Tina Charles

Career

Charles began her career as a backing singer and session musician, and recorded her first solo single in 1969 with a then unknown Elton John singing backing vocals. During the early 1970s she supplied vocals for the Top of the Pops album series.^[2] In 1971 she recorded a record called "Joe" (about a little puppy); the same year she made appearances in the first series of The Two Ronnies, the BBC One sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.^[3]

In 1975 Charles and her friend Linda Lewis were backing vocalists on the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel chart topping song, "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)".

She provided the lead vocals for 5000 Volts' 1975 disco hit single "I'm On Fire". Although not publicly acknowledged as a group member at the time, Charles was considered to have a stronger voice than the group's official lead singer. The song reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, and 26 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Charles' big break came in 1975, when Indian-British music composer and record producer Biddu, who had just enjoyed massive success worldwide writing the disco hit "Kung Fu Fighting" for Carl Douglas, produced the single "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)" for her. The single spent three weeks at number one on the UK chart in February 1976, and was a major hit around the world. Biddu's collaboration continued on a future album and another song hit: "Dance Little Lady Dance". In total, Charles spent 42 weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1976 alone, mainly due to these two songs.^[4]

Further hits like "Love Me Like A Lover", "Dr Love", "Rendezvous" and "Love Bug" made her a pop star throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, but she was never able to achieve success in the US. Her only solo recording to chart significantly in the US was "You Set My Heart on Fire," which reached number 3 on Record World's 'Disco File Top 20' chart in the autumn of 1975.^[5]

In 1978, Charles was a joint winner at the World Popular Song Festival held in Tokyo, Japan, performing the tune, "Love Rocks". Charles represented the UK, and shared the top prize with Japan's own entry.^[6]

By 1980 her career was in decline, and disco music generally was losing some of its public appeal. She attempted to change her disco style for her 1980 album Just One Smile for a more hard edge rock electronic style but the album was virtually ignored. Charles married and had a child, and devoted herself for some years to her family life, putting her singing career on the back burner. In the mid 1980s she had a resurgence with a remix of "I Love To Love" which was produced by Sanny X.

Since 2000, Charles has performed throughout Europe where disco music and her hit singles have been reappraised, and she has become a popular live performer.

Charles featured in the Top 5 of the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Higher" in 2006. The song is produced by longtime friend and associate Sanny X. She made a guest appearance with The Producers at their 2007 concert, singing "Slave to the Rhythm".

In October 2007, Charles recorded "Hide and Seek" with producer Ian Levine for the album Disco 2008. Her latest album, Listen 2 The Music was released in March 2008.