Stephanie Mills

Stephanie Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American R&B singer and actress who released her first album on ABC records at age 17 in 1974, followed by the Burt Bacharach-produced For the First Time on Motown in 1975. She reemerged in 1979 with her first of three albums on 20th Century Fox, a period that culminated with the 1980/81 releases Sweet Sensation and Stephanie. Between 1982 and 1984, she released a trio of titles on Casablanca, followed by five further albums on MCA over the subsequent seven-year period.

Mills was born Stephanie Dorthea Mills on March 22, 1957, in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She sang gospel music as a child at Brooklyn’s Cornerstone Baptist Church. At age nine, she appeared in the Broadway musical Maggie Flynn. After six consecutive weekly amateur nights at the Apollo Theater, she became an opening act for the Isley Brothers.

In 1973, Mills debuted as a recording artist with the Paramount single “I Knew It Was Love” (b/w “The Passion and the Pain.”)

Discography:

• Movin’ in the Right Direction (1974)
• For the First Time (1975)
• What Cha’ Gonna Do with My Lovin’ (1979)
• Sweet Sensation (1980)
• Stephanie (1981)
• Tantalizingly Hot (1982)
• Love Has Lifted Me (1982)
• Merciless (1983)
• I’ve Got the Cure (1984)
• Stephanie Mills (1985)
• If I Were Your Woman (1987)
• Home (1989)

Sources:

• Discogs: Stephanie Mills