Polly Browne

Born in Birmingham, England, during 1947, Polly Brown—occasionally credited as Browne—developed into a vocalist whose contributions across the British pop/rock and disco circuits earned her recognition on an international scale throughout the 1970s. Listeners across her homeland grew accustomed to her voice through tenures with Pickettywitch and Sweet Dreams, as well as through independent releases that surfaced later in the decade. An aspiring performer already in her teens, she helped form the bubblegum ensemble Pickettywitch in 1969; the outfit secured several substantial domestic hits and drew regular television bookings, with Brown handling lead vocals across a three-year stretch. After sales tapered and momentum faded during 1972, she exited the group and soon aligned with Sweet Dreams, scoring a hit through their version of ABBA’s “Honey Honey.” She stayed with Sweet Dreams for roughly two years and issued her lone solo album midway through the decade. Issued in 1973, the solo single “So Much in Love” recalled early-’60s girl-group aesthetics, yet Brown soon shifted toward disco and notched a brief run of U.K. chart entries, one of which—“Up in a Puff of Smoke”—entered the U.S. top 20. Across the three decades that followed, she maintained an active presence as both a performer and songwriter. In 1995 the RPM label released Bewitched: The Polly Brown Story, a collection spanning her work with Pickettywitch and Sweet Dreams together with her solo recordings.