N
O
R
M
A
J
E
A
N
W
R
I
G
H
T
    Norma Jean hails from the tiny town of Elyria, Ohio. Not your standard place for the birth of a star. Singing came natural to beautiful Norma Wright and by 17 Norma, her sister and a friend had their own girl group, "The Topettes." Norma continued singing throughout high school and into her college years at Ohio State University. After graduation she landed a job as a financial investigator, but soon became disenchanted with the 9 to 5 grind and her desire to sing won out.
     Her first taste of a professional career happened when she was asked to accompany the Spinners on tour. She sang backgrounds and did the lead vocal for "Then Came You," which the Spinners had recorded with Dionne Warwick. After the tour Norma knew that in order to find any success she'd have to move to New York. Once in the Big Apple she landed a job co-fronting a top40/rock band with Luci Martin. The girls quickly became friends and remain so today.
     She was introduced to Nile & Bernard through a mutual friend. This friend had worked with them on gigs and was aware that they were working on some music, and they were looking for a female vocalist to join their band which consisted of (Nile, Bernard, and Tony Thompson). When she met them they were working on "Dance, Dance Dance," as a demo. She auditioned for them and they were impressed enough to ask her to join their group as lead vocalist. She agreed and continued to work with them on other material. Meanwhile she got a job in Canada and went there with Luci Martin. While in Canada, she was informed by Nile & Bernard that the songs they had been working on were picked up by Atlantic Records. Upon hearing this news she returned to New York.
     Back in N.Y. they set about recording material for a full album. The single "Dance, Dance, Dance" had been first released on Buddah Records and when Atlantic Records picked it up for distribution, and it took off, the demand for an album was inevitable. Norma added her stunning vocals to "Everybody Dance" and the ballad "Falling In Love With You."
     Luther Vandross, who had been contracted for backgrounds, brought along one of the female singers from his group Luther. Alfa Anderson shared backgrounds with Norma and is given credit on the first album. Eventually it was suggested by Nile & Bernard that having another girl in the group would add sex appeal, plus they could do a lot more with 2 voices in their live show. With this in mind, Norma introduced them to Luci and she became the 5th member of the group. After Norma left, a year or so later, Alfa was hired as a principle member to replace her.
     Norma relates a funny story from her beginnings with Chic: "My boyfriend at the time (several months before the songs hit) happened to be the national R&B promotion man at Atlantic Records. I let him hear "Dance, Dance Dance," & "Everybody Dance" as demos, and asked him to let the A&R person at Atlantic hear the songs. This is before we were signed to the label. Well his response after hearing the 2 songs was he didn't think the songs were strong enough so he refused to play them for the A&R guy. Well, as fate would have it we broke up, and within months the songs were heard and signed by someone else at Atlantic! My ex-boyfriend who was still working at at Atlantic ended up having to promote the records but he didn't find out until months later to his dismay that these were the same songs that I had asked him to listen to, and he had turned them down. He had no idea that I was a member in the group. So you can imagine how embarrassed he was to see me at a promotion party sponsored by Atlantic Records and to be reminded that these 2 hit songs, were the same songs that he had turned down."
     Once Chic's first album became successful, Norma was offered a solo deal with Bearsville. Everyone felt this was a good idea because Atlantic and Bearsville were both distributed under the same parent company, although they were different labels. The initial plan was that she would continue to be Chic's lead vocalist and also be allowed to do solo projects, and that Nile & Bernard would produce her solo material. However it became legally complicated and she was not allowed to continue on with the group if she wished to record as a solo artist. This was very disheartening for her. "I have read several erroneous articles stating that it was MY decision to leave Chic. For the record: it was "the powers that be", that made that choice for me" stated Wright. So as it was Norma Jean only appears on the first Chic album but that didn't stop her voice.
     Norma's debut album, 1978's "Norma Jean" could have easily been the second Chic album. All of the same players, vocalists, arrangers and producers pulled together to launch her solo effort. The intial 12" single, "Saturday" became an instant smash with it's pounding beat and crafitly layered Chic sound. Subsequent 12" tracks, "Having A Party," "Sorcerer" and "High Society" received heavy club play but could not equal the chart success of "Saturday." Although the album was a smash there was a plan for a second album but Nile & Bernard's fee was much more than the label wished to pay for and the album never materialized.
     Norma rode the crest of her solo album into the end of the disco era. She did club tours and appeared on such television shows as "Soul Alive," "Soap Factory Disco" and "Soul Train." Then the botton fell out of the disco market. Unfortunately Norma was viewed as a disco artist, although one listen and you know she's much more than that.
     In the 1980's she worked with, and did a lot of session singing for various artists. She can be heard on albums by Luther Vandross, Stephanie Mills, The Spinners, Mtume & Lucas, D Train, Freddie Jackson, Michael Jackson, Deborah Gibson, Madonna, C&C Music Factory, the list goes on and on. She also traveled on tour with the German group, Nena, who recorded "99 Luft Balloons".
     She released three 12" singles under her own moniker during the 1980's. "Love Attack" (Mirage Records, 1983): The song was produced by Skip Anderson, a keyboard player for Luther Vandross. "Shot In The Dark" (MCA Records, 1984): was written and produced by Raymond Jones and "Every Bit Of This Love" (MCA Records, 1985): which was produced by Hubert Eaves III of D-Train.
     When questioned about her session work and the highlight of singing on Madonna's debut album Norma said: "I met Madonna at a dance class we both took together, and after we met each other we would take the train home together. She didn't know a lot of people in the music business, so I introduced her to some of the people I knew. On her first album, which was recorded by Reggie Lucas, I sang backgrounds on all of the songs. On some of them it's just me along with Madonna. Others included me, Brenda King and the late Gwen Guthrie in the background."
By the 1990's the clamor for anything connected to retro-disco brought a Chic reunion in 1991. Neither Norma nor Luci or Alfa were asked to participate much to the dismay of worldwide fans.
     But Norma was fine with that decision for she was forging many new paths. She was under contract at the time with Sony/Forty Acres for the "State Of Art" project that she recorded with friend and ex-Chic keyboardist Raymond Jones. Her friendship and business association with him continues today. She also appears on his solo works "Acts Of Love" (1991) and "Intimate" (2002). She still continues her friendship with Luci and Alfa. Alfa Anderson is married and is presently the Principal of a school, she still lives in New York. Luci lives in Florida where she is raising her11year old son. In fact Luci and Norma have something coming out in Germany on Peppermint Jam entitled "Just A Touch Of Love," also in Japan with GTS "Let's Bounce" and a remake of "I Want Your Love." They continue to perform together and write as well. Alfa, Norma and Luci have been discussing a trio outing that could materialize soon.
     One of the many avenues that Norma has travelled is artist management. "I produced and co-wrote a song for Epic artist, Eric Gable and worked with and co-produced Maxz Volume, as well the State Of Art project with Raymond Jones."
"I started managing as an off shoot to writing and production work. After producing a project on Lori Gold I was asked if I would consider co-managing her with her mom Rene' Goldstein. That was 7 years ago. Lori Gold is presently known as Reina, and has had several big dance hits here in the States" recalled Norma.
     Presently Norma is doing some writing and production and is featured on a song entitled "Get Up," by Maxz Volume. She co-wrote and arranged the song and it was released on Strictly Rhythm Records. It was reissued in March (2002) with several new remixes. She also co-wrote & sang on another project with DJ's/producers Michael Lange and Boris Dlugosch out of Germany. The song is entitled "Louder Than Words" and it was released on Peppermint Jam Records in the fall of 2001. Also a song that she sang on with Byron Stingly, produced by the Basement Boys, was released in January 2002 on Nervous Records. The song is a remake of the old Change tune "Paradise."
     After 27years it's wonderful to see Norma so active in the dance music industry. She is still as gorgeous as ever and that voice.........well that voice goes down in disco history as one of the most prolific to be recorded. Thank you Norma for keeping us dancing through the years!
Back To Artists-N