Melba Moore

Did a lot of session singing in the 1960s, including "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb in 1966. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson also sang on the track.

In 1967, after graduation from college, she won the original role of Dionne (when, unfortunately Donna Summer lost the role to her) in the musical, "Hair" with Ronnie Dyson and Diane Keaton, whom Moore replaced her in the role of Sheila.

A four-time Grammy nominee and one-time Tony Award winner, prior to being a singer/actress, Melba Moore also made guest appearances on nearly all of the following shows: The David Frost Show (1969), Soul Train (1971), The Mike Douglas Show (1961), Dinah! (1974), The Dick Cavett Show (1968), 13 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Captain Kangaroo (1955), The Tim Conway Show (1980), Solid Gold (1980), among many others. Born Melba Hill in New York City, New York, to a very popular musical family, for the time being, she was raised in Harlem, New York, and until aged 9, despite of her parents divorce, her mother remarried Clement Moorman, who introduced her to several agents, while she was growing up, in Newark, New Jersey, where she had been raised, where she attended school, there. Prior to Melba's birth, her mother penned the #1 song "Don't Stop Now". Although her biological father encouraged her to pursue a career in music, it was actually her stepfather/saxophonist, Teddy Hill, who insisted on young Melba to do it, which successfully he did, which gave her a four decade career on the map. In her early years, she even learned how to play the piano.

Melba Moore has shot to super-stardom in the early 1970s with her debut album ("I Got Love"), that garnered her a 1971 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, the following year, she also scored with a variety television show that co-starred Clifton Davis. Despite the show's being a modern success, the real-life couple fell victim through an ongoing self-destruction, hence, it was canceled. She was also in a crisis, when her career was put to an end, before it took a few years for her to comeback.

In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie, which she portrayed Lutiebelle.

" Unlike fellow singer Donna Summer, Moore struggled to garner some disco hits of the 1970s.

After her successful, short-lived series The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show (1972), she went on sabbatical, then, formed Hush Productions, her own production company.

This was 1 year after, when in 1974, she signed with Buddah Records, before Epic Records, which allowed her to make some records over the next decade, and had some chart topping hits with "This Is It," which reached #2 on the U. S. dance charts, which was also popular in the UK, a country that was used for that song. Other chart toppers that Melba scored over the years of the Disco-R&B era were, "Lean On Me," "Make Me Believe In You," "You Stepped Into My Life," "Let's Stand Together," and "Take My Love.

The 1980s saw Moore made a remarkable turn in her career, as she signed with Capitol Records, in 1982, and scored such hits as "Love's Comin' At Ya," which was a major song in the UK and in Europe. She also scored such songs with "Keepin' My Love Satisfied," "Love Me Right," "Read My Lips," (which she was nominated for her fourth Grammy) and "When You Love Me Like This.

The following year, Moore also had a recurring role on the long-running Falcon Crest (1981), opposite Oscar Award-winner Jane Wyman. At the end of the decade, Moore also garnered some songs with, "Do You Really (Want My Love)," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".

" She also starred in her own series Melba (1986), for CBS, a show that was canceled unexpectedly.

In the mid-1990s, Moore traveled with Gospel Play called, "Mama I'm Sorry" aside Gospel's sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Atkins that was Written and Produced by Michael Matthews. With a total of 11 U. S.

By the late 1990s, Melba Moore was back where she felt she belonged, reaching out and entertaining America through her acting, her singing and her comedy.

She went on welfare in 1992 and was shunned by her friends. Her daughter left her and moved in with Bill Cosby's family.

In 1996 took over the role of Fantine in "Les Miserables" on Broadway, the first black actress to play that role.

Has a one woman show in 1998-"Sweet Songs: A Journey In One Life

After ten years, she is putting out a new album of gospel songs (2002).

In 2003, Moore was featured in the film, The Fighting Temptations (2003), which starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé.

In 2007, she landed a role in the Broadway revival of Ain't Misbehavin'.

Top 10 Hits (singles and albums) on the Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of 40 years, Melba Moore is one of the most enduring artists of the 21st century.