Given the recent passing of Sylvia Robinson, singer/writer/producer extraordinaire, I got on the horn with Dan Charnas, who profiled the late legend in The Big Payback.
Sylvia was best known as the producer behind “Rapper’s Delight” but her career spanned far more than just a hit song in 1979. Our chat covered her early career as Little Sylvia Vanterpool, into her first hits as half of Mickey and Sylvia and then into her rise as one of the most important music figures out of New Jersey, not the least of which was as one of the very first female producers in pop music.
The Sidebar 17: Dan Charnas, remembering Sylvia Robinson
[podcast]http://latinboogaloo.com/sounds/podcasts/charnasonsr.mp3[/podcast]
Music used in this podcast:
- Mickey and Sylvia: Love Is Strange
- Ike and Tina Turner: It’s Gonna Work Out Fine
- Sylvia: Pillow Talk
- The Moments: I’ve Got To Keep On Loving You
- Sugar Hill Gang: Rapper’s Delight
- Malcolm X: No Sell Out
- The Moments: The Next Time I See You
Man, when I go can you guys get together and talk out my life? It was great: It was a wonderful summary of a lady’s life…warts and all.
Oliver, I want to thank you for this wonderful post. I was very angry that I had not seen any in-depth tribute/discussion about Sylvia on any of the music blogs following her death, only blurbs copied from news reports. I will be forwarding this to all my friends and family who loved and appreciated the importance of Ms Robinson.
Bookmarking your site now! Only found this through google, thanks very much 🙂
Bookmarked your site, thanks for the blog! 🙂
Brilliant blog, thanks very much!