Melba Moore(I)
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Melba Moore has shot to super-stardom in the early 1970s with her debut
album ("I Got Love"), that garnered her a 1971 Grammy nomination for
Best New Artist, the following year, she also scored with a variety
television show that co-starred
Clifton Davis. Despite the show's
being a modern success, the real-life couple fell victim through an
ongoing self-destruction, hence, it was canceled. She was also in a
crisis, when her career was put to an end, before it took a few years
for her to comeback.
A four-time Grammy nominee and one-time Tony Award winner, prior to
being a singer/actress, Melba Moore also made guest appearances on
nearly all of the following shows:
The David Frost Show (1969),
Soul Train (1971),
The Mike Douglas Show (1961),
Dinah! (1974),
The Dick Cavett Show (1968),
13 appearances on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962),
Captain Kangaroo (1955),
The Tim Conway Show (1980),
Solid Gold (1980), among many
others.
Born Melba Hill in New York City, New York, to a very popular musical
family, for the time being, she was raised in Harlem, New York, and
until aged 9, despite of her parents divorce, her mother remarried
Clement Moorman, who introduced her to several agents, while she was
growing up, in Newark, New Jersey, where she had been raised, where she
attended school, there. Prior to Melba's birth, her mother penned the
#1 song "Don't Stop Now". Although her biological father encouraged her
to pursue a career in music, it was actually her
stepfather/saxophonist, Teddy Hill, who insisted on young Melba to do
it, which successfully he did, which gave her a four decade career on
the map. In her early years, she even learned how to play the piano. In
1967, after graduation from college, she won the original role of
Dionne (when, unfortunately Donna Summer
lost the role to her) in the musical, "Hair" with
Ronnie Dyson and
Diane Keaton, whom Moore replaced her in
the role of Sheila. In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance
by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie, which she
portrayed Lutiebelle.
After her successful, short-lived series
The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show (1972),
she went on sabbatical, then, formed Hush Productions, her own
production company. This was 1 year after, when in 1974, she signed
with Buddah Records, before Epic Records, which allowed her to make
some records over the next decade, and had some chart topping hits with
"This Is It," which reached #2 on the U.S. dance charts, which was also
popular in the UK, a country that was used for that song. Other chart
toppers that Melba scored over the years of the Disco-R&B era were,
"Lean On Me," "Make Me Believe In You," "You Stepped Into My Life,"
"Let's Stand Together," and "Take My Love." Unlike fellow singer
Donna Summer, Moore struggled to garner
some disco hits of the 1970s.
The 1980s saw Moore made a remarkable turn in her career, as she signed
with Capitol Records, in 1982, and scored such hits as "Love's Comin'
At Ya," which was a major song in the UK and in Europe. She also scored
such songs with "Keepin' My Love Satisfied," "Love Me Right," "Read My
Lips," (which she was nominated for her fourth Grammy) and "When You
Love Me Like This." She also starred in her own series
Melba (1986), for CBS, a show that was
canceled unexpectedly. The following year, Moore also had a recurring
role on the long-running
Falcon Crest (1981), opposite
Oscar Award-winner Jane Wyman. At the end of
the decade, Moore also garnered some songs with, "Do You Really (Want
My Love)," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".
In the mid-1990s, Moore traveled with Gospel Play called, "Mama I'm
Sorry" aside Gospel's sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Atkins that was
Written and Produced by Michael Matthews.
With a total of 11 U.S. Top 10 Hits (singles and albums) on the
Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of
40 years, Melba Moore is one of the most enduring artists of the 21st
century.
By the late 1990s, Melba Moore was back where she felt she belonged,
reaching out and entertaining America through her acting, her singing
and her comedy.
In 2003, Moore was featured in the film,
The Fighting Temptations (2003),
which starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and
Beyoncé. In 2007, she landed a
role in the Broadway revival of Ain't Misbehavin'. In 2009, independent
label, Breaking Records released the EP Book of Dreams, in which Moore
was featured. That same year Moore told her life story on TV-One's
Unsung and later that year released her first R&B album in nearly 20
years, a duet release with Phil Perry
called, The Gift of Love.
album ("I Got Love"), that garnered her a 1971 Grammy nomination for
Best New Artist, the following year, she also scored with a variety
television show that co-starred
Clifton Davis. Despite the show's
being a modern success, the real-life couple fell victim through an
ongoing self-destruction, hence, it was canceled. She was also in a
crisis, when her career was put to an end, before it took a few years
for her to comeback.
A four-time Grammy nominee and one-time Tony Award winner, prior to
being a singer/actress, Melba Moore also made guest appearances on
nearly all of the following shows:
The David Frost Show (1969),
Soul Train (1971),
The Mike Douglas Show (1961),
Dinah! (1974),
The Dick Cavett Show (1968),
13 appearances on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962),
Captain Kangaroo (1955),
The Tim Conway Show (1980),
Solid Gold (1980), among many
others.
Born Melba Hill in New York City, New York, to a very popular musical
family, for the time being, she was raised in Harlem, New York, and
until aged 9, despite of her parents divorce, her mother remarried
Clement Moorman, who introduced her to several agents, while she was
growing up, in Newark, New Jersey, where she had been raised, where she
attended school, there. Prior to Melba's birth, her mother penned the
#1 song "Don't Stop Now". Although her biological father encouraged her
to pursue a career in music, it was actually her
stepfather/saxophonist, Teddy Hill, who insisted on young Melba to do
it, which successfully he did, which gave her a four decade career on
the map. In her early years, she even learned how to play the piano. In
1967, after graduation from college, she won the original role of
Dionne (when, unfortunately Donna Summer
lost the role to her) in the musical, "Hair" with
Ronnie Dyson and
Diane Keaton, whom Moore replaced her in
the role of Sheila. In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance
by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie, which she
portrayed Lutiebelle.
After her successful, short-lived series
The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show (1972),
she went on sabbatical, then, formed Hush Productions, her own
production company. This was 1 year after, when in 1974, she signed
with Buddah Records, before Epic Records, which allowed her to make
some records over the next decade, and had some chart topping hits with
"This Is It," which reached #2 on the U.S. dance charts, which was also
popular in the UK, a country that was used for that song. Other chart
toppers that Melba scored over the years of the Disco-R&B era were,
"Lean On Me," "Make Me Believe In You," "You Stepped Into My Life,"
"Let's Stand Together," and "Take My Love." Unlike fellow singer
Donna Summer, Moore struggled to garner
some disco hits of the 1970s.
The 1980s saw Moore made a remarkable turn in her career, as she signed
with Capitol Records, in 1982, and scored such hits as "Love's Comin'
At Ya," which was a major song in the UK and in Europe. She also scored
such songs with "Keepin' My Love Satisfied," "Love Me Right," "Read My
Lips," (which she was nominated for her fourth Grammy) and "When You
Love Me Like This." She also starred in her own series
Melba (1986), for CBS, a show that was
canceled unexpectedly. The following year, Moore also had a recurring
role on the long-running
Falcon Crest (1981), opposite
Oscar Award-winner Jane Wyman. At the end of
the decade, Moore also garnered some songs with, "Do You Really (Want
My Love)," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".
In the mid-1990s, Moore traveled with Gospel Play called, "Mama I'm
Sorry" aside Gospel's sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Atkins that was
Written and Produced by Michael Matthews.
With a total of 11 U.S. Top 10 Hits (singles and albums) on the
Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of
40 years, Melba Moore is one of the most enduring artists of the 21st
century.
By the late 1990s, Melba Moore was back where she felt she belonged,
reaching out and entertaining America through her acting, her singing
and her comedy.
In 2003, Moore was featured in the film,
The Fighting Temptations (2003),
which starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and
Beyoncé. In 2007, she landed a
role in the Broadway revival of Ain't Misbehavin'. In 2009, independent
label, Breaking Records released the EP Book of Dreams, in which Moore
was featured. That same year Moore told her life story on TV-One's
Unsung and later that year released her first R&B album in nearly 20
years, a duet release with Phil Perry
called, The Gift of Love.