Phyllis Hyman

Phyllis Hyman merits the same single-name recognition granted to later singers such as Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Toni Braxton. Although she never scored a pop hit or earned gold certification, any compilation of prime soul ballads, quiet storm album tracks, or disco singles remains incomplete without her opulent vocal timbre. A model of elegance, allure, and range, she shone equally in guest spots and vocal pairings as she did when headlining. Backing Norman Connors while trading lines with Michael Henderson, she surfaced decisively in 1976 via the duet “We Both Need Each Other” and a distinctive reinterpretation of “Betcha by Golly Wow”; those pairings opened doors to further sessions with Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, and additional jazz and R&B figures. As a solo act she placed eight entries inside Billboard’s R&B Top 20, among them the disco-to-new jack swing sequence “You Know How to Love Me,” “Living All Alone,” and the chart-topping “Don’t Wanna Change the World.” Between 1978 and 1995 she assembled seven consecutive Top 20 R&B albums, closing the run with I Refuse to Be Lonely, which surfaced several months after her passing.

A Philadelphia native raised in Pittsburgh, Hyman began performing in church as a child. She enrolled at Robert Morris University on a music scholarship, sang in local groups, and in 1971 joined pianist Dick Morgan’s touring band. A few years afterward she moved to Miami, pursued vocal study, and worked area venues before making her screen debut in Bob Fosse’s Lenny. In 1975 she established herself in New York nightclubs, fronting the P/H Factor—a unit she had formed in Miami—and quickly drew label interest. Her first single, “Livin’ the Good Life Behind,” appeared on Private Stock and was produced by George Kerr.

Commercial traction arrived the following year. Norman Connors, impressed by one of those club sets, placed two features on You Are My Starship: the Henderson collaboration “We Both Need Each Other” and the Stylistics-associated “Betcha by Golly Wow.” That August Hyman logged her initial charting single under her own name with “Baby (I’m Gonna Love You),” a Larry Alexander composition issued on Desert Moon that peaked at number 76 on what was then called the Hot Soul Singles chart. She also added vocals to the Fatback Band’s Night Fever and Jon Lucien’s Premonition.

Shortly after “Betcha by Golly Wow” climbed to number 29, Hyman returned to the chart in April 1977 with Thom Bell’s “Loving You—Losing You,” a number 32 R&B hit that reinforced her Philly soul ties and cleared the path for her self-titled Buddah debut. The album included Bell and Linda Creed’s “I Don’t Want to Lose You,” previously cut by the Spinners, plus Skip Scarborough’s “No One Can Love You More.” Scarborough contributed further material to Sing a Song, which Buddah initially released abroad before Arista absorbed the label and repackaged the project as Somewhere in My Lifetime. New tracks on the Arista edition featured the title song—a number 12 R&B hit produced by labelmate Barry Manilow and Ron Dante—alongside several T. Life productions. Hyman closed the decade by enlisting James Mtume and Reggie Lucas for You Know How to Love Me, which reached number ten on the R&B chart behind its number 12 title single. Throughout the late 1970s she also appeared on jazz dates by Pharoah Sanders, Chuck Mangione, and Ronnie Foster; Sanders’ Love Will Find a Way spotlighted her on the radio favorites “As You Are” and “Everything I Have Is Good.”

The same New York club reputation that drew Connors translated smoothly to Broadway when pianist Lloyd Mayers recommended her for Sophisticated Ladies, the Duke Ellington revue that opened in 1981 and spawned an RCA cast album. Hyman earned a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. Between stage commitments she issued two further Arista albums, 1981’s Can’t We Fall in Love Again? and 1983’s Goddess of Love, together generating five charting singles, among them the Henderson duet title track that reached number nine on the R&B list. She also guested on McCoy Tyner’s 1982 Looking Out, the same year she and Larry Alexander divorced. In 1984 and 1985 she contributed to album tracks by the Whispers and Four Tops as well as Joe Sample’s single “The Survivor.”

Hyman concluded her recording career at Philadelphia International, where Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff supplied substantial material for the 1986 debut Living All Alone, including the Creed-Bell composition “Old Friend” and the title track. She next collaborated with Loose Ends and Nick Martinelli—fresh from their “Hangin’ on a String (Contemplating)” success—on the major single “Ain’t You Had Enough Love” and herself produced a version of Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do for Love.” During the ensuing five-year recording hiatus she toured widely, appeared in Spike Lee’s School Daze singing a Bill Lee composition, and recorded with Barry Manilow, Grover Washington, Jr., and Lonnie Liston Smith. Her return came with 1991’s Prime of My Life, whose lead single “Don’t Wanna Change the World” topped the R&B chart while “Living in Confusion” and “When You Get Right Down to It” also reached the Top Ten; the track became her sole Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 68. In 1993 she rejoined Norman Connors for the charting single “Remember Who You Are.”

Hyman, who battled drug addiction and bipolar disorder, died by suicide on June 30, 1995. I Refuse to Be Lonely, held back until after her death, arrived that November and marked her seventh straight Top 20 R&B placement. Three years later, previously unreleased Philadelphia International recordings were compiled as Forever with You, again featuring contributions from Gamble, Huff, Dexter Wansel, and Martinelli. Subsequent anthologies have ranged from One on One (1998) to Old Friend: The Deluxe Collection 1976–1998 (2021).