Barbara Pennington

Barbara Pennington (1954 – 2023) was an American Hi-NRG and soul music artist who was active during the 1970s and the 1980s.

History and career Pennington was born in Greenville, Mississippi in 1954, and her family moved to Chicago when she was very young. She began her music career in the latter city as a member of a quartet called the Feminiques starting in 1969. The group released one record on Chicago’s B&L label by 1970 before breaking up the next year. Pennington performed with several other groups in the following years before going solo in 1973.

Pennington’s career began picking up considerable steam after she connected with British songwriter and producer Ian Levine, who had traveled to Chicago in 1975 in large part to meet her. He was intrigued by how similar her voice sounded to that of Linda Jones (which was by design, since she trained her voice by mimicking Jones, Chaka Khan, and other notable female soul singers of the era), and he appreciated that she simultaneously brought her own style to her music, so he signed her to Island Records. after which it released in the US and hit #4 on the Billboard Disco Chart in 1977.

Later that year, Pennington hit #20 with her single “You Are The Music Within Me”. In 1985, her singles “Fan The Flame” and “On A Crowded Street” made the charts at #62 and #57, respectively.