Close your eyes and resonate on the voice of Vesta Williams. Take a stroll with me to Oprah Winfrey's mini-series 'The Women Of Brewster Place'. A song with no words just 'moans' and you're drawn into the vocal stylings of the singing chanteuse, then flash to rock singer Sting's song 'We'll Be Together' you hear the background vocals again of Williams 'wailing'. As a session singer she sang jingles for 'Revlon', 'Diet-Coke', 'Nike'. Having backed Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Sting, Stephanie Mills, Anita Baker and Gordon Lightfoot, earning her chops.
Her debut album was released on A&M entitled 'Vesta' was warmly received. Her debut album '4 U' featured the single 'Sweet Sweet Love'. She was known for her four-octave vocal range. Although Williams never had any albums certified gold plagues, nor any Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. She scored six Top 10 hits on the Billboard R&B charts. Williams best known for songs "Sweet Sweet Love", "Don't You Blow A Good Thing Baby", and her signature song "Congratulations". During her A&M records stay, she released four CD's. The singer's weight was always the issue that her Record label focused on, instead of her voice, which made things difficult, for Vesta at times. A&M’s last stitch effort for the powerhouse singer, was teaming her with then 'new' come singer and record producer Brian McKnight, along with Anita Baker's producer Michael Powell, for her 'Everything-N-More' project, though a 'very' solid offering, it went nowhere.
After being dropped from her label, Williams very frustrated, she lost over one hundred pounds (going from a size 26 to 6) thinking this would satisfy label and marketing heads. A few years later signed to a new label Williams released her 'Relationships', another stall. Needing to bring money in, she became a radio jock. It would take almost a decade before she recorded another CD on ANOTHER new label0 Her 'Distant Lover' project was released. Vesta was now older, and her audience was older too, the climate had changed. Yes though STILL a great singer, with no airplay. Later years found Williams depressed, she lost her residence after 18 years of living in the 'Miracle Mile' section of Los Angeles,
On September 22, 2011, Williams was found dead living in a hotel room in El Segundo, California. The coroners ruled 'her death of 'natural causes' from 'hypertensive heart disease'. Take a moment and close your eyes, lets remember the beautiful song stylings of Vesta Williams. A voice like hers, comes along only once in a lifetime. Truly "Gone Too Soon".
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