Pamala Stanley

Though Pamala Stanley never attained prominence in pop or R&B, dance music circles accorded the Dallas native and longtime resident considerable respect from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. Her first major notice among dance and club DJs arrived in 1979 with the EMI release of her debut album, This Is Hot. That LP found favor in both Latin and gay clubs, venues that also embraced the three singles she issued during the following decade: the 1983 track “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” the 1984 release “Coming Out of Hiding,” and the rock-tinged “If Looks Could Kill” in 1985. Heart covered the last of these the same year, recasting it as arena rock rather than dance-pop. Stanley subsequently stepped away from recording to devote herself to full-time motherhood, a decision that disappointed her followers. Beachwood issued Coming Out of Hiding: The Sequel in 1990, a collection that presented remixed versions of her club successes, while the mid-1990s brought a folk-rock reinterpretation of “Coming Out of Hiding” by the New York-based female ensemble Her Sister.