She is a singer, composer and writer born to a military family in Fort Riley, Kansas, who travelled widely with her family as a child, spending four years in Germany.
Taking a huge interest in music from the time she was very young she had operatic coaching in opera before changing her interest to jazz and learning to scat. She worked as a PBX operator but following her dream of a career in music she found her first success when she passed an audition for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour chorus in 1968.
She then went on to join Henry Mancini’s Young Generation and made appearances on American Bandstand, The Bobby Darin Show, Sanford & Son and Soul Train among many others. She also toured with singers in the 1970s such as Helen Reddy and sang demos for A&M Records.
Artists starting taking notice of her and she went on to become very sought after as a backing vocalist in shows and in the studio. Her career progressed and after being noticed by the producer Simon Sussain she began working as a solo artist and signed up to the Casablanca record label.
Her debut album Love Shook was released in 1977 and brought her success when it peaked at No.2 on the US Dance Chart and she then managed a No. 1 hit on the Club Play chart when her song “After Dark”, which was on her 2nd album in 1978 Our Ms Brooks, was included on the soundtrack for Thank God It’s Friday.
In 1979 she changed her producer when she worked with Bunny Sigler but it wasn’t as successful as the previous two even though she released the single “Got Tu Go Disco”. That same year she sang the title song for the film Agatha “Close Enough For Love”.
The following year she released her self-titled album on the Casablanca label which didn’t produce any hits and decided to leave the record company.
Moving into the 1980s she signed up with Mirage Records where she was produced by Sandy Linzer and released her final album In My World in 1982. It produced the minor hits “Doctor Ruth” and “Every Time I Turn Around”.
The next year, in 1983, she released the minor hit “Get It On and Have a Party” on the Backstreet Records label. She also sang with the actor Dan Aykroyd in two duets for the soundtrack of Doctor Detroit.
In 1985 she sang on the soundtrack for That Was Then…This Is Now and around that time she worked for the Easy Street label with whom she released several singles. It wasn’t too long before she changed labels again to WaterWheel. With them she issued “Function at the Junction” but soon she decided to return to singing jingles and as a backing vocalist.
In the 1990s she performed on the soundtracks of the movies We’re Talking Serious Money and Fast Getaway II.
In the new millennium her music sparked interest again, which gave her further club play chart success, when a remix of her single “After Dark” was re-released on CD in 2006.
In 2013 she released the new dance track “I Like the Way You Move” and that same year she was included in the book The First Ladies of Disco.
Throughout her career Pattie has performed with countless other artists on stage and in the studio and some of these include Paula Abdul, Randy Bachman, Randy Crawford, George Duke, Thelma Houston, Jermaine Jackson, La Toya Jackson, Roberta Kelly, D.C. LaRue, Teena Marie, Bill Medley, Dorothy Moore, John Prine, Slave, Dusty Springfield, Bill Summers, Syreeta and Weird Al Yankovic among many others..
Her album output on recordings other than her own solo material is immense but a select few of them includes Southern Nights by Glen Campbell, The Christmas Album by David Foster, Street Songs by Rick James, The Complete Collection and Then Some… by Barry Manilow, Totally Hot by Olivia Newton John, Baby, It’s Me by Diana Ross, Who Is This Bitch, Anyway? By Marlena Shaw, Curtis Stigers by Curtis Stigers, I Remember Yesterday by Donna Summer and Living With War by Neil Young.
Glen Campbell Recordings
Southern Nights (Allen Toussaint)
Capitol 4376 S93475A
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