The grim reaper is hyperactive this month as yet another loss to the
soul world has been reported. Australian blue-eyed soul and jazz singer
Renée Geyer
has died at the age of 69 owing to complications following hip surgery
which discovered that she had inoperable lung cancer.
She may perhaps be best known in the the UK for her version of Aretha's
"It Only Happens When I Look At You" (who she cites as her 'ultimate inspiration') and the rare groover
"Be There In The Morning". However, in her home country, Australia, she had hits in the 70s
with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" (also recorded by Freda Payne and Alton McClain & Destiny) and in the 80s with "Say I Love You", which was her biggest hit reaching #5 on the Australian pop chart
(but is rather too pop oriented to post here).
Geyer was born in Melbourne on 11 Sep 1953 to a holocaust surviving
Slovak mother (who was consigned to Auschwitz) and a Hungarian father.
Whilst still at high school she began singing for a jazz/blues band Dry
Red in 1970 aged 16 and later joined Sun who released one, self-titled,
album in 1972. She soon left Sun and joined R&B/soul group Mother
Earth.
By 1973 she was signed to RCA Victor and released a debut, self-titled,
album mainly of covers, on which she insisted Mother Earth, who had been
released by the label, were to be her backing band. It was followed in
1974 by "It's A Mans Man's World" named after the lead track, a cover of James Brown's classic 1966
deep soul song, which she released as a single and both single and album
where her first charting recordings.
For the next album she formed her own band and recorded two albums as
Renée Geyer Band, "Ready To Deal" (1975) and a live album "Really Really Love You" (1976) on which she covered Aretha's "It Only Happens". One of her signature songs, "Heading in the Right Direction", appeared on the former.
She wanted to record her next album in the states which was produced by
Motown's Frank Wilson and included musicians from The Funk Brothers and
Ray Parker Jr. It was released in the states as "Renee Geyer" on Polydor, but in her home country on RCA Victor as "Moving Along", in 1977 (and included "Stares And Whispers" and "Be There In The Morning"). Against the advice of Polydor, who suggested not including a photo
of her on the album to perpetuate the myth that she was black, she
insisted on it, and radio stations stopped playing her as she was too white for black stations and too black for white stations, the crazy world we live in! She
stayed in the US working as a session singer for a number of years
(8-10) before returning to Australia.
She toured with Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan and has sung on recordings by
Lenny Williams, Sting, Neil Diamond, Paul Anka, Donny Osmond, Anita
Pointer, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt and many others.
In her career spanning from 1973 she released fifteen studio albums and
four live albums. Her last studio album came in 2013 which was an album
of big band covers titled "Swing". In 2018 she suggested that she would like to record a blues album
which would be her last.
Only five of her nine albums since 1981 are on Spotify, and none of her
six 70s albums, so providing a playlist wouldn't be representative of
her career, therefore, there are only a handful of videos
below which are her main hits, including a live performance of
"Heading in the Right Direction" from March 2021 (in which she's a
real character) and a short tribute from ABC News.
Here's YouTube playlist with most of her best recordings.
Album Discography
Renée Geyer
1973 - Renée Geyer
1974 - It's a Man's Man's World
Renée Geyer Band
1975 - Ready to Deal
1976 - Really Really Love You (Live album)
Renée Geyer
1977 - Moving Along
1978 - Winner
1979 - Blues License
1981 - So Lucky
1985 - Sing to Me
1994 - Difficult Woman
1999 - Sweet Life
2003 - Tenderland
2005 - Tonight
2007 - Dedicated
2009 - Renéessance
2013 - Swing
Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved
