Judy Cheeks (born February 13, 1954) is an American

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and actress. In the 1970s and 1980s, she recorded as a soul and R&B singer, before releasing more

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

-oriented music in the 1990s. Cheeks performed with

Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo consisting of husband and wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by Ike Turner's band the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocal ...

as an Ikette. She also worked as a backing vocalist for various artists such as

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

Amanda Lear Amanda Lear (; born 1939) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and ...

, and

David Knopfler David Knopfler (born 27 December 1952) is a British singer-songwriter. He was born in Scotland and raised in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, from the age of two. Together with his older brother Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, and Pick Withers, he f ...

Life and career

Early life

Cheeks was born in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

on February 13 1954. She is the daughter of

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

singer Rev.

Julius Cheeks Rev. Julius "June" Cheeks (August 7, 1929January 27, 1981) was an American gospel singer, who enjoyed the majority of his success with The Sensational Nightingales. Biography In 1954, he became a preacher but continued performing full-time unti ...

Music career

Her debut album entitled ''Judy Cheeks'' was produced by

and recorded at their

Bolic Sound Bolic Sound Studios was a recording studio complex in Inglewood, California. It was built by musician Ike Turner in 1970, and remained in operation until it burned down in 1981. History As a young bandleader, Ike Turner had grown skeptical of the ...

studio in 1973. A tour with Ike & Tina Turner followed and she also performed as an Ikette. Cheeks moved to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1977 and recorded a duet with

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n singer

Udo Jürgens Udo Jürgens (born Jürgen Udo Bockelmann; 30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014) was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close ...

. Their performance on ''The

Rudi Carrell Rudi Carrell (born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar; 19 December 1934 – 7 July 2006) was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol, he was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active in ...

Show'' made Cheeks an overnight success in Europe. In 1978 she recorded "Mellow Lovin'" which became an international hit and reached No. 10 on the

Hot Dance Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

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 ...

. Her 1978

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

''Mellow Lovin' ''was produced by

Anthony Monn Anthony Monn (also known as Tony Monn, born March 17, 1944) is a German singer, composer, and record producer. Biography Monn started his career as a singer in the German schlager genre in the early 1970s. Among his best-known songs from tha ...

(best known for his work with

gay icon A gay icon is a public figure who is regarded as a cultural icon of some members of the LGBT community. The most widely recognized gay icons are often actresses and singers who garnered large LGBT fanbases, such as Judy Garland, Madonna, Diana Ros ...

) in

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

Musicland Studios Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany. It was established by Italian record producer, songwriter and performer Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s.

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. Cheeks wrote for

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record la ...

's publishing form

Jobete Music Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

The Jackson 5 The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...

recorded one of her songs "We're Gonna Change Our Style." She did a lot of session work for several major artist while sharpening her song writing skills. Cheeks appears as a

backing vocalist A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

for

Thelma Houston Thelma Houston ( Jackson; born May 7, 1946) Retrieved . is an American singer. Beginning her recording career in the late 1960s, Houston scored a number-one hit record in 1977 with her recording of " Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the Gramm ...

and

Jerry Butler Jerry Butler Jr. (born December 8, 1939) is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the Rhythm and blues, R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Rol ...

's album ''Just Thelma & Jerry'' (1977),

's ''

Once upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in the ...

'' (1977),

's album ''

Never Trust a Pretty Face ''Never Trust a Pretty Face'' is the third studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released by the West German label Ariola Records in 1979. The album included notable hit singles " The Sphinx" and " Fashion Pack (Studio 54)", and turned out a ...

'' (1979),

's soundtrack album '' The Woman In Red'' (1984), and on

Boney M. Boney M. was a German-Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's o ...

's album '' Ten Thousand Lightyears'' (1984). In 1986, Cheeks provided backing vocals on Alphaville's album ''

Afternoons in Utopia ''Afternoons in Utopia'' is the second album by German synth-pop band Alphaville, released in 1986 via Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986. A remastered and re-released version of the album, on both CD and v ...

''. Cheeks co-wrote and produced her solo album ''No Outsiders'', released by Polydor in 1987. In the same year, she appeared with Austrian band, Opus, on their self-titled album being co-vocalist on the song, "Givin' a Gift." Cheeks had a career resurgence in the 1990s, when she re-emerged with a string of dance

hits, including two No. 1s, "Respect" and "As Long As You're Good to Me", released on

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

's imprint Brilliant! in 1995. Her single " Reach" appeared on the ''Summer Hitmix 94'' CD released by

ZYX Records ZYX Music GmbH & Co. KG is a German record label that was founded in 1971 by Bernhard Mikulski. It is one of the most successful German record labels of the 1980s and 1990s. Until 1992, the label's name was Pop-Import Bernhard Mikulski. The labe ...

in Germany. A solo album, also titled ''Respect'', was released in 1996. In 2013, Cheeks wrote and co produced her own solo album, ''True Love is Free''. In 2018, she released her single and remixes of "Crying In The Rain"; a song she had written and first recorded by Randy Crawford as "When The Evening Comes". This was followed by the album ''Danger Zone''. In February 2019, Cheeks released a further album of original material, ''A Deeper Love''. In 2020, Cheeks released a new album of original material. "Love Dancin'" the title track was co-written with Stevie Wonder the album also includes a composition by Cheeks longtime friend Betty Wright "Safe In Your Arms." In 2020 she released the single "Within" followed by "Same Pain" in 2021 both in a more acoustic country style.

Other work

Cheeks acted in various movies and TV shows: She starred in her first movie ''Caribbean Rhapsody'' (''Caribia'', 1978) with

Rossano Brazzi Rossano Brazzi (18 September 1916 – 24 December 1994) was an Italian actor. Biography Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory. He was named after Rossano Vene ...

, filmed in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. 1980 ''La playa del amor'', 1984 ''

SOKO 5113 Soko ( sh-Cyrl, Соко) was a Yugoslav aircraft manufacturer based in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company was responsible for the production of many military aircraft for the Yugoslav Air Force. SOKO was created in 1950 by the rel ...

'' (TV series, episode: ''Tapetenwechsel''), and starred in one episode of the TV series ''Salzburger Nockerln'' in 1992. Cheeks is the author of ''Love and Honor'' about her late father Reverend Julius Cheeks.

Discography

Albums

* 1973: ''Judy Cheeks'' (United Artists) * 1978: ''Please Give Me This Night'' (Ariola) * 1978: ''Mellow Lovin (Ariola, Salsoul) *1979: ''Disco Cheeks'' (Koala) * 1983: ''Hard on the Heels of Love'' (Durium) * 1988: ''No Outsiders'' (Polydor) * 1996: ''Respect'' (EMI, Positiva) – #99 on the UK albums chart * 2013: ''True Love is Free'' (Mozan Music) * 2018: ''Danger Zone'' (Mozan Music) * 2019: ''A Deeper Love'' (Mozan Music) *2020: ''Love Dancin (Mozan Music)

Singles

Backing vocal credits

* 1977:

– ''

Thelma & Jerry ''Thelma & Jerry'' is Thelma Houston's fifth album, released in 1977 on Motown Records. It is the first of two vocal duet albums Houston did with Jerry Butler. It includes the R&B chart hit, "It's a Lifetime Thing." Track listing # "Only the Beg ...

'' * 1977:

– ''Once Upon A Time'' * 1979:

– ''Never Trust A Pretty Face'' * 1979: Patrick Gammon - ''Don't Touch Me'' * 1984:

Peter Hofmann Peter Hofmann (22 August 1944 – 30 November 2010) was a German tenor who had a successful performance career within the fields of opera, rock, pop, and musical theatre. He first rose to prominence as a heldentenor at the Bayreuth festival's ' ...

– ''Peter Hofmann 2'' ''(Ivory Man / Songs & Ballads)'' * 1984: Al Corley – ''Square Rooms'' * 1984:

Boney M Boney M. was a German- Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group' ...

. – '' Ten Thousand Lightyears'' * 1984:

– "

Love Light in Flight "Love Light in Flight" is a song written, produced, and performed by American R&B singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder. It was released in 1984, from '' The Woman in Red'' soundtrack. It peaked at number 4 on Billboard Black Singles, number 1 on the ...

" * 1985:

– ''Behind The Lines'' * 1986:

Limahl Christopher Hamill (born 19 December 1958), known professionally as Limahl (an anagram of Hamill), is an English pop singer. He was the lead singer of the pop group Kajagoogoo beginning in 1981, before embarking on a brief solo career, garnering ...

– ''

Colour All My Days ''Colour All My Days'' is the second solo album by the English singer Limahl, released on EMI Records in 1986. Overview Following the international success of "The NeverEnding Story", the main theme to the film of the same name, in 1986, Limah ...

'' * 1986:

Kissing The Pink Kissing the Pink are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in London in 1980. The current members are lead singer and guitarist Nick Whitecross, keyboardist Jon Kingsley Hall, second keyboardist George Stewart, and guitarist Simon ...

– ''Certain Things Are Likely'' * 1986: Alphaville – ''Afternoons In Utopia'' * 1989:

James Reyne James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian rock musician and singer-songwriter both in solo work and, until 1986, with the band Australian Crawl. Biography Early years Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Ro ...

– ''

Hard Reyne ''Hard Reyne'' is the second solo album by Australian singer/songwriter James Reyne. It was released in May 1989 and peaked at number 7 on the ARIA Charts. The album produced four singles, " House of Cards", "One More River", "Trouble in Paradi ...

'' * 1991: Jackie Quinn – ''Don't Force The River'' * 1992:

Sergio Dalma Josep Sergi Capdevila Querol (born 28 September 1964), professionally known as Sergio Dalma, is a Spanish singer. He is one of Spain's best-selling recording artists, having topped Spain's official Productores de Música de España national albu ...

– ''Adivina'' * 1993: The Creeps – ''Seriouslessness''

References

External links

Official website
*
Judy Cheeks
on

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeks, Judy 1954 births Living people American disco musicians American dance musicians American house musicians American women singers Musicians from Miami United Artists Records artists Salsoul Records artists Ariola Records artists Dureco artists Polydor Records artists EMI Records artists Positiva Records artists Ike & Tina Turner members

Life and career

Early life

Music career

Other work

Discography

Albums

Singles

Backing vocal credits

See also

References

External links