Taylor Dayne

Dance-pop diva Taylor Dayne, born Leslie Wunderman, reached stardom with unusual speed during the closing years of the 1980s after her debut single, “Tell It to My Heart,” entered the Top Ten. Professional singing began for her right after high school in the rock band Felony and the new-wave group Next, yet neither outfit achieved any traction. Following college she switched to solo work and cut a dance version of the ballad “Tell It to My Heart,” which secured a deal with Arista; the label issued the track in autumn 1987, and it quickly became a hit that launched her career.

Her self-titled first album, Tell It to My Heart, arrived in early 1988 and adhered to the same dance-pop approach: whether the material was uptempo or a slow number, her powerful voice rode polished electronic arrangements. That approach produced three additional Top Ten hits—“Prove Your Love,” “I’ll Always Love You,” and the number-two single “Don’t Rush Me”—while the LP itself moved more than two million units. Second album Can’t Fight Fate matched most of that commercial impact, generating the charting tracks “With Every Beat of My Heart,” “I’ll Be Your Shelter,” and the chart-topping “Love Will Lead You Back,” and it surpassed one million in sales.

Her retreat from the upper reaches of the chart proved nearly as abrupt as her arrival. The fourth single from Can’t Fight Fate, “Heart of Stone,” peaked at number twelve, and from the follow-up LP Send Me a Lover only “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” cracked the Top Forty, stopping at number twenty. Even so, dance-music enthusiasts continued to support her; she resurfaced in 1998 with the album Naked Without You. After that release she concentrated on acting for several years, aside from occasional soundtrack contributions such as her cover of RuPaul’s “Supermodel” for The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Guest parts on the series Rescue Me and Cold Case, plus a lead role in the Elton John/Tim Rice stage musical Aida, paved the way for her own VH1 reality program, Remaking: Taylor Dayne. In late 2007 the single “Beautiful” signaled the imminent arrival of a new studio set called Satisfied.