Celi Bee (born Celida Ines Camacho, New York City) is an American

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

musician.

Career

Bee is a New York-born singer of Puerto Rican Parents. Born in New York, she initially relocated back to

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

with her parents. There she met Pepe Luis Soto in

in the 1960s and they began making music together. In 1972, she won a festival called Festival De La Voz y La Cancion, with the song, "Yo Quiero Un Pincel. She was initially popular in Spain, and Puerto Rico where her single, "Half A Love", became successful. In 1977 she signed a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with

TK Records TK Records was an American independent record label founded by record distributor Henry Stone and Steve Alaimo in 1972. and based in Hialeah, Florida. The record label went bankrupt in 1981. "TK" was inspired by the initials of sound engineer Te ...

, whilst Soto wrote a song called "

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

". The song, credited to Celi Bee and the Buzzy Bunch, became a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

, reaching #3 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

, #41 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #86 on the R&B

. The album, ''Celi Bee and the Buzzy Bunch'', an extended six track set, reached #39 on the R&B listing and #169 on the main ''Billboard'' 200 album chart. Other tracks off the album included "One Love", "Smile", "Its Sad", "Closer Closer" and "Hurt Me Hurt Me". The Buzzy Bunch were her backing group, composed of only Soto and his studio musicians. "Superman" later became a hit for

Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet (incl ...

(#26, Hot 100). Bee's next album was ''Alternating Currents'' (1978). This featured the hits, "Macho (a Real Real One)", which made #23 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, "Hold Your Horses, Babe" which peaked at #72 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in June 1978, and "Coming Up Strong". The

album sleeve A record sleeve is the outer covering of a vinyl record. Alternative terms are ''dust sleeve'', ''album liner'' and ''liner''. The term is also used to denominate the outermost cardboard covering of a record, i.e. the ''record jacket'' or ''album ...

featured Bee alone without the Buzzy Bunch. Ullanda McCullough sang as a backing vocalist, and the

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

were

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestra ...

by Irving Spice. Her follow-up album, ''Fly Me on the Wings of Love'' 's title track peaked at #16 on the US Dance chart. The album also featured "Boomerang" and "For the Love of My Man", the former written by Bee. Her final album was ''Blow My Mind'' (1980), whose title track reached #29 in the US Dance chart. Around this time, Soto and Bee divorced. Like so many disco artists, the popularity of Celi Bee waned in the 1980s. However she did continue to record with sporadic singles like "I'm Free" (1983) and an album ''Like Water and Sand'' (1986). The disco albums she released have all been re-released on CD, firstly by Hot Productions and, more recently, on Disconnected. In February 2007, her

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

was issued by Disconnected.

Discography

Albums

Charted Singles

References

External links

Allmusic.comtributoaceli.tripod.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bee, Celi Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women singers American disco musicians American people of Puerto Rican descent Songwriters from New York (state)