The group was originally founded in Munich by producers and songwriters Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze. “Silver” is actually Sylvester Levay’s nickname. Using female session vocalists for their first recordings, they scored a hit single in the United Kingdom in 1974 with the song “Save Me”, and realised they would need to find a public face for what was at the time only a studio group. They recruited vocalists Linda Thompson (real name Linda Übelherr, who would be billed on her solo records as Linda G. Thompson), Penny McLean (real name Gertrude Wirshinger) and Ramona Wulf (real name Ramona Kraft). As “Silver Convention” they scored two major U.S. hit singles. “Fly, Robin, Fly” whose complete lyrics consisted of only six words, spent three weeks at number 1 in 1975, and won the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Their follow-up hit “Get Up and Boogie” spent three weeks at number 2 in 1976. Michael Kunze actually wrote the lyrics on the two first albums under the pseudonym Stephan Prager. During this time the three singers released their own solo work. McLean and Thompson achieved hit singles with “Lady Bump” and “Ooh What a Night” respectively. Wulf’s solo effort was only a moderate success. Silver Convention represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 with a song entitled “Telegram”, finishing 8th, just after Dream Express. The entry had only English lyrics, but was allowed to enter in spite of the language rule being reintroduced this year, because the song was chosen to represent Germany before the reintroduction was announced. With a new producer (John Davis) and a revised line-up of singers (Suzie McClosky aka Zenda Jacks, Rhonda Heath and Ramona Wulf) Silver Convention hit it big in the clubs in 1978 with the LP “Love in a Sleeper”. The 12” single release from the LP was “Spend the Night With Me” backed with “Mission to Venus”. The further singles released by the trio attempted to duplicate the sound that had made them briefly successful, but the singles “Tiger Baby” and “No No Joe” were only minor hits. Levay also worked with Giorgio Moroder, and Kunze went on to work with Jim Steinman. The solo careers of the three singers faded quickly and they left the music business. |
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