Randy Crawford

Randy Crawford first reached wide audiences as the radiant lead vocalist on the Crusaders' U.S. Top 40 success "Street Life" (1979) and the U.K. number-two blockbuster "One Day I'll Fly Away" (1980). A singer of exceptional range, she blends jazz and soul upon an unshakable gospel base. With graceful agility and an instinctive restraint, she has moved fluidly across rock, country, disco, house, and trip-hop. Following her commercial breakthrough she issued five straight albums, beginning with Now We May Begin (1980) and ending with Nightline (1983), each of which simultaneously appeared on the pop, R&B, and jazz listings. Though chiefly recognized as a versatile interpreter, she achieved a second U.K. Top Ten entry with her original composition "Almaz" (1986). More than three decades into her professional life she received her initial Grammy nominations for the spare, jazz-leaning Feeling Good (2006) and No Regrets (2008), both recorded with Crusader Joe Sample. Near the close of the 2010s, after fifty years of performing and recording, Crawford stepped away from the stage.

Veronica Randy Crawford was born in Macon, Georgia, yet grew up in Cincinnati, the city to which her family relocated before she turned one. She began singing in church and school choirs as well as glee clubs. At fifteen she secured her first paid club engagement and spent that summer performing in St. Tropez. While still a teenager she worked as a demo vocalist; a New York showcase opening for George Benson brought a Columbia contract. The brief association yielded the singles "Knock on Wood" (1972) and "Don't Get Caught (In Love's Triangle)" (1973), produced respectively by Motown-affiliated Al Cleveland and Johnny Bristol. Crawford then moved to Los Angeles and appeared at numerous local clubs. Before long she was chosen for Cannonball Adderley's theatrical concept album drawn from the John Henry legend. She portrayed Caroline opposite Joe Williams and Robert Guillaume on Big Man: The Legend of John Henry (1975), released shortly before Adderley suffered a fatal stroke. Because her Columbia recordings had remained so little known, the album's liner notes described the twenty-one-year-old as making her recorded debut.

At Quincy Jones's suggestion, Crawford performed the ballad "Everything Must Change," written and first recorded by Bernard Ighner for Jones's Body Heat, during a November 1975 World Jazz Association All Star Band concert. Producer Stewart Levine was sufficiently impressed to secure her a Warner Bros. agreement. The live version of "Everything Must Change" opened her self-titled 1976 debut, produced by Levine. The album closed with another excerpt from that evening's set, a tribute to Adderley titled "Gonna Give Lovin' a Try," originally heard on Big Man. Diverse in repertoire and personnel, the record also included readings of the Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down," Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" (its second single), and Charlene's then-recent "I've Never Been to Me," six years before Motown reissued the original to Top Ten pop status. Among the principal session players were Crusaders Joe Sample and Larry Carlton. Shortly afterward, Miss Randy Crawford appeared in 1977. Produced by Bob Montgomery at Muscle Shoals' FAME Studios—where Aretha Franklin had cut several landmark Atlantic sides—the collection notably contained a powerful treatment of the Eagles' "Desperado." The following year Crawford supplied lead vocals for ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's "Hoping Love Will Last," another early illustration of her unpredictable choices.

Nineteen seventy-nine proved Crawford's most consequential year to date: she released the Stephan Goldman-produced Raw Silk and supplied the voice for the Crusaders' "Street Life." The crossover single reached number 17 on the R&B chart and number 36 on the Hot 100, climbed to number five in the U.K.—where she would enjoy greater commercial success thereafter—and spurred interest in Raw Silk, which charted on Billboard's R&B and jazz lists. She returned swiftly in 1980 with Now We May Begin. While earlier projects had drawn from varied sources, this fourth album centered on new material by "Street Life" co-writers Will Jennings and Joe Sample, plus Crawford's own "Tender Falls the Rain." Sample, Wilton Felder, and Stix Hooper handled production. The set introduced another signature piece, "One Day I'll Fly Away," which held the U.K. number-two position for two weeks (first behind Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love," then the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me"). Though less successful domestically, "Last Night at Danceland" (number 68 U.S. R&B, number 61 U.K. pop) seamlessly fused soul, jazz, country, and disco, underscoring Crawford's breadth as persuasively as any track in her expanding catalog.

She continued releasing an album each year while collaborating extensively with producer Tommy LiPuma. The pinnacle was Secret Combination (1981), which spawned two U.K. Top 20 hits: "You Might Need Somebody" and a fresh reading of Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia," earlier popularized by Brook Benton. That overseas achievement earned her the 1982 Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist despite her American nationality. Neither single registered on U.S. charts, yet follow-ups "When I Lose My Way" and "Secret Combination" achieved modest R&B traction and helped the album become her first domestic Top Ten jazz entry (number 12 R&B, number 71 pop). Windsong (1982) and Nightline (1983) likewise appeared on the pop, jazz, and R&B charts, supported by singles such as "One Hello" (written by Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch), the new-wave-flavored "Nightline," and the power ballad "Why."

Crawford re-entered the Hot 100 in 1984 with the duet "Taxi Dancing," recorded with Rick Springfield for the soundtrack of Hard to Hold. Two further albums followed in the decade. The sleek 1986 set Abstract Emotions, produced largely by Reggie Lucas, contained her crowning composition, "Almaz," written at the request of an Eritrean refugee neighbor seeking a song about his wife. Rich & Poor, made with admirer and Sade producer Robin Millar, closed the 1980s with several R&B-charting singles. A version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," cut for the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack with David Sanborn and Eric Clapton, reached number four. It was followed by "Wrap-U-Up" (number 15) and Babyface and L.A. Reid's "I Don't Feel Much Like Crying" (number 16). "Cigarette in the Rain" peaked at number 38.

Throughout the 1990s Crawford maintained a steady recording pace, beginning with Through the Eyes of Love (1992) and Don't Say It's Over (1993), then continuing with Naked and True (1995) and Every Kind of Mood (1997). These projects added six further entries to her R&B singles tally. Her refusal to fit any single category remained evident as her circle of collaborators and choice of material broadened. Standout tracks from the first 1990s release included a duet with Italian singer Zucchero ("Diamante") and a number-30 R&B cover of Journey's "Who's Crying Now." Her final 1990s album featured a new take on "Almaz" alongside interpretations that traversed soul, sophisti-pop, and trip-hop—Rose Royce's "Wishing on a Star," Double's "Captain of Her Heart," and Massive Attack's "Hymn of the Big Wheel"—plus a house remix of her earlier George Benson cover "Give Me the Night." Around the same period "Street Life" resurfaced as a theme for the antiheroine in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Crawford opened the next decade with Permanent (issued as Play Mode outside North America), which juxtaposed classic pop material such as "Wild Is the Wind" and "Alfie" with contemporary pop-R&B originals in the style of Max Martin, including "Fire & Rain." Interest in "One Day I'll Fly Away" revived in 2001 when Nicole Kidman performed it in the jukebox musical Moulin Rouge.

Following a five-year interval between projects, Crawford reunited with Joe Sample. The longtime associates issued Feeling Good in 2006 and No Regrets in 2008 on PRA Records. Produced by Sample with Tommy LiPuma, the sessions rank among her most economical and jazz-centered work, combining originals, standards, and relatively recent covers that pay tribute to Nina Simone, Fred Neil, and Sarah McLachlan. Feeling Good spotlighted a smoldering rendition of Curtis Lewis's "All Night Long," which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. No Regrets received a nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. That the Recording Academy honored her contributions in two distinct categories more than thirty years after her debut underscores both her underappreciated stature and her longstanding resistance to narrow categorization. Into the late 2010s Crawford kept touring and contributed "Windmills of Your Mind" to David Sanborn's Time and the River. She retired in 2018.