Ford (Penny)   (USA)

EuroDance member
Added : 20/11/2001
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Latest Penny Ford news

30/07/2022 : Last July 23rd, Snap! frontlady Penny Ford was among the guest for the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame Induction and Dedication Ceremony

19/06/2019 : Penny Ford (Snap) and Vasileios Toris recorded single Summer All The Time. (Thanks to Tavi Meran)

01/07/2013 : Beginning of 2013, Penny Ford (Snap) was featured on Steve E's single Peace in the City. She also co-wrote the lyrics. videoclip was produced by Navid.M.P. (Thanks to Krasi)

More news

Penny Ford albums

	Pennye	1984	BUY X
	Penny Ford	1993	BUY X

Penny Ford singles

	Change Your Wicked Ways	1984	BUY X
	Dangerous	1985	BUY X
	Uh, Oh, I Make A Mistake	1985	BUY X
	Daydreaming	1993	BUY X
	Under Pressure (with Sharon Redd)	1994	BUY X
	I'll Be There	1994	BUY X
	Summer All The Time (with Vasileios Toris)	27th May 2019	BUY X

Featurings and collaborations

	Snap - The Power	1989	BUY X
	Snap - Ooops Up	Sep 1990	BUY X
	Snap - Cult of Snap	Jan 1991	BUY X
	Snap - Mary Had A Little Boy	Apr 1991	BUY X
	Snap - Megamix	Sep 1991	BUY X
	Steve E - Peace in the City	28th Jan 2013	BUY X

Songwriting

	Snap - Ooops Up	Sep 1990	BUY X
	Snap - Cult of Snap	Jan 1991	BUY X
	Snap - Color Of Love	Mar 1992	BUY X
	Snap - The World In My Hands	4th Sep 1995	BUY X

Penny Ford biography

Penny (her real first name is Pennye) was born in Cincinatti, Ohio, U.S.A in 1964. Her father was Gene Redd, who was an Executive Producer at King Records who had signed James Brown in his early days. Her mum Carolyn was an artist too. Her brother, Gene Redd Jr produced many of Kool & the Gang’s early 70s tracks and her half-sister Sharon Redd was a singer whose best remembered song was the 1981 hit Can You Handle It. She did not see her parents very often and was raised by her grandparents

After studying various musical instruments, Pennye joined a group called Reach, who toured extensively in Japan. Pennye returned to the U.S. and relocated to Los Angeles and managed to get work at Motown Records publishing company Jobete Music. Here she sang a few demo's of their tunes. Pennye then relocated to Total Experience Records and released a solo single entitled Change Your Wicked Ways. An album followed, entitled Pennye in 1984 (they had to wait till she was 18 for the contract to be valid). When she called her dad to tell him she made it, she was told he had been murdered

The follow-up single Dangerous reached the UK top 50 in 1985. In 1986, she became the lead singer of the group Klymaxx. After the group split, she joined S.O.S. band. Then she fell in love with an Italian man, but this evolved to an abusive relationship.

As she was background singer for Chaka Khan, her idol, she shared an apartment in London with her. German project Snap! called to hire Chaka Khan for their project, but she refused, giving Penny the opportunity to record vocals for Snap!. She did not like electronic music, and did not enjoy the experience, hoping that this would not mean the end of her carreer. After that, she went on her backing vocalist career, working for Massive Attack, Soul II Soul (Vol. III: Just Right) and even Mick Jagger. But The Power went #1 in the UK and a massive hit all over the world, and she was asked to become the project's frontlady...

This is how she became Snap!'s female vocalist (her voice also appears on Mary Had A Little Boy, and Oops Up, as well as the World Power album) and, after she decided to leave the group, she introduced all the potential new singers to the producers. This was her only eurodance experience. Afterwards she went back to R'n'B and soul music.

This top session and concert vocalist also sung for Kool And The Gang, George Clinton... She also contributed to the Gap Band (I Found My Baby), Rick James (Urban Rapsody) .

In 1993, Pennye dropped the 'e' from ther christian name and moved to Columbia. Her second solo album was released in 1993 under Columbia/Sony. The album boasted grade-A talent like producer/bassist Randy D. Jackson (Narada Michael Walden, Journey), saxman Gerald Albright, and pianist Greg Phillanganes. The lead single was a R&B charting hip-hop flavored cover of Aretha Franklin's Daydreaming. Ford's gospel-honed vocals on the inspiring I'll Be There - not the Jackson 5 classic - were impressive. Other standouts were the funky Nevertheless, the pensive mid-tempo Father Time, and the ballads All in Me and Wherever You Are Tonight, the latter co-written by Junior (Mama Used to Say, Too Late).

But 2 weeks before she was supposed to record a duet David Hasselhoff, and to start recording another album, she was dropped by the records company.

She toured with Chaka Khan again. She also performed with Prince, Toni Braxton, Barry White (his 1999 Staying Power tour), Barry Manilow, Brandi and on the TV show Moesha. Then she deceided to go back home in Cincinatti. Then her mum suffered a massive stroke. Penny began caring for her mother and her grandmother, during 6 years. She travelled from time to time to and from Germany to record music. After both passed on, she settled to Germany.

She beame a member of BWU (Black Women United). Some rumors say that she died recently (her sister Sharon died in January of 1992 from pneumonia). This was of course completely false.

2007 : her voice was featured on DJ N-Joy's single When We Rise. She appeared in the RTL Germany TV show Ultimative Chart show in March and sung The Power with a young rapper.

2008 : Penny will appear on stage for Snap! for the 90s concert All 90s in Copenhagen on May 31st.

Thanks to Christian DTM nolimits and Tavi Meran
Penny Ford at Soulwalking UK

Penny Ford biography was last updated Mon, April 22nd 2024

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