Biography
Lori Burton partnered with Pam Sawyer to establish one of the stronger New York pop and rock songwriting units of the 1960s, although relatively few of their compositions became major successes. The Rascals secured their debut chart placement with the pair’s “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore,” while “Baby Let’s Wait,” another song the Rascals recorded, delivered a hit for the Royal Guardsmen. Patti LaBelle & the Blue Bells cut “All or Nothing,” and Prince Harold handled “Forget About Me.” Burton and Sawyer received a short-term Motown contract as staff writers and ranked among the scant female production teams working the mid-1960s New York rock circuit.
Burton also performed and remains best remembered for supplying the lead vocal on the Whyte Boots’ “Nightmare,” widely regarded as one of the most faithful recreations of the Shangri-Las’ sound. She further proved herself a convincing blue-eyed pop-soul singer whose low register could turn gritty. Her solo recordings began on Roulette in the mid-1960s, followed by the 1967 Mercury album Breakout, a difficult-to-locate set that blended well-crafted pop-soul with New York’s polished pop-rock aesthetic. It is unfortunate she never received further chances to establish herself as a recording artist.
In the late 1960s Burton began writing and producing alongside her husband, engineer Roy Cicala, who later became a leading industry figure and owner of Record Plant (East) Studios in New York City while working on multiple John Lennon albums. Burton contributed backing vocals to Lennon’s “#9 Dream” in the mid-1970s and laid down several tracks produced by Lennon with Cicala’s assistance around the same time. Two of those selections, described as inferior disco numbers, appear on the CD that accompanies Kristofer Engelhardt’s book Beatles Undercover, which catalogs Beatles appearances on other artists’ recordings.
Burton also performed and remains best remembered for supplying the lead vocal on the Whyte Boots’ “Nightmare,” widely regarded as one of the most faithful recreations of the Shangri-Las’ sound. She further proved herself a convincing blue-eyed pop-soul singer whose low register could turn gritty. Her solo recordings began on Roulette in the mid-1960s, followed by the 1967 Mercury album Breakout, a difficult-to-locate set that blended well-crafted pop-soul with New York’s polished pop-rock aesthetic. It is unfortunate she never received further chances to establish herself as a recording artist.
In the late 1960s Burton began writing and producing alongside her husband, engineer Roy Cicala, who later became a leading industry figure and owner of Record Plant (East) Studios in New York City while working on multiple John Lennon albums. Burton contributed backing vocals to Lennon’s “#9 Dream” in the mid-1970s and laid down several tracks produced by Lennon with Cicala’s assistance around the same time. Two of those selections, described as inferior disco numbers, appear on the CD that accompanies Kristofer Engelhardt’s book Beatles Undercover, which catalogs Beatles appearances on other artists’ recordings.
Albums