Thursday, December 30, 2010

R.I.P. Teena Maria

I can't believe she died this week in her sleep at age 54. The New York Times obituary is HERE.

Referred to as the Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul, Teena was one of the few whites artists that received airplay on R&B/Soul stations back in the day.

Her first album didn't have her picture on the cover (this was the pre-music video era) and when her second album dropped with her picture, her R&B fans were shocked to find out she was a white woman from Santa Monica, California.

Her biggest hits were in the early-mid 80s but every time I went to a party in college, the DJs would spin some Lady T.

My favorite songs are Portugese Love, Behind The Groove and of course this one:

6 comments:

Jannelle said...

Square Biz was my favorite song too! She will be missed!

Liz Dwyer said...

Square Biz was the JAM! I still love that song. I didn't know she was from Santa Monica till a few years ago. I hope the city does a nice memorial for her. Or at least, they SHOULD!

gibber said...

I feel like square biz was sampled a lot. A testament to how good a song is. So sad. RIP TM!

Claudia said...

completely unrelated-ET was just showing upcoming movies for the year and guess what was in it?? Your movie!! :)

dalia said...

I knew you were gonna save the best for last. Square, square biz... RIP Teena Marie...

Happy New Year, miss! All the best to you in 2011.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Jannelle - I still can't believe she died of natural causes at such a young age.

Los Angelista - Maybe her family and friends will organize something if Santa Monica can't/won't.

gibber - I think some of her other songs were sampled too.

c - thanks for the heads up. It's nice that a tiny movie like ours was mentioned among the big tentpole flicks.

dalia - same to you!