About Blinky
Hometown
Oakland, CA, United States
Born
May 21, 1944
Genre
Hip-Hop/Rap
Although Sondra "Blinky" Williams achieved musical immortality in 1974 with the classic theme for the groundbreaking sitcom Good Times, she was an accomplished gospel and soul singer long before then. Under her birth name, her recordings included the solo album Hark the Angels (1967), after which the church-bred artist signed with Motown, where she released a handful of secular singles and the Edwin Starr duets album Just We Two (1969) and appeared on the Billboard 200-topping soundtrack for Lady Sings the Blues (1972). The majority of Williams' Motown sessions remained unreleased until Real Gone Music put together Heart Full of Soul: The Motown Anthology (2019), an exhaustive archival package that features the entirety of the shelved album Sunny and Warm.
Born in Oakland and later raised in Los Angeles, Sondra Williams established herself during the mid-'60s as a solo artist and as a member of the Cogics, a gospel group led by AndraƩ Crouch that also showcased Edna Wright, Gloria Jones, and Billy Preston. Williams made her solo debut on Vee Jay with a version of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" (1964), the B-side of which earned her the nickname "Miss Heartaches". Three years later, Atlantic issued the singer's full-length Hark the Voice as a volume in their Religious Series. Williams arranged its traditional numbers; Crouch contributed several originals.
Williams then spent six years in the Motown machine. She recorded gritty R&B as Blinky, another nickname, beginning with "I Wouldn't Change the Man He Is"/"I'll Always Love You" (1968), on which she worked with Ashford & Simpson, Ed Cobb, and Hal Davis. She and Edwin Starr, who had just scored his first Top Ten pop hit with "Twenty-Five Miles," subsequently released the Frank Wilson production Just We Two (1969) on Motown subsidiary Gordy. Only a small fraction of Blinky's subsequent Motown recordings was released while she was with the label. Versions of "Money (That's What I Want)" and "For Your Precious Love" (1972) formed a MoWest single, and a final shot with songwriter/producer Clay McMurray, "You Get a Tangle in Your Lifeline"/"This Man of Mine" (1973), was taken on the parent label. Blinky also sang "T'ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do" for the Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack, a number one hit. By the time the singer and Motown parted ways, the label had scrapped plans for at least three Blinky LPs, including sets titled Sunny and Warm and Softly.
Immediately after the Motown phase, Williams released a single on Reprise and much more notably was heard on the theme for Good Times, duetting with Jim Gilstrap. She eventually returned to gospel and supporting work, including sessions with AndraƩ Crouch. The majority of her previously released and unreleased Motown recordings appeared during the following decades on the compilation series Cellarful of Motown (volumes two, three, and four), The Complete Motown Singles (volumes eight, nine, ten, and 12A), and Motown Unreleased. Most significant of all was Real Gone Music's two-disc Heart Full of Soul: The Motown Anthology (2019), containing all of Sunny and Warm and over 30 additional cuts. ~ Andy Kellman
Similar to: Blinky
Discover more music and artists similar to Blinky, like Milo, Twinkles, Booboo
