Vicki Sue Robinson ~ Turn The Beat Around 1976 Disco Purrfection Version

Vicki Sue! This song made me love disco with its wonderfully intoxicating beat sounding fresh, vibrant and really kick ass. Vicki Sue has Broadway performing experience and it shows in the way she makes this song hers by the expressiveness of her voice. The galloping beat and the latin feel proved irresistible and peaked at #1 for four weeks in March of 1976 on the Disco/Dance chart and then topping out at #10 on the pop chart in June 1976.

Vicki was born May 31, 1954 in Harlem, NY to Bill and Marianne Robinson and raised in Philadelphia, PA. By the age of ten, her family had already moved back to New York. She began performing at the age of 6 and was bitten by show bug. She made her professional performing debut at the age of 16 in "Hair" while still in high school.

She moved quickly from one gig to the next by performing in Off Broadway productions and appearted in several films before she joined the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. That got her an invitation to work with Todd Rundgren on his Something, Anything LP that broke him with the single "Hello, Its Me".

Producer Warren Schatz saw her work in the studio and invited her to cut some demos with a cover of the Foundations hit "Baby, Now That I've Found You" that was issued as a single but sank without a trace. RCA, to their credit forged on and prepared for her debut album and the smash disco tune "Turn The Beat Around" in 1976. It peaked at #1 on the disco chart in March of 1976 and then took off on radio eventually peaking at #10 on the Hot100.

This was proof that the clubs were breaking songs and influencing the pop charts. She had a hard time trying to top this one, and almost did with "Hold Tight" a #2 disco hit. Anyway, we lost our beloved Vicki Sue On April 27, 2000, eleven days after the release of her last album. Robinson died of cancer at her home in Wilton, Connecticut. I Never saw an extended version of this one, so I thought I would dip into the catnip to see what I could come up with. Hope you like this one!