High Fashion -

High Fashion was an American soul-funk trio that released the 1982/83 albums Feelin’ Lucky and Make Up Your Mind on Capitol Records.

Members: Alyson Williams (1982-83), Eric MacClinton (1982-83), Meli’sa Morgan (1982), Marcella Allen (vocals, 1983)

Background

High Fashion formed in 1982 in New York when producer Jacques Fred Petrus assembled vocalists Alyson Williams, Meli’sa Morgan, and Erick McClinton for Little Macho Music. Michael Murphy, who ran the Little Macho Music New York office with Petrus, devised the name High Fashion.

Williams and Morgan first met in 1977 through Hal Jackson’s Talented Teen International Scholarship Competition. Williams grew up in a musical New York household as the daughter of trumpeter and bandleader Bobby Booker. She completed the Record Industry Training Program at the Institute of New Cinema Artists. In early 1982, Williams sang lead for a Russell Simmons production by Orange Krush, “Action.”

At age nine, Morgan joined the Starlets of Corona gospel choir in Queens. At John Bowne High School, she became lead singer of Business Before Pleasure. She toured Canada with the group for eighteen months after graduation. Producer Patrick Adams later hired Morgan for New York sessions. In early 1982, she stepped into the lead spot on the Shades of Love track “Keep in Touch (Body to Body).” Morgan also studied theory and composition at the Juilliard School.

In 1969, McClinton formed Eric & the Vikings with Phillip Taylor and Clifford Moore at Mackenzie High School in Detroit. Eric & the Vikings followed the 1970 Soul Hawk single “Vibrations (Made Us Fall in Love)” with the 1972/73 Gordy singles “It’s Too Much for a Man to Take Too Long” and “I’m Truly Yours.” In 1979, McClinton sang on the Mike Theodore Orchestra album High on Mad Mountain.

Through New York studio sessions, the three vocalists came into contact with Petrus and producer-arranger Mauro Malavasi. Petrus paired them as High Fashion and brought the group to Capitol Records. High Fashion released “Feelin’ Lucky Lately” on Capitol in March 1982 (b/w “Brainy Children”). The group then prepared a June 1982 release for the debut album Feelin’ Lucky.

Discography: