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British vocalist Linda Lewis, who scored a string UK solo strikes in the 1970s however is most commonly referred to as among the period’s most sought-after back-up vocalists who taped with Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, David Bowie, T. Rex and Rod Stewart, passed away at her home on May 3. She was 72.
Her death was revealed by her sis, vocalist Dee Lewis Clay. A cause of death was not defined, however Lewis Clay kept in mind that her sis passed away quietly.
Born Linda Ann Fredericks in West Ham, London, Lewis experienced her very first brush with program business with a non-speaking acting function in the 1961 movie A Taste of Honey and, in 1964, as a yelling fan of the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night.
Making her most significant early look as a vocalist at the very first Glastonbury Festival in 1970, Lewis would go on to have a prolonged, decades-long recording and carrying out profession, with 4 top-40 UK struck songs that consisted of 1973’s “Rock-A-Doodle-Doo” and, in 1975, “It’s In His Kiss,” a disco variation of “The Shoop Shoop Song.”
Her five-octave singing variety and flexible phrasing made her a favorite of the British pop lead in the 1970s. She sang back-up on David Bowie’s 1973 traditional Aladdin SaneRod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun (1978) and Tonight I’m Yours (1981), and Rick Wakeman’s Flour mania (1975), to call simply a tasting.
One of her most effective cooperations featured her then-boyfriend Cat Stevens. In addition to supplying vocals on Stevens’ 1972 album Catch Bull At FourLewis accompanied Stevens on a 1974 world trip. Stevens composed the tune “(Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard” for Lewis, which she taped in 1975. Stevens had actually a struck with the tune in 1977.
In a tweet last night, Yusuf/Cat Stevens commemorated Lewis, calling her “a good soul-friend and fine artist.”
“Her flat on Hampstead Way was a regular home for artist and musicians in the 70’s,” he composed. “Linda became my personal support act during the ‘Bamboozle Tour’ of 1974, and travelled with our troupe all over the world, up to Japan. What a voice! I produced a couple of her records, and she sang the sweetest melody on my ballad, ‘How Can I Tell You’ as well as the chorus on ‘Angelsea’. Linda was like an amazing bird that kindly visited the window sill of our earthly house for a few days, then flew away back to her garden.”
