Interviews include Womack, Atlantic Starr, Sheila E., Freddie and Millie Jackson
Ever wonder what really happened with Bobby Womack and Sam Cooke’s wife? Whatever happened to Whodini? Was Freddie Jackson really gay? What childhood secret did Sheila E. grapple with? Did Vesta Williams’ life have to end so tragically?
These questions and more will be answered on the new season of TV One’s music documentary show, “Unsung.”
Williams, who died tragically at age 53 last year, gave her last televised interview to TV One, and she’s the first profile that aired Monday night. This year’s slate of “Unsung” profiles is a wide-ranging group of musicians from different eras, genres and backgrounds.
“There’s no better way for TV One to say Happy New Year to our viewers than with new episodes of ‘Unsung,’” said Toni Judkins, executive vice president of original programming for TV One. “We are honored that ‘Unsung’ has become a beloved classic and are confident that these talented artists and their stories will resonate with our viewers and continue to build on ‘Unsung’s’ legacy of helping to paint a richer portrait of black music in America.”
The show has already profiled a multitude of artists – from DeBarge and Donny Hathaway to Tammi Terrell to Teddy Pendergras, revealing new insights about each artist and their careers. So many of the artists featured on “Unsung” made songs their fans loved, but those fans had little information about the struggles taking place behind the scenes. This year’s group should provide fans with even more shocking details and intimate revelations about the artists they love.
The following is the list of “Unsung” profiles slated for this season. “Unsung” airs on Monday nights at 10 p.m. on TV One.
Vesta Williams
With a four-octave range, Vesta Williams charged through the ‘80s, from an A-list backup singer who recorded with the likes of Gladys Knight, Anita Baker, and Sting to a hit-making diva. Her 1986 debut album included two top 10 singles, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and “Don’t Blow a Good Thing,” while her follow-up produced the classic, “Congratulations.”
But Williams’ surging stardom overwhelmed her, and she comforted herself with drugs and food. Her weight ballooned, she was dropped by major labels, and her career seemed over. But Williams vowed to clean up her act. She got sober, lost over 100 pounds and kept her musical muscles limber working with artists like George Duke, Howard Hewitt and Lee Ritenour.
Last year, as she completed the definitive profile of her life for “Unsung,” Williams suddenly died in her sleep, at age 53.
Bobby Womack (Jan. 9)
He’s been called the Poet, the Preacher, and the last soul man. By whatever name, there’s never been anyone quite like Womack, who has lived an eventful life that mirrored the painful dramas of his classic songs. As Sam Cooke’s protégé, the guitar-playing and songwriting prodigy penned his first number-one hit, “It’s All Over Now,” as a teenager. But within months of Cooke’s shocking murder in 1964, the 21-year-old Womack married Cooke’s widow, Barbara. He became a pariah among former fans, a target for violence by Cooke’s brothers, and was all but banned from the record industry.
Womack emerged in the 1970s and ‘80s as a singer-songwriter of uncommon range, penning soulful standards, from “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha” to “Across 110th Street” to “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” Then, an astonishing string of tragedies sent his life and career into a tailspin.
Atlantic Starr (Jan. 16)
Atlantic Starr made its mark with slow grooves like “Secret Lovers” and the wedding classic “Always.” The band had its roots as a close-knit group of nine friends and family members, hailing from a small town in upstate New York. With help from Commodores producer James Anthony Carmichael and songs written by group members David and Wayne Lewis, they shot to stardom with “When Love Calls” and “Circles,” both featuring singer Sharon Bryant. But the band’s sheer size, and the fight for control within it, led to conflicts which ultimately split the group. Bryant was replaced by Barbara Weathers after which Atlantic Starr achieved its greatest success with “Always.”
In this episode of “Unsung,” members of Atlantic Starr, past and present, come together for the first time to discuss candidly the rise and fall of a band whose bonds of friendship frayed.
Freddie Jackson (Jan. 23)
Freddie Jackson’s soulful ballads are the stuff of intimate encounters. But his nine number-one hits, including “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)” and “You Are My Lady,” didn’t help him overcome his struggles with weight or questions about his sexuality. In the 1980s, Jackson helped catapult the Hush Productions sound to the R&B forefront, but when the hits ran out, he found himself facing financial ruin. In this episode, Jackson and his closest collaborators, including Melba Moore and Me’lissa Morgan, chart his popular success and his personal struggles.
Full Force (Jan. 30)
For more than three decades, the pioneering three-brother, three-cousin collective known as Full Force have broken ground as writers, producers and performers, launching the careers of pop stars as diverse as Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, the Backstreet Boys and Cheryl “Pepsii” Riley, and reviving the career of the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. But behind the scenes, the band members have battled career ups and downs, along with health issues that have almost killed one of them.
Millie Jackson (Feb. 6)
Millie Jackson’s voice was enough to make her an R&B singing star, but it was what she said between songs – and how she said it – that made her famous. Tackling topics previously considered taboo – and with unrivaled comic timing – she spoke to a generation of young Black women who didn’t often hear themselves represented on TV or on the radio. Years later, Millie Jackson’s place in music history grew when the first wave of female hip-hop stars anointed her the godmother of rap. Now, some of the artists she’s influenced, including Roxanne Shante’ and Da Brat, join in telling her story.
Ray Parker, Jr. (Feb. 13)
Whether singing, playing guitar, or crafting smooth-sailing hits like “Jack and Jill,” “The Other Woman” or “You Can’t Change That,” Parker was an obsessive musician – a guitarist who’d cut his teeth with Motown’s house band, the Funk Brothers as a teenager and later played with Stevie Wonder and Barry White. Parker wrote hits for White and Chaka Khan, but after being denied credits for Leo Sayer’s Grammy-winning hit, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” he considered suicide. Ironically, when he did win a Grammy – for “Ghostbusters” – he was accused of plagiarizing someone else’s hit. Baby mama drama, family loss, and an ill-advised decision to leave Arista Records accelerated Parker’s slide from the charts. He shares the lessons he’s learned.
Sheila E. and the Family (Feb. 20)
While the Jacksons and Debarge define often dysfunctional family singing groups, the Escovedos are something else: A family that learned how to stay together by playing together.
Even before Sheila E. garnered international celebrity with Prince for 1980s mega hits “The Glamorous Life” and “A Love Bizarre,” her family members were acclaimed musicians, with associations including Santana, Tito Puente, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonderand Marvin Gaye. But her stardom created new problems and exacerbated old ones.
David Ruffin (Feb. 27)
David Ruffin was the center of The Temptations in their peak years. But his expanding ego forced his bandmates to cut ties with him in 1968. And with only one significant solo hit, “My Whole World Ended,” Ruffin never again reached the heights he’d enjoyed as the leader of The Temps. Ruffin was a talented but tortured soul, capable of kindness and generosity. But drug abuse wore him down in the 1970s and ‘80s, costing him precious opportunities to reunite with friends and former bandmates and damaging his relationships with those closest to him.
Less than two years after joining The Temptations onstage for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ruffin was found dead from an apparent drug overdose at the age 50.
Whodini (March 5)
The rap trio of Jalil Hutchins, John Fletcher (aka Ecstasy) and Drew Carter (aka Grandmaster Dee) dominated the Billboard charts to become one of rap music’s first superstar acts. Along with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, LL Cool J, Run-DMC and The Fat Boys, they helped define hip-hop’s golden age with platinum success. On hits like “Friends,” “Big Mouth” and “Five Minutes of Funk,” Whodini mastered the difficult trick of making dancable music that was reflective and thoughtful.
But along with the perks of success, Whodini battled cocaine addictions, squabbles over money and clashing egos, which ultimately caused the group to break up. For “Unsung,” Whodini’s members tell the story of a fun-loving, trailblazing brotherhood who has survived three decades of wild ups and downs
