Biography
Linda Lewis possessed a five-octave vocal range that invited comparisons with a youthful Michael Jackson and Minnie Riperton, yet remained unmistakably singular, especially once she began writing her own songs and seamlessly merged soul and folk elements accented by light funk. As a teenager she issued her debut single in 1967, appeared on the Ferris Wheel’s self-titled 1970 album, and then delivered her own first full-length effort, Say No More... (1971). Although Lark (1972) is widely regarded as her creative high point, her initial U.K. chart entry arrived only with the standalone single “Rock a Doodle Doo” (1973). That Top 20 success was soon surpassed by the Top Ten placement of “It’s in His Kiss” (1975), a discofied revival of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)” that propelled its parent album, Not a Little Girl Anymore, to number 40 on the British album chart. Simultaneously in demand as a session singer, the multi-instrumentalist and producer—who also played guitar, keyboards, and percussion—contributed to recordings by Cat Stevens, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan during the 1970s; once her own releases slowed in the following decade she remained prominent on albums by Joan Armatrading, the Beloved, and Jamiroquai. Beginning with Second Nature (1995), she refreshed her early-1970s approach across several late-1990s projects. Admired by successive generations spanning multiple genres, she later joined forces with Midfield General, Basement Jaxx, and Paul Weller. Her final recording, “Earthling,” paired her with the Paracosmos and Nuovi Fratelli and appeared only weeks before her passing in 2023.
Born Linda Ann Fredericks in East London, Lewis attended stage school and performed in neighborhood clubs while still young. In 1961 she secured a minor role in the British New Wave film A Taste of Honey; three years later she portrayed a starstruck admirer in the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. Acting, however, never supplanted her musical aspirations. She soon performed bluebeat and ska with the Q Set, was encouraged by her mother to join John Lee Hooker onstage, and also sang with R&B outfit Herbie Goins & the Night-Timers. Signed to Polydor in 1967, the teenage Lewis recorded her first single, “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet,” a Northern Soul cult favorite produced by Ian Samwell. Shortly afterward she formed the short-lived White Rabbit alongside former Night-Timer Junior Marvin, then stepped in for Marsha Hunt with the Ferris Wheel in time to appear on the psychedelic soul-rock group’s self-titled second and final album, fronting its lone single, “Can’t Stop Now.”
Lewis truly established her solo path in 1971, the year she performed at the inaugural Glastonbury Festival alongside Terry Reid and secured a contract with Reprise. Still working with Ian Samwell, who had produced the Ferris Wheel, she released her full-length debut, Say No More..., every track of which she wrote or co-wrote with him. She further refined her fusion of soul and folk on the 1972 follow-up Lark, co-produced with Family’s Jim Cregan, another former Ferris Wheel member. Moving to Raft, the Reprise-affiliated boutique label founded by Family, she first issued the single “Rock a Doodle Doo,” a striking demonstration of her lower and upper registers that entered the U.K. pop chart in June 1973 and reached number 15, leading to its inclusion on a reissued version of Lark. Fathoms Deep, her only Raft album, also surfaced that year and featured contributions from Danny Thompson, Bobby Tench, and Lowell George. Concurrently sought after for session work, Lewis appeared on Al Kooper’s Possible Projection of the Future, toured with Cat Stevens on Catch Bull at Four, and sang on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, while also forging connections with Marc Bolan and Elton John.
After Raft folded, Lewis secured a new deal with Bell, which later became Arista following the release of her 1974 single “(Remember the Days Of) The Old Schoolyard,” a song Cat Stevens had given her. Her fourth and most commercially successful album, Not a Little Girl Anymore, arrived with production from Cregan, Bert DeCoteaux, and Tony Silvester; alongside the Stevens track it combined her own compositions with renditions of John Martyn’s “May You Never,” Gwen Guthrie and Pat Grant’s “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter,” and Rudy Clark’s “It’s in His Kiss” (also known as “The Shoop Shoop Song [It’s in His Kiss]”). The latter entered the U.K. pop chart in July 1975, delivering her sole British Top Ten hit at number six and her only U.S. chart single at number 96 pop, which in turn lifted Not a Little Girl Anymore to number 40 on the album chart. Woman Overboard, issued in 1977 after the non-album 1976 singles “Baby I’m Yours” and “Winter Wonderland,” was assembled in similar fashion, blending production from Cregan, Stevens, DeCoteaux, and, most prominently, Allen Toussaint, who also played keyboards on the four songs recorded in his native New Orleans with fellow Crescent City musician James Booker on organ.
Dissatisfied with limited creative control and pressure to target dancefloors, Lewis departed Arista. Following an appearance on Rod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun she signed with Ariola, though that partnership produced only the Mike Batt-produced Hacienda View. The 1979 album contained just one song she wrote with Jim Cregan, plus a timely cover of the Evita number “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You,” her final Top 40 single. Lewis and Cregan had married several years earlier and divorced in 1980. She returned in 1983 with A Tear and a Smile, a collection of pop-R&B and adult-contemporary material issued on Epic; she wrote or co-wrote roughly half the songs and reunited with Bert DeCoteaux, while most of the first side was helmed by Epic labelmates the Quick. The following year she released a one-off single on hi-NRG specialist label Electricity featuring the boogie-flavored “Class/Style (I’ve Got It)” and a hi-NRG-styled re-recording of her debut single, “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet.” She subsequently formed Lewis (also known as Lewis Sisters), a vocal trio with siblings Dee and Shirley, both of whom adopted her stage surname. Between 1986 and 1987 the group issued several club-oriented singles produced by Philly soul veteran Bobby Eli before concluding with a cover of Brenda Russell’s “So Good, So Right.”
Lewis concentrated primarily on supporting vocal work for several years before experiencing a resurgence as a headliner. She and sister Shirley sang throughout Joan Armatrading’s 1992 album Square the Circle. In 1993 she collaborated with keyboardist Ludmilla on Have You Noticed?, contributed prominently to the Beloved’s number-two album Conscience, and appeared in the background of Jamiroquai’s first Top Ten hit, “Too Young to Die.” Second Nature, her first album in twelve years, followed in 1995 on the independent Turpin label; composed almost entirely by Lewis, it offered an organic extension of her early-1970s style. Before the decade closed she also released On the Stage: Live in Japan, Whatever, and Kiss of Life, her final studio album. Her last chart appearance came in 2000 via the Midfield General collaboration “Reach Out.” Live in Old Smokey, recorded at Ronnie Scott’s in London, arrived in 2005. Over subsequent years she continued touring and collaborating, notably with Basement Jaxx on “Close Your Eyes” (2006) and Paul Weller on “Aim High [Aim Higher]” (2010), and performed at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. In 2023 she teamed with the Paracosmos and Nuovi Fratelli for “Earthling,” the lively folk-soul single released just prior to her death on May 3, 2023.
Born Linda Ann Fredericks in East London, Lewis attended stage school and performed in neighborhood clubs while still young. In 1961 she secured a minor role in the British New Wave film A Taste of Honey; three years later she portrayed a starstruck admirer in the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. Acting, however, never supplanted her musical aspirations. She soon performed bluebeat and ska with the Q Set, was encouraged by her mother to join John Lee Hooker onstage, and also sang with R&B outfit Herbie Goins & the Night-Timers. Signed to Polydor in 1967, the teenage Lewis recorded her first single, “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet,” a Northern Soul cult favorite produced by Ian Samwell. Shortly afterward she formed the short-lived White Rabbit alongside former Night-Timer Junior Marvin, then stepped in for Marsha Hunt with the Ferris Wheel in time to appear on the psychedelic soul-rock group’s self-titled second and final album, fronting its lone single, “Can’t Stop Now.”
Lewis truly established her solo path in 1971, the year she performed at the inaugural Glastonbury Festival alongside Terry Reid and secured a contract with Reprise. Still working with Ian Samwell, who had produced the Ferris Wheel, she released her full-length debut, Say No More..., every track of which she wrote or co-wrote with him. She further refined her fusion of soul and folk on the 1972 follow-up Lark, co-produced with Family’s Jim Cregan, another former Ferris Wheel member. Moving to Raft, the Reprise-affiliated boutique label founded by Family, she first issued the single “Rock a Doodle Doo,” a striking demonstration of her lower and upper registers that entered the U.K. pop chart in June 1973 and reached number 15, leading to its inclusion on a reissued version of Lark. Fathoms Deep, her only Raft album, also surfaced that year and featured contributions from Danny Thompson, Bobby Tench, and Lowell George. Concurrently sought after for session work, Lewis appeared on Al Kooper’s Possible Projection of the Future, toured with Cat Stevens on Catch Bull at Four, and sang on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, while also forging connections with Marc Bolan and Elton John.
After Raft folded, Lewis secured a new deal with Bell, which later became Arista following the release of her 1974 single “(Remember the Days Of) The Old Schoolyard,” a song Cat Stevens had given her. Her fourth and most commercially successful album, Not a Little Girl Anymore, arrived with production from Cregan, Bert DeCoteaux, and Tony Silvester; alongside the Stevens track it combined her own compositions with renditions of John Martyn’s “May You Never,” Gwen Guthrie and Pat Grant’s “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter,” and Rudy Clark’s “It’s in His Kiss” (also known as “The Shoop Shoop Song [It’s in His Kiss]”). The latter entered the U.K. pop chart in July 1975, delivering her sole British Top Ten hit at number six and her only U.S. chart single at number 96 pop, which in turn lifted Not a Little Girl Anymore to number 40 on the album chart. Woman Overboard, issued in 1977 after the non-album 1976 singles “Baby I’m Yours” and “Winter Wonderland,” was assembled in similar fashion, blending production from Cregan, Stevens, DeCoteaux, and, most prominently, Allen Toussaint, who also played keyboards on the four songs recorded in his native New Orleans with fellow Crescent City musician James Booker on organ.
Dissatisfied with limited creative control and pressure to target dancefloors, Lewis departed Arista. Following an appearance on Rod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun she signed with Ariola, though that partnership produced only the Mike Batt-produced Hacienda View. The 1979 album contained just one song she wrote with Jim Cregan, plus a timely cover of the Evita number “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You,” her final Top 40 single. Lewis and Cregan had married several years earlier and divorced in 1980. She returned in 1983 with A Tear and a Smile, a collection of pop-R&B and adult-contemporary material issued on Epic; she wrote or co-wrote roughly half the songs and reunited with Bert DeCoteaux, while most of the first side was helmed by Epic labelmates the Quick. The following year she released a one-off single on hi-NRG specialist label Electricity featuring the boogie-flavored “Class/Style (I’ve Got It)” and a hi-NRG-styled re-recording of her debut single, “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet.” She subsequently formed Lewis (also known as Lewis Sisters), a vocal trio with siblings Dee and Shirley, both of whom adopted her stage surname. Between 1986 and 1987 the group issued several club-oriented singles produced by Philly soul veteran Bobby Eli before concluding with a cover of Brenda Russell’s “So Good, So Right.”
Lewis concentrated primarily on supporting vocal work for several years before experiencing a resurgence as a headliner. She and sister Shirley sang throughout Joan Armatrading’s 1992 album Square the Circle. In 1993 she collaborated with keyboardist Ludmilla on Have You Noticed?, contributed prominently to the Beloved’s number-two album Conscience, and appeared in the background of Jamiroquai’s first Top Ten hit, “Too Young to Die.” Second Nature, her first album in twelve years, followed in 1995 on the independent Turpin label; composed almost entirely by Lewis, it offered an organic extension of her early-1970s style. Before the decade closed she also released On the Stage: Live in Japan, Whatever, and Kiss of Life, her final studio album. Her last chart appearance came in 2000 via the Midfield General collaboration “Reach Out.” Live in Old Smokey, recorded at Ronnie Scott’s in London, arrived in 2005. Over subsequent years she continued touring and collaborating, notably with Basement Jaxx on “Close Your Eyes” (2006) and Paul Weller on “Aim High [Aim Higher]” (2010), and performed at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. In 2023 she teamed with the Paracosmos and Nuovi Fratelli for “Earthling,” the lively folk-soul single released just prior to her death on May 3, 2023.
Albums
Feel The Feeling
2021
Funky Bubbles
2017
Hampstead Days
2014
Legends
2005
The Best Of
2003
Reach For The Truth: Best Of The Reprise Years 1971-1974
2002
Woman Overboard
1977
Fathoms Deep
1973
Lark
1972
Say No More
1971
Live
