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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Someone told me that Sylvia Striplin works as a nurse now


You Can't Turn me Away and Give Me Your Love got the most attention on the phenomenal Roy Ayers produced Sylvia Striplin l.p. released on Uno Melodic Records in 1981.



But my favorite was Searchin'. It's simply sultry lush disco. I was still pretty new to Ebay when I posted my white label Promo and I was pleased to see it fly up to near $200.00. I've noticed that it's one of those 12" which continues to attract the high bids. Seems like on Ebay certain records fall out of favor and other ones get hot. But Sylvia Striplin seems to be a consistent hot bid.

I don't usually post edits but this one rocks so hard that I felt it should be exposed.


Whatever happened to her anyway? She did have a follow-up 12" release on Rissa Chrissa entitled, Keep Pushing and Going Home in 1982. These too are also rather rare but I don't have them. I would love to get them eventually though.

here's the wikipedia on her:


Sylvia Striplin (born March,1954) is a New York based jazzsoul and R&B vocalist. Sylvia was the youngest of five children. After a fire destroyed their home on Sugarhill in Harlem, the family moved to the North Bronx in New York—there Sylvia honed her craft. Sylvia loved singing. She made up songs on the family piano and sang them around the house. She took piano lessons during her grade school years and performed in recitals. She began singing professionally with neighborhood friends, Gus Falcon and Malcolm Ballinger as a teenager. After high school, Sylvia attended City College in Harlem where she was praised for her performance in the College's production of Anything Goes. During the 1970s, Sylvia found work as a backup singer. In the late 70s she auditioned for the role of Dorothy inThe Wiz and was selected as the second understudy with the New York Company. She was eventually selected to play Dorothy in the road company production, traveling to Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities, receiving excellent reviews along the way.
During the late 1970s, Sylvia became a member of Aquarian Dream and worked with funkjazzR&Band soulvibraphonist Roy Ayers, in his group Ladies of the Eighties, recording one album with each group. Ayers signed Sylvia to his Uno Melodic record label. where she recorded an album with him, an extended single of her own - Give Me Your Love, then her first solo album of the same name Give Me Your Love
Her song, "You Can't Turn Me Away" the flip side of her single and a track on her solo album was featured on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, playing on quiet storm station VCFL. It was also in the romantic comedy film Prime and the mini-film Ecology of Love with Pharrell Williams. This song also serves as the basis for the Notorious B.I.G/Junior M.A.F.I.A.hit, "Get Money" on BigBeat Records, subsidiary of Atlantic. BigBeat label chief Craig Kallman is the judge in the video for this song which then received numerous awards. Erykah Badu also covered this song for her 2010 track "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)" on the album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). "Give Me Your Love" was sampled by Armand Van Helden in "Full Moon" (ft. Common).

3 comments:

soulglowmusic said...

I heard of her in 1993/4, in NYC, being on drugs and very broke for cash. Very old looking,shame, she was/is one of those genuinely unique voices that should've had at least one big hit. A true soul singer who would be amazed at how many people were touhed by her music since it was released. Roy ayres has not heard from her since the early nineties either. bet she hears that biggie song all the time in NY-prob drives her crazy!

Anonymous said...

When was she born and how old is she?

ExpatMichael said...

I don't know. Have you checked discogs.com?