Rita Coolidge biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Rita Coolidge was born on May 1, 1944, in Lafayette, Tennessee, near Nashville. Coolidge and her two sisters, Priscilla and Linda, were all gifted singers. "Since my father and mother and grandmothers all sang, music was a natural part of our lives, just like sleeping and eating," Coolidge told Indian Artist magazine.

At age 15 she and her family moved to Florida. She later attended Florida State University to study art, and while there she formed a folk group called R.C. and the Moonpies. After graduation she moved to Memphis and sang radio-station IDs and commercial jingles at a studio, Pepper Sound. She recorded her first album, Turn Around and Love You, after studio executives noticed her talent. The album's title song did well regionally, but did not make a splash nationally.

Career Success

Soon after her move to Memphis, Coolidge met Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and toured with them as their backup singer. She then relocated to Los Angeles and sang backup vocals for well-known musicians such as Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Dave Mason and Duane Allman, among others.

Her impressive talent landed her a solo contract with A&M Records. Coolidge released a self-titled album in 1971 to critical acclaim but poor sales. After marrying country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, she recorded several albums with him. Together they won a Grammy for their hit "From the Bottle to the Bottom" for Best Country Vocal by a Duo or Group in 1974 as well as one for "Lover Please" in the same category two years later.

Coolidge broke through on her own with her 1977 album Anytime...Anywhere. She sang cover songs with R&B style and produced hits singing her renditions of Jackie Wilson's 1967 classic "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone" and The Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do." The album went platinum.

Subsequent albums never met with the success of Anytime...Anywhere, but Coolidge did continue to chart singles through the 1980s. She recorded the hit song "All Time High" as the theme for the 1983 James Bond movie Octopussy. After this last hurrah, she retreated from the public eye.

Coolidge returned to the recording studio in the 1990s to release several more albums under various labels. She delved deeper into her Native American musical heritage by teaming up with family members Pricilla Coolidge and Laura Satterfield to sing Music for Native Americans, the soundtrack for TBS' Native Americans series, in the mid-1990s. The three ladies formed the singing group Walela (the Cherokee word for hummingbird), and together they recorded albums through 2000.