a little bit.” It was only
that one hop, because already on the next track we’re back to basics. Michael
Powell and Curtiss Boone wrote and produced – you guessed it! – a big ballad
titled When You Love Someone.
All in all, Time
for Change was a parade of big, touching and even weepy ballads with
well-known and seasoned writers and producers involved. However, it wasn’t a
smash album and fared better in Europe and especially in Japan (# 18). “I say
that it’s the record company’s fault 50 % and my fault 50 %, because I didn’t
know who I was. That makes it a little more complicated.”
Up to this
point, Wendy had been singing professionally for about ten years. After her two
first albums, comparisons to Whitney were about to cease, as on her following
albums she tested also other genres of music like rock, country and jazz, but -
as her performances in Porretta showed - she never abandoned her soulfulness.
I think we all agree on one fact: Wendy’s voice is truly magnificent and she’s
a great performer. The upcoming second part of the story covers her career up
to these days.
ALBUMS
(* - indicates a
single release)
WENDY MOTEN (EMI Records USA, 0777 7 98574 2 5) 1992
Matter Of Fact /
Nobody But You / Step By Step * / So Close To Love * / Forever Yours / Whatever
It Takes / Come In Out Of The Rain * / Make This Love Last / Magic Touch /
Wonderin’ / Once Upon A Time
TIME FOR CHANGE (EMI Records USA, 724383118021) 1995
Your Love Is All I
Know * / Forever Yours / Change Of Heart * / Hear The Angels Cry / Comin’ Back
/ Time For Change / Consider This Love / This Will Never End / When You Love
Someone / Sharin’ My Love / All That My Heart Can Hold