James Ingram

Wikipedia:

James Ingram (born February 16, 1952, Akron, Ohio) is an American soul musician. He is best known as a vocalist. He is also a self-taught musician who plays piano, guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Additionally, he is a producer and songwriter.

Biography

Early life

Born in 1952, Ingram lived with his mom and dad until he was 10, then moved in with his grandmother.

Career

In 1981, Ingram provided the vocals to "Just Once" and "One Hundred Ways" on Quincy Jones's album The Dude. He won a Grammy award for best R&B vocal performance for his work on this album. Ingram's debut album, It's Your Night, appeared in 1983, including the ballad "There's No Easy Way." He also worked with other notable R&B artists such as Ray Charles, Anita Baker, Viktor Lazlo, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, and Kenny Rogers. In October, 1990, he scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the love ballad "I Don't Have the Heart", from his It's Real album.

But Ingram was best known throughout the decade for his hit collaborations. He went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in Feb. 1983 with Patti Austin on "Baby, Come to Me", a song made popular on TV's General Hospital. A second Austin–Ingram duet, "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?", was featured in the movie Best Friends and earned an Oscar nomination. A few years later, he won a 1985 Grammy Award for "Yah Mo B There", a duet with Michael McDonald. And he teamed up with Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes for the Top 40 ballad "What About Me?" in 1984. In 1985, he participated in the charity single "We Are the World".

He teamed with American vocalist Linda Ronstadt and had a US Billboard Hot 100 hit which peaked at No. 2 in March, 1987 with "Somewhere Out There", the theme from the animated feature film An American Tail. The song garnered Grammy and Academy Award nominations and was certified gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) by the RIAA.

Ingram performed two solos on the 1985 recording and video of "We Are the World". He also co-wrote "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" which was recorded by Michael Jackson on his blockbuster Thriller.

In the 1990s, his highest-profile team-up came again with Quincy Jones, on the song "The Secret Garden". This song also featured vocals by Barry White, El Debarge and Al B. Sure!

Soundtrack songs were popular for Ingram in the 1990s. From the movie Sarafina! came "One More Time", and from City Slickers came "Where Did My Heart Go?" His 1994 composition "The Day I Fall in Love", a duet with Dolly Parton, was the theme song for the movie Beethoven's 2nd and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Ingram and Parton performed the song live on the Oscar broadcast.

During the summer of 2004, Ingram participated in the U.S. television reality show Celebrity Duets as a duet partner. The show combined professional vocalists, of different musical genre, with entertainers of different backgrounds in a weekly elimination competition. In 2006, he and neo-soul singer Angie Stone teamed up on "My People".

In 2011 James teamed up with Cliff Richard and soul artists Freda Payne, Jaki Graham, Lamont Dozier, Percy Sledge and others to record on the Soulicious Album. He also appeared on stage with them at various UK venues during November 2011, singing 2 songs from the album and Just Once?

Other appearances