- Crystal Waters
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For the village, see Crystal Waters, Queensland.
Crystal Waters Born October 10, 1964 Origin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Genres Dance-pop
Disco house
Urban
Club/DanceOccupations Singer-songwriter Instruments Vocals Years active 1987–present Labels Mercury Records (1991–1998), Strictly Rhythm (2000–2003), Defected Records (2006–present) Website Official website Crystal Waters (born October 10, 1964) is an American dance music singer and songwriter.
Contents
Childhood and young adult life
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Waters is the daughter of Betty and Junior Waters, a famed jazz musician; her great aunt, Ethel Waters, was one of the first African-American vocalists to appear in mainstream Hollywood musicals. The family lived in New Jersey for a while but they again moved to Washington, D.C.. At age eleven she began writing poetry and took her writing seriously enough to be inducted into the American Poetry Society when she was 14, the youngest person ever to receive that honor.
She studied business and computer science at Howard University, but her creative work dropped off as she found less time for it. After earning her college degree in 1985, Waters secured a job as a computer technician with the Washington, D.C. parole board, making a living that would support her two children.
Music career
Waters first approached the music world in 1987 as a behind-the-scenes worker, writing demos for a production team known as the Basement Boys, securing a writing contract with Mercury Records in 1989 and began penning songs for recording artists.
In one of her assignments Waters penned a song called "Gypsy Woman" for dance diva Ultra Nate and recorded a demo cut herself of the song. The producers were so taken by her rendition that they drew up a recording contract with her for that one song, never passing it on to Ultra Nate.
The song became a worldwide hit, memorable for its "la da dee, la dee da" refrain and its often sampled keyboard riff. The track reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and found even more success in Europe, reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Scarcely a year after its release, a new version turned up on the Red Hot Organization's Red Hot + Dance AIDS fundraiser disc (1992, distributed by Sony Music), gaining its remixer (Joey Negro) his first real American exposure.
Despite some additional contributions by remixer Steve "Silk" Hurley, Waters' next releases were promoted only in the dance music markets, but she made an unexpected mainstream comeback in 1994 when the song "100% Pure Love" hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the longest charting singles on the Hot 100 at 45 weeks ("Gypsy Woman" remained on the chart for an average 16 weeks). Along with the single, the singer released her second album Storyteller, which sold over 284,000 copies in United States.[1]
In 1996, Waters participated in the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing the song "The Boy From Ipanema".
Her 1997 self-titled album included another Top 40 US hit, "Say...If You Feel Alright," but mainstream success in the US has since eluded her. However, Waters remains successful on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay charts with recent hits like "Come On Down" and "My Time," both of which peaked at #1, the latter making top 40 in the UK. "Gypsy Woman"'s keyboard-chord was recently sampled on rapper T.I.'s 2006 mega-hit "Why You Wanna."
Also, as a side project, Crystal Waters wrote and voiced a single called "Right and Exact" under the alias Chrissy Ward in 1998.
In 2007 Waters finally embarked on a world tour, performing sold out shows in Russia, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Dubai, among other locations. Also that year her track "Destination Calabria" hit the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
In May 2008, Waters issued the single "Dancefloor", giving Waters yet another Top 10 Dance hit.
"Never Enough" hit #20 on the US Dance Charts in February 2009.
In popular culture
The song "Gypsy Woman" was parodied in the memorable sketch "My Songs Are Mindless (I Should Be Homeless)" (performed by Kim Wayans) on the television series In Living Color in late 1991. Wayans skewered the song's simple rhythm and melody by singing "Hey look at that it's Fred and the Flintstones! That's a song now, I got a song now: Yabba Dabba Doo Yabba Dabba Da, Yabba Dabba Doo Yabba Dabba Da...." The clip from the comedy show would later sometimes show up mixed into Waters' own composition at gay clubs with video screens, showing Waters had a sense of humor about it.
Discography
Studio albums
- Surprise (1991)
- Storyteller (1994)
- Crystal Waters (1997)
Compilation albums
- The Best of Crystal Waters (1998)
- Gypsy Woman - The Collection (2001)
- 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Crystal Waters (2001)
Singles
"-" indicates that the record was not released in that market, did not chart, or that info is unknown.
Year Song U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Dance UK Australian singles chart Album 1991 "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Strip To The Bone Radio Edit) 8 1 2 11 Surprise "Makin' Happy" (Hurley's Happy House 7") - 1 18 - 1992 "Surprise" (UK 7" Edit) - 35 - - "Megamix" - - 39 - 12"/CD single, featuring songs from Surprise "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Joey Negro's Mindmix) - - 35 - Red Hot + Dance / Double A-side with Sabrina Johnson's "Peace" 1993 "You Turn Me On" - - - - Encino Man Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1994 "100% Pure Love" (Radio Mix) 11 1 15 2 Storyteller "What I Need" (LP Radio Edit) (double A-side with "Ghetto Day" in the UK) 82 1 40 - "Ghetto Day" (Radio Mix) (double A-side with "What I Need" in the UK) - - 40 - 1995 "Relax" (Vission Lorimer Radio Mix) - 1 37 - 1996 "In De Ghetto" (1996 Radio Mix) (Bad Yard Club featuring Crystal Waters) - 20 35 - 12"/CD single "The Boy From Ipanema" - - - - Red Hot + Rio 1997 "The Boy From Ipanema" - - - - 12"/CD single "Say... If You Feel Alright" (Jam & Lewis Radio) 40 6 45 - Crystal Waters "Just a Freak" (Radio) (featuring Dennis Rodman) - 13 - - 2001 "Come on Down" (S.Y.B. Radio Mix) - 1 - - 12"/CD single "Enough" (Original Club Mix) - - - - 12" single "Night in Egypt" (Radio Mix) (Sunseeker featuring Crystal Waters) - - - - 12"/CD single 2003 "My Time" (Radio Edit) (Dutch featuring Crystal Waters) - 1 22 18 12"/CD single 2004 "Destination Unknown" (Radio Edit) (Alex Gaudino featuring Crystal Waters) - - - 98 12"/CD single "Lies" - - - - Listen Vision: DJ Boom Electro Compilation, samples Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies" 2007 "Destination Calabria" (Alex Gaudino featuring Crystal Waters) - 8 4 3 12"/CD single, Mashup of 2004's Destination Unknown and Calabria by Rune. 2008 "Dancefloor" (Speakerbox Radio Edit)(Crystal Waters vs. Speakerbox) - 9 - - 12"/CD single 2009 "Never Enough" - 20 - - 12"/CD single 2011 "Say Yeah" (featuring Fred Pellichero) - - - - 12"/CD single Awards and nominations
Year Award 1991 American Music Award nomination for Favorite Artist - Dance 1991 American Music Award nomination for Favorite Single - Dance ("Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)") 1991 American Music Award nomination for Favorite New Artist - Dance 1994 Billboard Music Award Won for Top-Selling Hot Dance Music Club Play Single for "100% Pure Love" 1994 Billboard Music Award nomination for Top Hot Dance Music Maxi-Singles Sales Artist 1994 Billboard Music Award nomination for Top Hot Dance Music Maxi-Single Sales for "100% Pure Love" 1994 Billboard Music Award nomination for Top Hot Dance Music Club Play Artist 1994 MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Dance Video ("100% Pure Love") See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
- ^ Paoletta, Michael (2004-05-01) "Where Have All The Divas Gone?" Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) Retrieved 2011-03-16.
External links
Compilations The Best of Crystal Waters · 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Crystal WatersSingles Associated artists Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- African American singers
- American dance musicians
- American female singers
- American house musicians
- American pop singers
- American rhythm and blues singers
- American singer-songwriters
- People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Musicians from Pennsylvania
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