Peaches & Herb

'Peaches & Herb are a vocalist duo, once comprising Herb Fame, and Francine "Peaches" Hurd Barker (April 28, 1947 - August 13, 2005). Herb has remained a constant in "Peaches & Herb" since its creation in 1967, while five different women have filled the role of "Peaches".

History

Herb Fame (born Herbert Feemster, October 1, 1942, in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.), sang in church and neighborhood groups as a child. After graduation from high school, he worked in a local record store, where he eventually met record producer Van McCoy. McCoy agreed to let Fame audition, and decided to record him with Francine Barker, the lead singer of another group he was producing. The duo impressed McCoy so much that he released singles to local radio stations.

Francine "Peaches" Barker (so nicknamed by her mother as a newborn because of her fuzzy, "peach-like" cheeks) was born in 1947 in Washington, D.C. Before joining with Herb, Peaches started her own singing group, The Sweet Things. Peaches & Herb had a string of successful singles in the next two years with the songs "Let's Fall in Love", "Close Your Eyes" (a #8 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967, and also their debut single), "For Your Love", and "Love Is Strange". Despite the duo's burgeoning success, Barker chose to leave the duo because of the rigours of touring. During this time she also worked as a solo artist. One of their more popular tunes was "Angels in the Sky" released on Columbia Records.

Marlene Mack initially replaced Barker for touring, becoming the second of the five "Peaches"; however Barker's voice remained on the albums. The new duo continued to chart with such singles as "Two Little Kids" and "When He Touches Me". However their popularity began to fade. Depressed by the slumping prospects of his partnership with Mack, Fame chose to retire from the music industry in 1970, after which time he got a job at the Washington, D.C. police department.

"Peaches & Herb" thus lay dormant until Fame decided to re-enter the music business in 1976. In his search for a new "Peaches", Feemster again enlisted the assistance of Van McCoy, who suggested that Linda Greene would be suitable for the position. Fame met Greene and concurred, leading to the formation of the most successful of the "Peaches & Herb" incarnations.

Their first album "Peaches & Herb" was recorded for MCA Records and produced by McCoy but it generated no hits. They swiched labels to MVP/Polydor and released "2 Hot", which went gold. It contained the songs "Shake Your Groove Thing" which peaked at #5, on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1979, and "Reunited", the follow-up single, which reached #1 on both the Hot 100 and the Billboard R&B chart. It was also a chart-topper in Canada. "Reunited" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1980.

Unable to repeat the success of "2 Hot" with their subsequent albums, Greene and Fame decided to retire their partnership in 1983.

Fame again chose to revive his entertainment career in 1990, with the help of a fourth "Peaches" - Patrice Hawthorne. She is now the bandleader of her own orchestra. Nevertheless, Fame retained his job with the police department. Although some suggested that Fame's position with the police demonstrated a somewhat less than serious approach to his professional music career, his unstable financial situation was the result of unpaid royalties. In 2001, Fame and Greene hired Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation who introduced them to music industry attorneys Oren Warshavsky and Steven Ames Brown. The attorneys brought a lawsuit against MVP Records, which was, at that time, headed by Christine Perren. Under cross examination at trial by Warshavsky, Perren broke down in tears after Warshavsky pointed out a series of contradictions in MVP's defense. The result was that Fame and Greene received royalties and were entitled to significant income, as well as reinstatement of certain rights. [ [http://www.pr-inside.com/entertainment-blog/2007/05/21/peaches-amp-herb-sue-film-firm Pr-inside.com] ] Fame was then able to leave the police and focus again on his music career. [ [http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/05/19/2007-05-19_kid_flick_sued_for_shaking_groove_thing.html Nydailynews,com] ]

Legacy

Today most people are familiar with the duo because of the continued popularity of the disco song "Shake Your Groove Thing", which has featured prominently in many films such as "An Extremely Goofy Movie", "Monster", "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", "Connie and Carla" and "Marock," [ [http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=18407828&cpersonne=126870.html Allocine.fr] ] as well as in an advertisement campaign by Intel in the late 1990s.

ee also

*Music of Washington, D.C.
*List of Soul Train episodes (seasons 1-9)
*List of artists who reached number one in the United States
*List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
*List of Polydor Records artists
*List of performers on Top of the Pops
*List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart

References

* [http://www.discomuseum.com/PeachesandHerb.html Peaches & Herb at Disco Museum]

External links

* [http://www.peachesandherb.com Peaches & Herb Official Site]
* [http://www.legacyrecordings.com/Peaches-and-Herb.aspx Peaches and Herb recordings at Legacy Recordings]
* [http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=18407828&cpersonne=126870.html Morjana Alaoui: Marock - bande annonce] , AlloCiné fr icon