Lady Flash

Lady Flash was an American soul-pop vocal trio that released the album Beauties in the Night on RSO in 1976. The group also provided vocal backing for Barry Manilow, who produced and co-wrote the album.

Members: Debra Byrd, Lorraine Mazzola, Monica Burruss

Background

Lady Flash formed when Barry Manilow embarked on a talent search of female singers. The resulting trio merged stage singer Debra Byrd with soul-pop veterans Lorraine Mazzola and Monica Burruss.

Lorraine Mazzola emerged first in 1965 in Reparata and the Delrons, a white Brooklyn girl group that scored a 1968 European hit with “Captain of Your Ship,” a Kenny Young number later covered by Bette Bright & The Illuminations.

Monica Burruss came out of The Voices of East Harlem, a youth vocal ensemble that cut four albums between 1970 and 1974. They sang to a standing ovation at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and scored a 1973 R&B hit, “Giving Love,” from their self-titled third album, produced by Curtis Mayfield.

Debra Byrd brought formal training and stage experience. She studied voice in Cleveland from age twelve, sang in church and school ensembles, and learned stage craft at Karamu Theater before leaving Kent State for New York. There she answered a Backstage notice for Manilow’s new female vocal group, auditioned, and entered his camp at the start of her national career.

Manilow first assembled the act as the Flashy Ladies during his breakthrough period. Lorraine Mazzola was the first recruit. Byrd and Ramona Brooks came in through auditions. Brooks left for solo work in 1976, and Burruss took the third slot before the trio cut its own album. Colloquially, they were sometimes referenced as Oreo, an ode to the cookie brand and the black-white-black composition of the trio (years before controversies circled that term).

Under the Lady Flash name, Byrd, Mazzola, and Burruss served on Manilow tours, television appearances, and studio dates. Manilow secured them an RSO/Polydor deal.

Beauties in the Night

Lady Flash released their singular album, Beauties in the Night, in August 1976 on RSO.

Three-part harmony sits at the front of a piano-led studio set shaped for trio blend, solo features, and short-form song structure. Pianist Barry Manilow anchors the charts. Guitarists Keith Loving and Richard Resnicoff answer across a rhythm bed from bassist Steve Donaghey, drummer Lee Gurst, and conguero Carlos Martin. Strings and horns widen selected titles through charts by Frank Owens and Gerald Alters. Monica Burruss takes the solo on “Never Gonna Let You Get Away.” Lorraine Mazzola fronts “Arms of Mary,” and Debra Byrd carries “Buried in the Ruins of Love.”

A1. “The Thunderbolt” (3:59) — Manilow, Adrienne Anderson
A2. “Street Singin’” (3:29) — Manilow, Anderson
A3. “Never Gonna Let You Get Away” (3:37) — Manilow
A4. “Medley: Green Plant / Right Now If You Believe” (5:28) — Mitch Margo, Philip Margo, Hank Medress, Jay Siegel / J.C. White

B1. “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” (3:02) — Count Basie, Jon Hendricks
B2. “Nowhere to Run” (2:55) — was a 1965 Motown hit for Martha & The Vandellas, written by Holland–Dozier–Holland.
B3. “Arms of Mary” (2:08) — originated as a UK No. 5 hit by the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver from their 1975 album Speak to the Sky, written by Iain Sutherland.
B4. “Buried in the Ruins of Love” (3:05) — Manilow
B5. “Upfront” (3:19) — Manilow, Bruce Sussman

Lady Flash recorded Beauties in the Night in 1976 with co-producers Barry Manilow and Ron Dante and engineer Michael DeLugg. Manilow arranged the album, shared piano duty with Frank Owens, and supplied the horn writing on “Street Singin’” and “Nowhere to Run.”

Beauties in the Night appeared in a sleeve designed by veteran English art director John Kosh, credited on prior sleeves for Curved Air (Second Album), Family (Bandstand), King Crimson (Red), Rory Gallagher (Blueprint), and Stackridge (Man In the Bowler Hat). On Beauties, Lady Flash pose in bodysuits and red capes on a cityscape soundstage for photographer David Alexander, whose visuals also grace 1975/76 covers for Buddy Miles, Freddie Hubbard, Hugh Masekela, Nancy Wilson, Ohio Players, and Parliament. The sensual dim-lit color scheme resembles the 1976 red Vibration album by Sylvia Robinson.

On June 30, 1976, RSO issued “Street Singin’” as an advance single (b/w “Hypnotizin’”). It reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Hypnotizin’,” written by Barry Manilow and Enoch Anderson, did not appear on the album.

That autumn, RSO lifted “Never Gonna Let You Get Away” as a second single (b/w “Nowhere to Run”). Monica Burruss sings lead on the album cut.

Postlude

Lady Flash’s run with Barry Manilow carried through the second half of the 1970s, then the three singers split into separate careers. Debra Byrd built the widest later profile. She moved into session and stage work, joined the Broadway production of The Lion King, taught at Musicians Institute, and later became a long-serving vocal coach on American Idol, Canadian Idol, and The Voice. Byrd died in Los Angeles on March 5, 2024, at age seventy-two.

Monica Burruss Pege moved toward solo and television exposure after the trio years. In 1984 she won the female-vocalist grand championship on the first season of Star Search. She later rejoined Manilow’s performance circle for his Las Vegas engagements between 2004 and 2010.

Lorraine Mazzola carried the Reparata name into her later work after the legal dispute over that stage identity in the mid-1970s. Her post-Lady Flash path moved toward writing and screen work: she co-wrote Mafia Kingpin: The True Story of Sonny Gibson, wrote and acted in Dark Before Dawn, and later received an Emmy nomination as writer-producer of an informational WCBS-TV series.

Discography:

• Beauties in the Night (1976)

Sources:

• Discogs: Lady Flash
• RYM: Lady Flash
• 45cat: Lady Flash
• MusicBrainz: Lady Flash