Randy Crawford (born Veronica Crawford, February 18, 1952, in Macon, Georgia), is a jazz and R&B singer.
Crawford first polished her craft at club gigs from Cincinnati to St. Tropez, but made her name in mid 1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen George Benson and Cannonball Adderley.
She then led R&B veterans The Crusaders on the transatlantic big hit “Street Life” (1979). Her follow up solo efforts included “‘One Day I’ll Fly Away” (1980, Grand Prize for Tokyo International Music Festival); “You Might Need Somebody” (1981); and “Rainy Night In Georgia” (1981); which all became soul standards. Secret Combination (1981) stayed on the Billboard album chart for 60 weeks, after which her profile dipped, despite a return to the Top 10 with “Almaz” in (1986).
Naked And True (1995) brought Crawford back to her roots: it included Benson’s “Give Me The Night”, and confirmed her soul heritage by featuring Funkadelicists Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and The Fred Wesley Horns. But she enjoyed her highest profile of the decade when rising starlet Shola Ama had a worldwide hit with a cover of “You Might Need Somebody” in 1997.|She still continues to make great R&B hits and performs on various Jazz Festivals around the world. |
