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Sylvia Robinson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Sylvia Robinson, born Sylvia Vanterpool, was an American singer and producer from Harlem, New York. She was born in 1935, left school at fourteen and recorded from 1950 as Little Sylvia. The guitarist Mickey Baker taught her to play guitar. As the duo Mickey & Sylvia they had a big hit in 1957 with Love Is Strange. After that she also began working behind the scenes. She produced records and played guitar on It's Gonna Work Out Fine by Ike & Tina Turner.

Music and breakthrough

With her husband Joe Robinson she started the soul label All Platinum in New Jersey, where she wrote and produced hits for, among others, The Moments, such as Love on a Two-Way Street. In 1972 she wrote Pillow Talk for Al Green. He did not want to sing it for religious reasons, so she recorded it herself. In 1973 it became a big hit under the name Sylvia: a sultry soul record with sighs and moans, before Donna Summer did the same.

Influence

Her greatest influence came with the label Sugar Hill Records. In 1979 she put together The Sugarhill Gang and produced Rapper's Delight, one of the first hip hop records to have commercial success. In 1982 she insisted that Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record a song about the hard life in the neighbourhood. That is how The Message came about, one of the most influential songs in hip hop. She is therefore sometimes called the mother of hip hop. She died in 2011 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Pillow Talk from 1973. Notice the relaxed, danceable soul groove and Sylvia's whispering, sighing vocals.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists