Frances Nero

Frances Nero cut “Keep on Loving Me” for Motown on March 11, 1966, a fact that remains hers alone. Although the single never charted, it belongs to the label’s storied catalog and commands roughly two hundred fifty dollars among collectors because of its extreme scarcity. Her initial stage experience occurred in seventh grade on a WNIC radio showcase broadcast from Asheville, North Carolina. While still in high school she began performing professionally, appearing at local engagements alongside two glee-club classmates and several members of the school band. Attrition soon thinned the lineup, beginning with the departure of the two female singers. She next paired with vocalist Bill, who worked with the Tams, and afterward performed with a band at a supper club in Greenville, South Carolina, owned by a local physician.

Her career turning point arrived after she relocated to Detroit. In 1965 she won first place in a talent contest overseen by Berry Gordy, receiving five hundred dollars, a dozen red roses, and a one-year Motown recording contract. Several months later she entered a Motown studio for the only time, where William “Mickey” Stevenson, James Dean, and William Weatherspoon wrote and produced her tracks. Only two sides were completed; the resulting single appeared in March 1966. Executed in classic Motown style, the recording featured background vocals by the Originals. Detroit station WCHB aired it every half hour, each spin accompanied by mention of her contest victory. The label exercised its option to extend the contract another year, yet no further sessions or public performances took place, because Motown artists required company approval to appear live. When Nero requested her release she was dropped from the roster; she also states that she never received any royalties from the label.

Following her exit from Motown she recorded two songs for Shrine Records, the company owned by Eddie Singleton and Raynoma Gordy Singleton, Berry’s second wife. The label folded after two years of unsuccessful releases, leaving the tracks unissued. She also cut two numbers with Gino Parks for the same imprint, again without release. Nero continued performing until her mother’s death in 1978, after which she devoted herself to caring for ailing relatives. British producer Ian Levine, a dedicated Motown collector who had previously attempted to record forgotten American soul artists without commercial success, eventually contacted her. She laid down more than a dozen tracks under his direction and scored her first chart entry with “Footsteps Following Me,” which reached number seventeen in Great Britain. In 1992 British disc jockeys dubbed the song “The Soul Anthem of the Nineties.” Nero subsequently appeared on several British television programs, among them Top of the Pops and The Terry Wogan Show. Hot Productions issued The Very Best of Frances Nero domestically in 1996, compiling the Levine productions from the mid-1980s. She has additionally released a three-song CD, Love Ride, on her own AJA label.