She was born to a Huguenot family as Shandra Sinnamon in Miami, Florida. After dropping out of high school, she left home for Big Sur, California. Her ambition was to become a singer and songwriter. After encountering a bicycle accident there, she went back to Florida for recuperation. After recovering, she studied music and drama at a community college. While she was singing in a local restaurant, a disc jockey noticed her talent and introduced her to Elektra/Asylum Records. In 1976, she released her first album Shandi Sinnamon from Asylum. In 1978, she sang the theme song of the TV drama Leave Yesterday Behind . Around the same time in Los Angeles, California, Mike Chapman, among others, discovered her and she regrettably signed with the ever charming Chapman, instead of Neil Bogart’s Casablanca Records (a decision that did not bode well for her career.) In 1980, released her second album Shandi from his Dreamland Records. And Chapman himself produced that album under the alias of Commander Chapman. Her name inspired Shandi of Kiss (1980). She wrote and preformed the song He’s A Dream they used in the 1983 film FLASHDANCE , and won a grammy award for her song on the soundtrack of the film. Ever since she has written songs and sung them for films and TV dramas, including Tough Love for the film The Karate Kid , wrote Living on the Edge & Double Trouble for the film MAKING THE GRADE , Fight To Survive for the film BLOODSPORT and Gotcha title song for the film GOTCHA , Eyes of Fire for LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL , Wild Roses for Echo Park , and Boy of my Dreams for the film TOWER OF TERROR among many others. TV compositions include; Leave Yesterday Behind for the TV drama LEAVE YESTERDAY BEHIND , Slow Dance for the movie CAN YOU FEEL ME DANCING , and sang the theme song Charles in Charge for the 1984-1987 TV series. In 1985, her song Making It (composed by Richie Zito) became a local hit in Japan, and in the Series SAILOR MOON sang Only A Memory Away also from Japan. She has worked as a background singer with Todd Rundgren, Bernadette Peters, Hoyt Axton and Johnny Halliday. Now she lives in Eugene, Oregon. |
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