Vesta Williams -

Vesta Williams (Dec. 1, 1957 — Sept. 22, 2011) was an American soul singer who debuted in 1986 and recorded seven albums, scoring R&B hits with “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” “Don’t Blow a Good Thing,” “Sweet, Sweet Love,” “4 U,” “Congratulations,” “Special,” and the 1990 Najee collaboration “I’ll Be Good to You.”

Background

She was born Mary Vesta Williams on Dec. 1, 1957, in Coshocton, Ohio. Her father Hugh Williams worked as a broadcaster and moved the family to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s for radio work at KFWB-AM and KGFJ-AM. Williams performed with younger sisters Margaret, Marte, and Marlena as the Williams Sisters on the television program Jack and Jill. Williams returned to Ohio at age fourteen to live with grandmother Vivian Williams and by 1977 sang with a cousin’s band in Dayton.

Williams returned to Los Angeles after the Dayton engagement and joined Wild Honey, a late-Seventies Las Vegas show group led by former 5th Dimension singer Ron Townson. In December 1981, she toured as a background singer with Bobby Womack & Co., then joined the live backing band of Chaka Khan.

Williams recorded backing vocals for the 1983 Commodores album 13. Crusaders keyboardist Joe Sample recorded Williams on the original 1984 vocal version of “The Survivor,” although Phyllis Hyman replaced her on the version released on Sample’s 1985 album Oasis. Williams subsequently met arranger-producer David Crawford while doing session work on the fourth Klique album. Crawford presented her tapes to A&M Records.

Discography: