Irene Cara ~ Fame 1980 Disco Purrfection Version

The cat was wondering what the hell happened to Irene Cara, where did she come from and when was the last time she had something out there? She was born in New York on March 18, 1959 and literally skyrocketed to fame with the title track from one of the hottest films of the year. She ended up at the pinnacle of the Disco/Dance chart, reached #4 Pop Chart in 1980. She was a musical prodigy, learning to play piano on her own. You may also remember seeing her in “The Electric Company“. Her Spanish language recordings were well received in her community, and when word got around it led to local TV appearances and ultimately a Johnny Carson interview. She then worked for on and off Broadway productions, becoming a soap opera star, then starred in the supremely familiar “Sparkle“ in 1976. Aretha Franklin is the only person who could have power topped then unknowns Lonette McKee and Irene Cara who were the actual perfomers of the showstopping soundtrack. But then again, Ree did put her soulful stamp of approval on the Curtis Mayfield tunes and wound up with a huge R&B hit, while Cara and McKee cooled their heels and paid their dues. More TV followed with her appearances on “Roots:The Next Generations“ and “The Story Of Jim Jones. When “Fame“ began production, she had been originally slated to be one of the dancers, but when film producers and the screenwriter heard her voice they rewrote the part of Coco Hernandez, and Cara delivered on the two showstopping powerhouse tunes that had commercial releases, “Fame“ and “Out Here On My Own“. Erica Gimpel played the Coco Hernandez role when Irene turned down the Fame TV series role she created so she could concentrate on her music. Her last commercial solo outing was in 1987 with her “Carasmatic“ LP which spawned no hits. In 2011, she released a CD of her new group, Hot Caramel.