Thelma Houston

Thelma Houston is an American soul singer who debuted with a pair of Capitol singles circa 1966/67 and went longform with the 1969 album Sunshower, produced by Jim Webb for ABC Records. In 1972, she reemerged with a self-titled album on MoWest. A series of stop-gap singles preceded 1975’s I’ve Got the Music in Me, recorded with jazz-funk big band Pressure Cooker. During the last four years of the 1970s, she released four solo albums and two collaborative LPs with vocalist Jerry Butler on Tamla/Motown. Between 1980 and 1984, she released a pair of albums apiece on RCA and MCA.

Thelma Houston (née Jackson) was born on May 7, 1946, in Leland, Miss. She spent most of her youth in Long Beach, Calif. At age 20, she joined the soul/gospel Art Reynolds Singers and sang on their 1966 debut album, Tellin’ It Like It Is. That same year, she issued two singles on Capitol: “Baby Mine” (b/w “The Woman Behind Her Man”) and “Don’t Cry My Soldier Boy” (b/w “Let’s Try To Make It (Just Once More)”).

In 1968, Houston signed to ABC/Dunhill and entered the studio with writer and producer Jimmy Webb. The results of their union, Sunshower, was released in 1969.

Discography:

• Sunshower (1969)
• Thelma Houston (1972)
• I’ve Got the Music in Me (1975 • Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker)
• Any Way You Like It (1976)
• Thelma & Jerry (1977 • Thelma Houston & Jerry Butler)
• The Devil in Me (1977)
• Two to One (1978 • Thelma Houston & Jerry Butler)
• Ready to Roll (1978)
• Ride to the Rainbow (1979)
• Breakwater Cat (1980)
• Never Gonna Be Another One (1981)
• Reachin’ All Around (1982)
• Thelma & Syreeta (1982 • Thelma Houston / Syreeta Wright)
• Thelma Houston (1983)
• Qualifying Heat (1984)
• Throw You Down (1990)

Sources:

• Discogs: Thelma Houston