Yvonne Fair

Yvonne Fair launched her career as a late-era participant in the Chantels and the James Brown Revue. Her collaborations with Chuck Jackson led to a Motown contract in the early 1970s, after which she took a supporting part as a chanteuse in the motion picture Lady Sings the Blues. She next teamed with producer Norman Whitfield to record an outstanding run of singles that included “Love Ain’t No Toy,” “Walk Out the Door If You Wanna,” a version widely regarded as definitive of “Funky Music Sho’ ’Nuff Turns Me On,” and a striking reinterpretation of the Kim Weston/Gladys Knight semistandard “It Should Have Been Me,” a track that reached the lower reaches of the pop charts in 1976. Recognized as a powerful soul belter who received insufficient recognition during her Motown years, Fair passed away in 1994.