Biography
Kendra Spotswood first saw the light of day in Englewood, New Jersey, a community already home to the Isley Brothers, Clyde McPhatter, and Chuck Jackson. That environment made a musical path feel almost predetermined. When she turned eighteen, Scepter/Wand songwriter and producer Van McCoy moved in next door; the two soon began a relationship, and in 1963 she took her first professional step by supplying backing vocals for the Four Buddies on McCoy’s production “Lonely Summer.”
Her own debut single, “Can’t He Take a Hint?,” appeared later that same year on Philips under the name Kenni Woods. Over the ensuing years she would issue records under several different aliases, which kept even dedicated collectors from tracing a clear timeline. After another Kenni Woods release, “Back With My Baby,” she joined the Shirelles for roughly two years of touring, though contractual obligations to Philips prevented any studio work with the group. During this period she and McCoy also released a string of singles under pseudonyms, among them the Pacettes’ “You Don’t Know Baby,” Jack & Jill’s “Two of a Kind,” and the Fantastic Vantastics’ “Gee What a Boy.”
In 1965 she recorded “Stickin’ With My Baby” as Kendra Spotswood, the sole release to bear her birth name. The moniker Sandi Sheldon was invented with McCoy for the 1967 OKeh single “You’re Gonna Make Me Love You,” a surging stomper that attracted almost no attention at the time. The same lack of response greeted the 1968 Cobblestone release “Touch My Heart,” credited to the Vonettes. Shortly afterward she moved to Atlanta and stepped away from the music business entirely.
Details of how “You’re Gonna Make Me Love You” resurfaced remain unclear, yet one widely circulated account holds that a copy surfaced among a batch of singles John Peel sold to dealer Graham Stapleton, who then passed it to “Froggy” Taylor, resident DJ at the Twisted Wheel. When Taylor played the record for the crowd, the reaction was immediate and ecstatic; the track has remained a Northern soul staple ever since. For decades Sheldon’s location and true identity stayed unknown, until she eventually discovered her renewed popularity and began performing again for enthusiastic audiences at all-night events.
Her own debut single, “Can’t He Take a Hint?,” appeared later that same year on Philips under the name Kenni Woods. Over the ensuing years she would issue records under several different aliases, which kept even dedicated collectors from tracing a clear timeline. After another Kenni Woods release, “Back With My Baby,” she joined the Shirelles for roughly two years of touring, though contractual obligations to Philips prevented any studio work with the group. During this period she and McCoy also released a string of singles under pseudonyms, among them the Pacettes’ “You Don’t Know Baby,” Jack & Jill’s “Two of a Kind,” and the Fantastic Vantastics’ “Gee What a Boy.”
In 1965 she recorded “Stickin’ With My Baby” as Kendra Spotswood, the sole release to bear her birth name. The moniker Sandi Sheldon was invented with McCoy for the 1967 OKeh single “You’re Gonna Make Me Love You,” a surging stomper that attracted almost no attention at the time. The same lack of response greeted the 1968 Cobblestone release “Touch My Heart,” credited to the Vonettes. Shortly afterward she moved to Atlanta and stepped away from the music business entirely.
Details of how “You’re Gonna Make Me Love You” resurfaced remain unclear, yet one widely circulated account holds that a copy surfaced among a batch of singles John Peel sold to dealer Graham Stapleton, who then passed it to “Froggy” Taylor, resident DJ at the Twisted Wheel. When Taylor played the record for the crowd, the reaction was immediate and ecstatic; the track has remained a Northern soul staple ever since. For decades Sheldon’s location and true identity stayed unknown, until she eventually discovered her renewed popularity and began performing again for enthusiastic audiences at all-night events.