Started out as a soul music singing prodigy at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound recording studio. He was a backup singer on David Bowie's Young Americans sessions and ended up (IIRC) on the "Philly Dogs" portion of the Diamond Dogs tour. His solo career has been successful, landing him in the pantheon of one-named divas; his to-die-for voice has often been the one piece of leavening on LPs cursed with overly-slick production and generic rhythm and blues luvsong widgets.