MadamGoodnight said:

She still had her voice, and sounded great at the end. It was sad watching it. They had a lot of people who spoke on her life. It was good to see Will Downing on there. She was pretty, had an amazing voice, & I loved her sense of humor. RIP Vesta.

She did indeed sound great still. With all that she had been through, it's amazing that her voice seemed unaffected. She will truly be missed.

Just watched it during lunch. I enjoyed it. Reminded me of my crush I had on her. Such a sexy, funny lady. Always loved her personality.

My fave is "Sweet Sweet Love". I can understand the emotional connection that a lot of people have to "Congratulations", her performance is phenomenal, but SSL was my shit

missfee said:

scriptgirl said:

Really, Freddie was a diva, do tell.

I have to say, I would have loved to have met Vesta. She seemed cool as hell and I forgot about that commercial with Al Jarreau

Me too!

If I'm not mistaken, she was working here in Dallas doing mornning radio with Joe Soto and she ended up getting that commercial. She not only did mornings here in Dallas, but she also worked with Cliff Winston (who was in the piece) and the crew at ABC Radio. I have never heard one bad remark about her.

Like you guys, I enjoyed the episode. I hate they overlooked her biggest hit, "Special."

I wonder who was the artist at A&M that got the promotion? Janet maybe?

daPrettyman said:

Like you guys, I enjoyed the episode. I hate they overlooked her biggest hit, "Special."

I wonder who was the artist at A&M that got the promotion? Janet maybe?

That's very possible. Hell, very likely. Wasn't Sting first few solo records on A&M too though. I forgot about him.

Musicslave said:

daPrettyman said:

Like you guys, I enjoyed the episode. I hate they overlooked her biggest hit, "Special."

I wonder who was the artist at A&M that got the promotion? Janet maybe?

That's very possible. Hell, very likely. Wasn't Sting first few solo records on A&M too though. I forgot about him.

Yes, but I wouldn't think the pop budget would be the same as the r&b and black music budget.

Sting was a superstar-he didn't need the promotion. Not sure it was Janet

Is it me, or does Vivca Fox look like Madame!!???

[Edited 1/3/12 14:37pm]

scriptgirl said:

Sting was a superstar-he didn't need the promotion. Not sure it was Janet

Believe me, Sting DID need the promotion at the time. Every artist needs it to have hit records. Sting sold extremely well, but it wasn't due to a lack of promotion during that time.

Janet is the only artist that I can think of that was on A&M at the time was BIG on the urban side. Especially from 86 through 91. After 91, I'm not sure who A&M's big artist was. I wonder if they were promoting the Perspective projects more at that time?

G3000 said:

Is it me, or does Vivca Fox look like Madame!!???

[Edited 1/3/12 14:37pm]

I thought about that!! Especially after this last procedure/surgery she had.

Janet was the best-selling female act of A&M so it's possible it was her. Vesta just didn't have a chance when it came to that unfortunately.

When did A&M fold or dissolve into another label? I wonder why Vesta didn't go with Motown and what would have happened to her career if she had.

scriptgirl said:

When did A&M fold or dissolve into another label? I wonder why Vesta didn't go with Motown and what would have happened to her career if she had.

Sometime around 2002 or 2003...I think.

Timmy84 said:

Janet was the best-selling female act of A&M so it's possible it was her. Vesta just didn't have a chance when it came to that unfortunately.

After going through the list of former A&M acts on Wiki, Janet is the only logical choice that I can see.

G3000 said:

Is it me, or does Vivca Fox look like Madame!!???

daPrettyman said:

Timmy84 said:

Janet was the best-selling female act of A&M so it's possible it was her. Vesta just didn't have a chance when it came to that unfortunately.

After going through the list of former A&M acts on Wiki, Janet is the only logical choice that I can see.

Let's not kid ourselves. No way was Vesta going mainstream. She didn't have the image or the sounds. When Patti crossed over, it was for the popiest of pop tunes---not a depressing slow jam---one that I adore btw.

sosgemini said:

daPrettyman said:

After going through the list of former A&M acts on Wiki, Janet is the only logical choice that I can see.

Let's not kid ourselves. No way was Vesta going mainstream. She didn't have the image or the sounds. When Patti crossed over, it was for the popiest of pop tunes---not a depressing slow jam---one that I adore btw.

Good point.

http://thecelebritycafe.c...01-02-2012

Beautiful and talented lady. My friend Jeff Suttles, drummer for Vesta Williams, said she was in top form the last gig she ever performed.

RIP Vest Williams

[Edited 1/3/12 15:51pm]

sosgemini said:

daPrettyman said:

After going through the list of former A&M acts on Wiki, Janet is the only logical choice that I can see.

Let's not kid ourselves. No way was Vesta going mainstream. She didn't have the image or the sounds. When Patti crossed over, it was for the popiest of pop tunes---not a depressing slow jam---one that I adore btw.

If Vesta were to come out in the early 70's, she may have had the music career and recognition she was looking for. Instead she was always compared to a lot of the great and powerful female vocalist instead of being judge on her own merit. We are still talking about Teena Marie, Chaka, Aretha, etc.

It didn't help that Vanessa Williams also released The Right Stuff at the same time as Vesta. I'm sure there was only room for one crossover act to walk through the door and Vanessa had the key.

I'm sure the "white" side industry said, "we have our token," sorry Vesta next time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that was and still is the state of the music business, record, video and radio.

Timmy84 said:

Janet was the best-selling female act of A&M so it's possible it was her. Vesta just didn't have a chance when it came to that unfortunately.

It's more than possible. Janet was the reason. Vesta debuted the same year that "Control" took off. Vesta was lucky that "4U" did as well as it did at R&B radio in '88/'89 because A&M threw the majority of the promotion behind "Rhythm Nation". I remember seeing an interview with Vesta back in the day. She said before "Congratulations" was released as the third single, A&M wasn't interested in releasing any additional singles after the title track was issued as the second single (they were concentrating on Janet). Vesta wanted "Congrats" released as a single. The label told her if she insisted that was fine but if she wanted a music video to promote the song, she'd have to come up out of her own pocket to do it. And that's what she did. And thank goodness she did!

Janet was more video-friendly than Vesta and she wasn't a Soul-belter so Janet was way more easier and safer to cross-over to white audiences. You must remember, back in the 80's, R&B artists were strongly encouraged to have more of a Pop/Rock or Dance sound to be more attractive to white audiences. You know, not sound too black. Vesta was quite capable of singing Pop. In 1988, she did a couple of tunes for a soundtrack. "Wherever Loves Takes Me" and "The Sweet Side". 100% pure Pop. Nothing R&B about those songs. So, if A&M wanted to cross her over, they very easily could have. For whatever reasons, A&M just saw fit to develop Janet's career and not Vesta's. It happens all the time. It's the music business.

G3000 said:

sosgemini said:

Let's not kid ourselves. No way was Vesta going mainstream. She didn't have the image or the sounds. When Patti crossed over, it was for the popiest of pop tunes---not a depressing slow jam---one that I adore btw.

If Vesta were to come out in the early 70's, she may have had the music career and recognition she was looking for. Instead she was always compared to a lot of the great and powerful female vocalist instead of being judge on her own merit. We are still talking about Teena Marie, Chaka, Aretha, etc.

It didn't help that Vanessa Williams also released The Right Stuff at the same time as Vesta. I'm sure there was only room for one crossover act to walk through the door and Vanessa had the key.

I'm sure the "white" side industry said, "we have our token," sorry Vesta next time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that was and still is the state of the music business, record, video and radio.

That's the reason why, around that same time, Vesta dropped the "Williams" from her name because she said alot of the trade magazines were getting them confused because the names sounded too similiar.

G3000 said:

sosgemini said:

Let's not kid ourselves. No way was Vesta going mainstream. She didn't have the image or the sounds. When Patti crossed over, it was for the popiest of pop tunes---not a depressing slow jam---one that I adore btw.

If Vesta were to come out in the early 70's, she may have had the music career and recognition she was looking for. Instead she was always compared to a lot of the great and powerful female vocalist instead of being judge on her own merit. We are still talking about Teena Marie, Chaka, Aretha, etc.

It didn't help that Vanessa Williams also released The Right Stuff at the same time as Vesta. I'm sure there was only room for one crossover act to walk through the door and Vanessa had the key.

I'm sure the "white" side industry said, "we have our token," sorry Vesta next time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that was and still is the state of the music business, record, video and radio.

And the names you mentioned all had killer pop-ish songs that could cross over. Teena with Square Biz , Lovergirl, It Must Be Magic. Those are pop infused r&b. Chaka's Im Every Woman, Aretha's Freeway of Love, I Knew You Were Waiting, Who's Zooming Who. Did Vesta have anything that reached those levels?

A&M also promoted Shanice Wilson at the time. It wasn't all Janet's fault.

sosgemini said:

G3000 said:

If Vesta were to come out in the early 70's, she may have had the music career and recognition she was looking for. Instead she was always compared to a lot of the great and powerful female vocalist instead of being judge on her own merit. We are still talking about Teena Marie, Chaka, Aretha, etc.

It didn't help that Vanessa Williams also released The Right Stuff at the same time as Vesta. I'm sure there was only room for one crossover act to walk through the door and Vanessa had the key.

I'm sure the "white" side industry said, "we have our token," sorry Vesta next time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that was and still is the state of the music business, record, video and radio.

And the names you mentioned all had killer pop-ish songs that could cross over. Teena with Square Biz , Lovergirl, It Must Be Magic. Those are pop infused r&b. Chaka's Im Every Woman, Aretha's Freeway of Love, I Knew You Were Waiting, Who's Zooming Who. Did Vesta have anything that reached those levels?

Yeah you're right. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were in the "Janet Business."

[Edited 1/3/12 16:51pm]

btw, The person (@ A&M) that shall remain nameless......Al Cafaro

Also, A&M was preparing to be sold. I'm sure morale and dedication to the roster was at a all time low!

The PolyGram years

A&M was bought by PolyGram in 1989. Alpert and Moss continued to manage the label until 1993. The sale to PolyGram stipulated that Alpert and Moss had an integrity clause allowing them to control the label's image through 2009. In 1998, Alpert and Moss sued PolyGram for breach of the integrity clause.^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, A&M launched Perspective Records^[10] as a joint venture with producing team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jam and Lewis stepped down as CEO's of the imprint in 1997, but they remained on as consultants. In 1999, the label was absorbed into A&M. In the mid-1990s, A&M began distributing its PolyGram sister label Polydor Records in the USA.

During the 1990s, the company continued to release albums by Soundgarden, Extreme, Amy Grant, John Hiatt, Sting, Blues Traveler, Barry White, and Aaron Neville, as well as material from new artists Sheryl Crow, Therapy?, CeCe Peniston, and the Gin Blossoms. The company released the soundtracks Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Three Musketeers,Sabrina, The Living Sea, Demolition Man, and Lethal Weapon 3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...6M_Records

[Edited 1/3/12 16:59pm]

G, how do you know it was al?

kitbradley said:

G3000 said:

If Vesta were to come out in the early 70's, she may have had the music career and recognition she was looking for. Instead she was always compared to a lot of the great and powerful female vocalist instead of being judge on her own merit. We are still talking about Teena Marie, Chaka, Aretha, etc.

It didn't help that Vanessa Williams also released The Right Stuff at the same time as Vesta. I'm sure there was only room for one crossover act to walk through the door and Vanessa had the key.

I'm sure the "white" side industry said, "we have our token," sorry Vesta next time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that was and still is the state of the music business, record, video and radio.

That's the reason why, around that same time, Vesta dropped the "Williams" from her name because she said alot of the trade magazines were getting them confused because the names sounded too similiar.

I can see why she changed it.

scriptgirl said:

G, how do you know it was al?

See org note.

What a great episode. I literally laughed and got teary eyed. She had the most amazing personality, a natural born comedienne. So attractive too. God bless.

Herb Alpert was primarily responsible for signing r&b artists to A&M around this

time and when he left the roster just flat out died as they either weren't resigned(by the new staff)

or the artists went shopping elsewhere i.e Jeffrey Osborne with Arista. Janet eventually

signed with Virgin in 1992.

l