Teri DeSario -

Teri DeSario (born Nov. 27, 1951) is an American pop vocalist from Miami who emerged on Casablanca Records with the 1978 album Pleasure Train and the Barry Gibb-penned hit “Ain’t Nothing Gonna Keep Me from You.” She followed with Moonlight Madness and scored a major US hit in 1980 with “Yes, I’m Ready,” a duet with KC. DeSario later moved away from mainstream pop and recorded contemporary Christian material through the 1980s and 1990s.

Background

Teri Lynn DeSario was born November 27, 1951, in Miami, Florida. Her mother sang privately but avoided public performance; her father sang as a boy soprano. DeSario began classical-voice study at age thirteen through Barry University in Miami. She attended Hialeah Senior High School in Hialeah and shared school chorus and drama activities with future KC and the Sunshine Band singer Harry Wayne Casey. DeSario graduated in 1970 from Hialeah Senior High School.

DeSario first performed acoustic guitar-vocal sets in Miami. Her early circuit included the Flick in Coral Gables and Bubba’s in Coconut Grove. She also appeared at the Elbow Room in Fort Lauderdale. In 1970, DeSario joined the Early Music Consort under director Arnold Grayson as vocalist and secondary instrumentalist on recorders and harp. The Miami ensemble performed medieval and Renaissance repertory on period instruments across South Florida. She studied jazz voice in 1974–75 at the University of Miami School of Jazz under director Whit Sidener.

In 1976, DeSario formed Abacus with brass arranger Bill Purse, who played with the Boneroo Horns on Bee Gees sessions at Miami’s Criteria Recording Studios. That autumn, Albhy Galuten heard DeSario sing at a Coconut Grove club and proposed a demo session. Galuten recorded DeSario’s demo and took the tape to a Bee Gees recording session in France.

Barry Gibb heard the tape there and later wrote “Ain’t Nothing Gonna Keep Me from You” for DeSario. He helped her secure a recording contract with Casablanca Records. DeSario recorded the song in February 1978 at Criteria and released the song through Casablanca in July as her debut single. She then completed a full album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama.

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