Linda Ronstadt

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 10 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award, and many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by The Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.

Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 1967–68: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.

Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s.

In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. 

Ronstadt has released over 30 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one, "You're No Good". 

Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.

Karin Stanek - Cory Gun

Karin Stanek (August 18, 1943 - February 15, 2011) also known as Cory Gun, was a Polish rock and roll and beat music singer, a member of the band Czerwono-Czarni. She has been known for her charismatic performances and expressive onstage persona, and referred to as one of the symbols of Polish beat music. In the 1960s, she has achieved widespread popularity in Poland with hits like "Malowana lala", "Jimmy Joe", "Chłopiec z gitarą", "Wala twist" and "Jedziemy autostopem". In the 1970s, Stanek emigrated to Germany, where she went on to release German- and English-language material. In the 1990s, she resumed performing in Poland to much success, although remained based in Germany up until her death from pneumonia in 2011.

As a teenager, Stanek performed with local bands. In 1962, through a national singing contest, Karin was recruited in to Czerwono-Czarni who at the time were a very popular beat band. Her first hits were "Jimmy Joe" and "Malowana lala" ("The Painted Doll"), also known as "Malowana piosenka" ("The Painted Song"). The latter Stanek performed at Sopot International Song Festival in 1962 to an euphoric reaction from the audience. In 1963, the singer performed "Chłopiec z gitarą" ("A Boy with a Guitar") at the first National Festival of Polish Song in Opole. The track received a special award from the judges and became another massive hit. She appeared as herself in two films: a documentary about hitchhiking Gdzieś w Polsce (Somewhere in Poland) in 1963, and a feature film Dwa żebra Adama (The Two Ribs of Adam) in the following year.  

Stanek performed three new songs in Opole in 1964, including "Jedziemy autostopem" ("We're Hitchhiking") which also received a special award and became one of her trademark songs. She was invited to perform abroad, among others in the USA and France, but the Communist government refused to grant her permission to travel. She did, however, manage to embark on tours in Czechoslovakia and East Germany with Czerwono-Czarni in 1964, which were well-received by audiences. By 1964, she has also recorded four EPs as a solo vocalist with Czerwono-Czarni as the backing band.[3] In 1965, Stanek performed another hit song in Opole, "Tato, kup mi dżinsy" ("Dad, Buy Me Some Jeans"). 

In 1966, Karin's first solo LP was released in the USA, consisting of her greatest hits, and the singer performed across North America with Czerwono-Czarni. In the same year, the band's self-titled debut album was released, followed by 17.000.000 in 1967, both with contributions from Stanek. Karin toured the Soviet Union with Czerwono-Czarni in 1968, but she left the band in the summer of 1969 due to strained relations between the band members. In the same year, she met Anna Kryszkiewicz, who would become her life-long manager and the closest friend. She briefly performed with a Czech band The Samuels, and started to compose her own songs. Although the new material was well-received by the public, the singer became an object of hostile attacks from Polish media. She made a comeback at Opole Festival in 1974 where she performed some of her biggest hits at a concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Polish People's Republic and premiered a new song "Dyskoteka rock". Although the audience received the songs very well, Stanek's performance was omitted from the TV broadcast by unsympathetic censors.

She eventually emigrated to West Germany and in 1979, she released a German-language album Das geballte Temperament mit der unerhörten Stimme (The Clenched Temperament with an Unheard Voice) promoted by the single "Ich mag dich so wie du bist" ("I Like You the Way You Are") which she performed in a popular TV show Disco. In 1981, she released the single "Let's Have a Party" as Cory Gun. It was followed by three more English-language singles released with her band Blackbird between 1982 and 1984. Due to her manager's personal problems, the records couldn't receive effective promotion and passed unnoticed. Stanek relocated from Cologne to Wolfenbüttel, where her family lived, and applied for German citizenship. She decided to put her career on a hiatus although still collaborated with local bands.

In 1991, the singer was invited to perform in Sopot at a concert dedicated to Polish rock music. The performance, her first in Poland in fifteen years, was very well received by the audience and the press alike. Stanek then embarked on a concert tour in North America. In 1992, a Greatest Hits album was released and the artist performed in Sopot again to mark the 30th anniversary of her career. In 1993, Karin's biography was released, written by her manager, Anna. In the following years, she would regularly perform in Poland, although she never settled back in the country. A number of CD compilations of Stanek's music was released in Poland by various labels throughout the late 1990s and the 2000s. In 2005, Stanek gave her last ever live show in Szczecin, Poland and released the final studio recording – a German eurodance song called "Sex". Her health condition declined in subsequent years and she eventually died in early 2011 from severe pneumonia. 

Wicked Lady

Sue Exley forms the band in 1974 in England. In the beginning the band has to cope with some line up changes. But finally she gets a more stable line up together, containing herself on guitar and vocals, Jill Warnes on bass and vocals, Sallie Dowle on rhythm guitar and Jan(et) Frazer on drums. Jill switched from guitar to bass to get Sallie in the band. They actually started out as a cabaret group, compiling their shows with songs that were high in the charts at that moment. The band played many gigs on the European continent, in countries such as Germany, Belgium, Spain and The Netherlands. They sounded more like a combination of hard rock and new wave, which worked out fine in those days. 

All of them started to play music when they were still very young of age. Jill started to play classical guitar when she was twelve. Later on, she switched to the electric guitar. Jan started at age eleven and had her first stage experience when she was thirteen. Sallie and Sue started as folk musicians. Another reason why these ladies came to Holland in the first place was because in England they only judged them on their looks. And not on their musical capacities. In Holland however, they had no competition or whatsoever, which was different than in England.

They released three singles. The first one  "Underneath The Neon Tonight" b/w "Manolito"came out on Negram Records in 1978. The second single "Girls Love Girls" c/w "Daddy Little Rich Girl" came out in 1979 on the Papagayo label. "Girls Love Girls" is a new wave song, which contains some heavy guitar work. It's a very catchy track and might have been suitable for radio airplay back in those days. The flip side is a short, ordinary up tempo rock / new wave tune. Their third single is called "Plastic Queen". This is the most well-known single from the band. It was released in 1981 on the Pure Gold label.  

Here is an interview with Sue Exley from July 2011 for queer music heritage.

When and where did the band Wicked Lady form?

Sue Exley: That was over in England, in a place called Mawkin, which is by the sea, and we started just as a three-piece, just playing pubs and things like that.

How was the name picked for the band?

SE: Well, I picked that, because everybody used to say, oh, you're very naughty girls, you girls get into all kinds of...you're very naughty. I thought, what's another word for naughty, I thought "wicked," yeah, that's a good name for a band.

Why did the band move to the Netherlands?

SE: Because over in England they kept sending us over to Germany, over to Spain, over to Holland, over to Belgium, back into England, catch the ferry, back on the circuit in the continent. And I was having more fun in Holland than what we ever had in England, because we started a bit of a rock band, where over in England we had to be cabaret and girly-girly.

Well, the type of music was going to be my next question. Would you describe the band as rock?

SE: That's how it ended up, yes. It started as a cabaret, into a pop, into getting more heavier, into a bit of punk, new wave, and then it started to even out from new wave into rock.

Yeah, I would agree with that, from what I've heard. This was an all-female band. Was this unusual in the UK and Europe at that time?

SE: There wasn't many bands then like us, because we played all our own instruments. There were plenty of girly bands that just sang with microphones or maybe one keyboard player, but we were the ones where everyone actually played an instrument.

So the band lasted roughly from, I think, 1974 to 1981, and I understand all of the members were lesbian, was the band known to the public as an all lesbian band?

SE: Yes, I would say that.

So, as far as lesbian bands that recorded, I do know there was one, the Flying Lesbians, in Germany, but I can't think of any others, can you?

SE: No, I don't think so neither. I think that we got more publicity when we came out of the closet by doing "Girls Love Girls" and doing a kissing routine on stage...halfway through a number we'd all kiss. Well, that send shivers down everybody's backs. And that was even in Holland, and it was alright to do it in Holland but we were doing it for the military bases, with all the guys, so that part of it didn't go down too well.

I want to do it in order, tell us about your first single, "Underneath the Neon Tonight."

SE: That was really a load of rubbish. That was our first single in Holland, but what they did in those days, we played in one key and then they used to speed it up a little bit. Well, I sound like Mickey Mouse. So I wasn't very happy about that. They said, well it won't be like that on the record, we'll have it right. Well of course when the record came out they didn't do it right. I still sounded like Mickey Mouse, so that was a load of rubbish. But on the b-side was "Manolito," and apparently in Italy it came out underneath some other record label, and everybody thought it was wonderful over there, but in Holland it didn't do nothing.

"Manolito" has kind of an Abba feel to it.

SE: Yeah, it's (sings) "Manolito." It's a bit slushy-slushy, something else that was.

I've seen two different picture sleeves for that single, and one had you all wearing silver outfits, with fringe, and the other was white long-sleeve shirts and short shorts and neckties and silver boots. What were you going for, for an image with these photos?

SE: Well, we started off all dressing all the same, then the harder the rock, the tassels got left behind, the fringes got left behind, and then came in the leather trousers, the leather jackets, the big butch look, don't smile, look mean...from cabaret to hard rock within about three or four months.

For the next single it was all leather.

SE: Yeah, that's right.

And that was my favourite single. That was in '79, I want to hear about "Girls Love Girls."

SE: Oh, that one, (sings) "Girls love girls and boys..." that was written by a friend of ours. He wanted us to do it, "you know, you're all gay, and everything else, so you've got to do this." Of course we had all the gay supporters, no problem, but then we got a lot of bad publicity because of the military stuff. They weren't too keen about it but it was too late then, the single was out and we had all the gays on our side so we really didn't care if the military didn't like it. Mind you, we did stop getting a lot of bookings.

You keep mentioning the military, were you playing lots of events for the military?

SE: Yes, it was for the Dutch military, all their bases, and the American Army camps, and the British, all the bases we were doing...well, because of "Girls Love Girls," they didn't particularly want that, of course, because it was military. So we were dropping most of our military gigs, which was a shame, because we were doing them regular, once a month, and we had a good name. And as soon as "Girls Love Girls" came out, well, that was a different story. But what we lost on the military bases wasn't bad because then we started doing the big rock concerts. So we were doing more rock concerts, which we were more happy about, so we didn't have to lead two separate lives, and...don't do that song, and don't do that one, because we're doing a military base tonight. We could do what we wanted in the rock gigs.

So, in addition to losing gigs, did you experience other homophobia because of that record?

SE: No, not really everybody else was fine about it.

The flip side of that was "Daddy's Little Rich Girl"

SE: I wrote that ages and ages and ages ago. It was written about my thoughts and feelings.

And the third and last single was, 1981, "Plastic Queen"....and again, you were all in leather, on the motorcycle, on that one. "Plastic Queen" had a saxophone solo on it and I was surprised at that, that was quite unusal.

SE: Yeah, they wanted to do a sax, and I said, how are we going to do this live? And so I ended up doing the solo, and it goes da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da, and I was playing that triple, triple notes on the guitar, trying to play the parts of a saxophone, and I don't read music, you see, so everything was in my head.

So that was the third single, and the flip side of that was "Play the Game."

SE: Yeah, I wrote that one, "play the game, play the game, don't you know we're all insane." We were working very hard and I was going through a really bad patch, because I was tired all the time, and in the end it was just a game to me. It was just get on with it, do it, I know you can do it. I think I wrote that one for my own personal feelings. If I don't experience things, I don't think I could ever write music.

I understand one of the songs the band covered was a Jimi Hendrix version of "Hey, Joe."

SE: That's right, yeah, it all started in Germany, and the drummer at the time, a blonde girl with very long blonde hair. And she was a Led Zeppelin fan, and Jimi Hendrix, and she said, why don't you play it with your teeth? I said, you've got to be joking! She said, no, just give it a go. And I just put it on my teeth, and at first I couldn't do it whatsoever, and I mastered it in the end, but of course that went down a bomb. And every time we used to do it, as soon as they knew it was the end of the show, they shouted "Hey, Joe," "Hey, Joe," "Hey, Joe," they were waiting for it.

Which of your singles was the most popular?

SE: Which of the singles? I would say "Girls Love Girls," actually. I think that caused more of a smack.

And, not counting losing the military gigs, how did your audience change over those three years?

SE: Very, very good. Everywhere we went we were always playing to full houses, every concert we did, we had a lot of support.

Well, even with a lot of support, the dynamics of a band do not always go smoothly. After a very successful concert in Berlin they were invited to record three songs in a studio there, and there were plans to do an album. Ironically it went so well that one of the members, as Sue told me, got a big head and decided to go solo. The drummer, Jan, went with her, and the band fell apart.

 

Neo Boys

Neo Boys was an American punk band from Portland, OR active from 1978-1983. Considered Portland's first all-female punk band, Neo Boys are noted for their political and feminist lyrics.

Neo Boys band members included Kim Kincaid (vocals), K.T. Kincaid (bass), Jennifer LoBianco (guitar) and Pat Baum (drums). Before Neo Boys, Kim Kincaid, K.T. Kincaid and Jennifer LoBianco were part of Formica and the Bitches, a band that only played a few shows before breaking up. After Jennifer LoBianco left the the band, Meg Hentges joined as a guitarist in 1979. Jennifer went on to form the band, Randy and the Randies before leaving for Los Angeles in 1980.

They regularly shared bills with The Wipers, opened for Nico, and played their first show with Television. Most of their early shows were performed in basements, colleges, and art galleries. Keeping with the punk template at the time, the band started as four teens making loud sounds and writing self-reflective lyrics. But this quartet was one of the first all-female groups of its kind in Portland, distinct when compared to the city's male-dominated music scene. 

Calvin Johnson has been working with the band members to track down the missing tapes of their recordings through a rabbit hole of Northwest basements and closets, and after twenty years of effort, the result is Sooner or Later. A comprehensive double LP collection of Neo Boys recordings from 1977-1982, including the long out-of-print 1980 7” EP (released on Greg Sage's Trap Records), and 1982 self-released EP Crumbling Myths. Sooner or Later also contains recordings, early demos and live sessions that have never before been available to the public. Neo Boys were featured in Northwest Passage: The Birth of Portland's DIY Culture.

Red Aunts

Red Aunts were an American all-female punk band that formed in 1991 in Long Beach, California, United States, when Terri Wahl (a.k.a. Angel, or Louise Lee Outlaw) recruited friends Kerry Davis (a.k.a. Sapphire, or Taffy Davis) and Debi Martini (a.k.a. E.Z. Wider, a.k.a. Connie Champagne, or Debbi Dip).Wahl would become the guitarist, sharing vocal duties with Davis who also played rhythm guitar and Martini as bassist. Jon Wahl of the band Claw Hammer, stood in as drummer under the alias Joan Whale until he was replaced full-time by Lesley Ishino (a.k.a. Lesley Noelle, Ishino Destroyer, or Cougar).

None of the women had formal musical training or previous experience in bands. Dip put out the punk fanzine, Real Life in a Big City. The Red Aunts rapidly developed their own sound, going from raw simple punk to more complicated garage-punk-blues within the space of their seven years and five full-length albums.

Their first single was released in 1992 and the band quickly gained local notoriety for the unique take on punk rock the band produced, loud, brash, raw and full use of distortion pedals. The band released it's full length debut album in 1993, "Drag" , this began the constant touring and soon caught the eye of the infamous LA based punk giant label Epitaph Records. Even though the Red Aunts by some standards failed to achieve what some bands of the Epitaph label may have in terms of commercial success, the doors the band helped open for future women in punk rock music and the countless female musicians to follow after due to the band's lead, far surpasses what most of the other Epitaph bands may have done. The Red Aunts would make five total albums and numerous singles before calling it a day in 1998 when bassist Debi Martini wanted to take a break. Other members have gone on to work with other bands like The Screws, Beehive and the Barracudas and others. Singer and guitarist Kerry Davis currently records under the name Two Tears.  The band played at Funtastic Dracula Carnival in 2018. Debi Martini died in 2019.

 

Fontella Bass

Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter best known for her number-one R&B hit "Rescue Me" in 1965. 

Fontella Bass was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass, who was a member of the Clara Ward Singers, and the older sister of R&B singer David Peaston. At an early age, Fontella showed great musical talent. At the age of five, she provided the piano accompaniment for her grandmother's singing at funeral services, she sang in her church's choir at six, and by the time she was nine, she had accompanied her mother on tours throughout the South and Southwest America. Bass continued touring with her mother until age of sixteen. As a teenager, Bass was attracted by more secular music. She began singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs while attending Soldan High School from which she graduated in 1958. At 17, she started her professional career working at the Showboat Club near Chain of Rocks, Missouri. In 1961, she auditioned for the Leon Claxton carnival show and was hired to play piano and sing in the chorus for two weeks it was in town.  It was during this brief stint with Claxton that she was heard by vocalist Little Milton and his bandleader Oliver Sain who hired her to back Little Milton on piano for concerts and recording. Bass originally only played piano with the band, but one night Milton didn't show up on time so Sain asked her to sing and she was soon given her own featured vocal spot in the show.

Bass recorded several songs released through Bobbin Records She was produced by Ike Turner when she recorded on his labels Prann and Sonja. Her single "Poor Little Fool" released from Sonja in 1964 features Tina Turner. Two years later she quit the Milton band and moved to Chicago after a dispute with Oliver Sain. She auditioned for Chess Records, who immediately signed her as a recording artist to the subsidiary label Checker Records. Her first works with the label were several duets with Bobby McClure, who had also been signed to the label. Released early in 1965, their recording "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" (credited to Oliver Sain) found immediate success, reaching #5 on the Billboard R&B chart and peaking at #33 on the Hot 100. Bass and McClure followed their early success with "You'll Miss Me (When I'm Gone)" that summer, a song that had mild success, reaching the Top 30 on the R&B chart, although it made no significant impression on the pop chart. After a brief tour, Bass returned to the studio. 

That year, Bass co-wrote and recorded the song "Rescue Me" which shot up the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month-long run at the top of the R&B charts, the song reached #4 on the US pop charts and #11 in the UK, and gave Chess its first million-selling single since Chuck Berry a decade earlier. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Bass followed with "Recovery," which did moderately well, peaking at #13 (R&B) and #37 (pop) in early 1966. The same year brought two more R&B hits, "I Can't Rest" (backed with "I Surrender)" and "You'll Never Know." Her only album with Chess Records, The New Look, sold reasonably well, but Bass soon became disillusioned with Chess and decided to leave the label after only two years, in 1967.

Tired of the mainstream music scene, she and husband Lester Bowie left America and moved to Paris in 1969, where she recorded two albums with the Art Ensemble of Chicago – Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass and Les Stances a Sophie (both 1970).

The next few years found Bass at a number of labels, but saw no notable successes. After her second album, Free, flopped in 1972, Bass retired from music. On December 26, 2012, she died at a St. Louis hospital from complications of a heart attack suffered earlier in the month; she was 72.

Glamazon

Glamazon comes at you with the musical force of a Hurricane! One of the few rock bands with a transgender lead singer who also plays guitar, Glamazon blazed the trail of musical innovation in the mid 90s. Electronica meets Metal Rock. 

Transgendered Lead Singer-Guitarist Christine Beatty and guitarist Shredmistress Rynata created a rock spectacle that was ahead of its time and still amazes audiences world wide! Their material combines aggressive metal with sophisticated electronica and midi equipment. A super-sonic experience as several critics put it. Granted, Glamazon could easily be dismissed as a novelty act or full of Gimmickry but make no mistake: Those two rock divas SHRED and their material is stellar.

Christine was born a boy and transitioned into a beautiful, talented woman. Her experiences as a transgendered woman and rock musician are detailed in her extensive writing, as well as song material for Glamazon. In 1993 Christine Beatty co-founded and performed in Glamazon, one of the first transsexual-fronted heavy metal rock bands. The band performed for the first time in San Francisco at Bottom of the Hill in February 1995, recorded its only released CD in 1995-1996, and moved to Los Angeles in 1999. She is a most respected advocate in the transgendered community and tirelessly furthers the cause of all. She is a published author and founded Glamazon Press, a publishing company, that not only showcases her work as a writer but also offers an opportunity to other transgendered writers, musicians, bands and artists to put their work out there. Music is one of Christine’s greatest passions and she found a worthy outlet in Glamazon. 

Chaka Khan

Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American singer and songwriter. Her career has spanned nearly five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Khan received public attention for her vocals and image. Known as the "Queen of Funk", she has won ten Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.

Chaka Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens on March 23, 1953 into an artistic, bohemian household in Chicago, Illinois. She attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan became a fan of rhythm and blues music as a preteen and at eleven formed a girl group, the Crystalettes, which included her sister Taka. In the late 1960s, Khan attended several civil rights rallies and joined the Black Panther Party. She was asked to replace Baby Huey of Baby Huey & the Babysitters after Huey's death in 1970. The group disbanded a year later. While performing in local bands in 1972, Khan was spotted by two members of a new group called Rufus and soon won her position in the group (replacing rock n roll singer Paulette McWilliams). The group caught the attention of musician Ike Turner who flew them out to Los Angeles to record at his studio Bolic Sound in Inglewood, California.

In 1973, Rufus signed with ABC Records and released their eponymous debut album. Despite their fiery rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby" from Wonder's acclaimed Talking Book and the modest success of the Chaka-led ballad "Whoever's Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)", the album failed to gain attention. That changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan. That song, "Tell Me Something Good", became the group's breakthrough hit, reaching number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, later winning the group their first Grammy Award. The single's success and the subsequent follow-up, "You Got the Love", which peaked at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100, helped their second parent album, Rags to Rufus, go platinum, selling over a million copies. From 1974 to 1979, Rufus released six platinum-selling albums including Rufusized, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, Ask Rufus, Street Player and Masterjam. Hits the group scored during this time included "Once You Get Started," "Sweet Thing," "Hollywood," "At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)," and "Do You Love What You Feel."



The band gained a reputation as a live performing act, with Khan becoming the star attraction. Most of the band's material was written and produced by the band itself with few exceptions. Khan has also been noted for being an instrumentalist playing drums and bass; she also provided percussion during her tenure with Rufus. Most of her compositions were collaborations with guitarist Tony Maiden. Several members left with nearly every release. While Khan remained in the group, she signed a solo contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1978. While Khan was busy at work on solo material, Rufus released three albums without her participation including 1979's Numbers, 1980's Party 'Til You're Broke, and 1983's Seal in Red.  

In 1978, Warner Bros. Records released Khan's solo debut album, which featured the crossover disco hit, "I'm Every Woman", written for her by singers-songwriters Ashford & Simpson. The success of the single helped the album go platinum, selling over a million copies. Khan also featured on Quincy Jones's hit, "Stuff Like That", also released in 1978, which also featured Ashford & Simpson as co-writers, along with Jones and several others. Ashford & Simpson performed with Khan on the song.



In 1979, Khan reunited with Rufus to collaborate on the Jones-produced Masterjam, which featured their hit "Do You Love What You Feel", which Khan sang with Tony Maiden. Despite her sometimes-acrimonious relationship with some of her bandmates, Khan and Maiden have maintained a friendship over the years. In 1979 she also dueted with Ry Cooder on his album Bop Till You Drop. In 1980, she released her second solo album, Naughty, which yielded the disco hit "Clouds" and the R&B ballad "Papillon". Khan released two albums in 1981, the Rufus release, Camouflage and the solo album What Cha' Gonna Do for Me. The latter album went gold. In 1982, Khan issued two more solo albums, the jazz-oriented Echoes of an Era and a more funk/pop-oriented self-titled album Chaka Khan. The latter album's track, the jazz-inflected "Be Bop Medley", won Khan a Grammy and earned praise from jazz singer Betty Carter who loved Khan's vocal scatting in the song. 

In the course of her solo career, Khan has achieved three gold singles, three gold albums and one platinum album with I Feel for You. With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, and two platinum albums. She has collaborated with Ry Cooder, Robert Palmer, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Guru, Chicago, De la Soul, Mary J. Blige, among others.

Texacala Jones

Tex is most well known as the lead singer in Tex and the Horseheads, an American punk rock band, which emerged in the Los Angeles punk subculture of the early-1980s. Their original run was from 1980 to 1986, and during this time they enjoyed a sizeable cult following. The band has since reunited, as of 2007, and tours the Los Angeles area sporadically.

Tex & the Horseheads are often cited as among the first bands to play "cowpunk," a fusion of classic-styled country-and-Western music and street-tough LA punk bands. The band set themselves apart by appropriating aesthetical and fashion elements from deathrock bands like Burning Image, 45 Grave, and Christian Death. Tex & the Horseheads' members include: Texacala Jones, Mike Martt, Gregory "Smog" Boaz and David "Rock" Thum. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, of The Gun Club, was an original member of the group and was highly influential in both supporting the formation of the group and promoting the band.

They released three myth-making albums while together, all on Enigma Records – a self-titled EP in 1984, their only full-length album, “Life’s So Cool” in 1985, and their coda, the live-in-Holland epic “Tot Ziens”, in 1986. Their songs dealt with themes of heartbreak, love, drug and alcohol dependency, grief, loss, and financial difficulty, all a testament to their destitute roll-and-tumble lifestyle.

Until disappearing from the Los Angeles music scene in the 1990s, Texacala performed with all-girl cowpunk group, the Screaming Sirens. In 1987 she formed Texorcist along w/ Dave Catchings on Guitar, Billy Koepke on Bass & Louie Dufau on Drums, In the late 1980s, Texacala participated in an all women's performance troupe of LA scene-makers, The Ringling Sisters, whose members all fronted Los Angeles based bands. Members of the group included Pleasant Gehman (Screamin' Sirens), Iris Berry (Lame Flames), Debbie Dexter (Devil Squares), Debbie Patino (Raszebrae) and Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde). Tex's role in The Ringling Sisters involved performing as a story teller and back-up singer.

Texacala recorded a solo record in 1998, and subsequently toured extensively with a backing band the TJ Hookers, as well as fronting Texorcist and working with Los Platos. In 1994 she formed Burnin' Bridges along with former Texorcist Bassist Billy Koepke. They recorded 10 songs for a planned record with Richie Ramone producing but the record was never released. The recordings are posted on-line; a cover of "Would they love him down in Shreveport Today?" continues to woo fans today. In 2007, Tex And The Horseheads reunited and played shows around the LA area. Texacala has since moved to Austin, Texas and has remained active in music there playing & recording w/ Hey!