It's that voice. Strong and soulful. Emotional. Unique. Completely Shannon.
Her greatest songs, "Let The Music
Play", "Give Me Tonight", and
"Do You Wanna Get
Away" are haunting, enduring, and made unforgettable by ... that voice. There is
something special there.
Born Brenda Shannon Greene in Washington, DC on May 12, 1958, she
grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and studied both singing and dance
as a child.
Shannon was attending York University and touring with the New
York Jazz Ensemble when she laid down the vocals for the song that
would soon be regarded as both a pop classic and one of the most
influential dance records of all time, "Let
The Music Play", originally for Emergency
Records, in 1983. Mirage Records, a division of the larger
Atlantic Records, picked up distribution of the single, which had
been setting clubs alight for several months. It subsequently made
its way to number 2 on the US R&B charts and number 8 pop. The
follow-up, "Give Me Tonight",
also reached the R&B Top 10 but did not make the pop Top 40.
In the UK, she gained two further chart hits with "Give
Me Tonight" and "Sweet
Somebody" both reaching the Top 30 in 1984.
Shannon had one final pop chart single, "Do
You Wanna Get Away", in 1985, but continued to place
on the R&B charts for another year, finally achieving a total
of seven singles on that chart. Her debut album, Let The Music
Play, also charted.
During the 90s, she continued to tour and also appeared in several
off-Broadway productions. She returned to the studio in the late
90s as featured vocalist on hits by Todd Terry ("It's Over
Love") and Sash! ("Move Mania").
This multi-award winning Diva who sold more than 8 million copies of her very first
album has been a staple recurrent artist on radio stations of all formats. "Let The
Music Play" once again dominated the crossover/dance scene in the 90s,
when Shannon was featured on VH-1, and gave
birth to a new phrase in the music business jargon. the "Shannon Sound", which has
since been widely imitated, but never quite duplicated.
Shannon has received the very
prestigious New York Music Award for best dance artist as well as the Hall Of Fame
Award for the album and single "Let The Music Play".
In 2000 Shannon released her fourth studio album, The Best Is Yet To Come, her first album in fifteen years. Chris Barbosa was invited back as a producer and updated her 1980s hits with a similar sound. Many notable producers, including Andy Panda and Tony Moran were featured on the new album. An updated "Give Me Tonight" from the set made the song a colossal club hit again when released as a single (while its follow-up, an update of "Let The Music Play," though still a hit, interestingly proved to be less popular - a role reversal of when she debuted with the songs in the 80's).
Happily embarking on this newest phase of her career. Shannon set out to create a
statement with this project, combining the best of the old and the new.
Working with contemporary producers such as John Poppo (N' Sync, Backstreet Boys),
Tony Moran (Gloria Estefan, Cover Girls, Mandy Moore) and Todd Terry (Cher,
Moloko, Sk8),
Shannon has crafted a new sound to stand beside the Classic Chris Barbosa standards "Let
The Music Play" and "Give Me Tonight" which as been given a massive workover for Y2K by
Hex Hector.
The Best Is Yet To Come is about the completion of a musical journey, a union of
old and new and the promise of a new look back to the future. Shannon
also released a Greatest Hits album in November of 2004.
