Yvonne Fair

Born Flora Yvonne Coleman in Richmond, Virginia, Fair got her start as a latter-day member of the re-formulated Chantels and the James Brown Revue. Whilst performing with Brown she recorded the song "I Found You," which he later re-worked into his own signature hit "I Got You (I Feel Good)." Signed to Motown Records in the early 1970s as a result of her work with Chuck Jackson, she appeared in a minor role as a chanteuse in the film, Lady Sings the Blues. Fair then joined up with producer Norman Whitfield for a series of singles: "Love Ain't No Toy," "Walk Out the Door If You Wanna," and her cover version of "Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On." Her remake of the Kim Weston/Gladys Knight semi-standard "It Should Have Been Me" dented the lower end of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1976. The track also reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1976, her only UK hit record. In addititon, the song featured in a special episode of BBC TV programme The Vicar of Dibley, entitled "The Handsome Stranger", and broadcast on 25 December 2006. She was married to Sammy Strain of Little Anthony & The Imperials. Fair died at the age of 51 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 6, 1994, and was interred at the Davis Memorial Park, Las Vegas.