Nancy Baron is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

singer who was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the early 1960s, known for the singles "Where Did My Jimmy Go?" and "I've Got A Feeling".

Early life

Born into a family of singers and writers, Baron was introduced to many musical genres by her family at an early age. Noting her singing talents, her parents brought their young child to auditions for

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

productions in

. The singer joined

Glee club A glee club in the United States is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it w ...

s at school and formed her own female singing groups at school. At the age of 11, she heard her first "Rock and Roll" song. This affected her taste in music and desire to emulate the style; it was the first time she heard a Rock group with a female lead singer. This was significant since she realized that she could be a lead singer.

Recording career

At the age of 15, her parents sent her for vocal coaching in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, N.Y. After a while her coach sent her to record a demonstration record in a sound studio near

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. Upon hearing her sing, the sound engineer contacted his friend who was a producer of a small record company in N.Y.C.; he was impressed by her voice and immediately signed her to a contract. The singer's mother co-signed the document since Baron was a fifteen-year-old minor at the time. Baron became one of the many

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

/girl sound singers of the early 1960s. Baron was not a member of a group; her producers would hire "pay for hire" backup groups for her recordings. This "sound" as it is referred to had much to do with

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

, one of its major creators; Spector produced recordings of this genre prolifically. The groups were composed of young adult or teenage girls, each with a lead singer and any number of back up singers. At the time, the troubled label (a small N.Y.C. record company owned by Wally Zober) could not promote Baron's "I've Got A Feeling"/"Oh Yeah" 45 vinyl and so she eventually signed a contract with Jerry Goldstein producer of FGG productions, also located in Manhattan. "Where Did My Jimmy Go"/"Tra la la, I Love You" was the result (Diamond).

Later life

Baron left the music industry at the age of 19, choosing to enter higher education due to changes in the music industry of those days; she eventually received an advanced degree. Baron's "I've Got a Feeling" was covered by

The Secret Sisters The Secret Sisters are an Americana singing and songwriting duo consisting of vocalists Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle. The duo's music has been compared to artists like the Everly Brothers. History Beginnings Laura and Lydia Rogers are sisters ...

on their 2010 self-titled album as well as being released as a single. AllMusic describes Baron's song as "an early-'60s pop/rock obscurity"."Secret Sisters". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/secret-sisters-r1940135/review Accessed January 8, 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron, Nancy Living people American women rock singers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women