About Melba Moore
Beatrice Melba Smith known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress.
Moore was born Beatrice Melba Smith on October 29, 1945 in New York City to Gertrude Melba Smith , who was a singer professionally known as Bonnie Davis and Teddy Hill , a big band leader. Moore grew up in the Harlem section of New York until age nine, when her mother remarried, to jazz pianist Clement Leroy Moorman and the family relocated to Newark, New Jersey. For high school, Moore attended Newark Arts High School, graduating in 1958. In 1970, she graduated from Montclair State College with a BA in music.
Moore began her recording career in 1967, cutting the track "Magic Touch", which was left unreleased until 1986. In later years, it became a popular track on the Northern soul scene, eventually leading to Moore performing it live in 2009 at the Baltic Soul Weekender 3 in Germany, north of Hamburg. In 1967, she began her performing career as Dionne in the original cast of the musical Hair, along with Ronnie Dyson, Paul Jabara, and Diane Keaton. Moore replaced Keaton in the role of Sheila.
In 1970, Moore won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Lutiebelle in Purlie, a role she would later reprise in the 1981 television adaptation for Showtime.
Moore did not return to Broadway until 1978, when she appeared with Eartha Kitt in Timbuktu! but left the show after a few weeks and was replaced by Vanessa Shaw.
Following the success of Purlie, Moore landed two big-screen film roles, released two successful albums, 1970's I Got Love and Look What You're Doing to the Man, and co-starred with actor Clifton Davis in the then-couple's own successful variety television series in 1972. Both Moore and Davis revealed that the show was canceled after its brief run when their relationship ended. When Moore's managers and accountants left her in 1973, she returned to Newark and began singing at benefit concerts. Her career picked up after she met record manager and business promoter Charles Huggins after a performance at the Apollo Theater in 1974.
In 1975, Moore signed with Buddah Records and released the critically successful R&B album Peach Melba, which included the minor hit "I Am His Lady". The following year, she scored her first significant hit with the Van McCoy-penned "This Is It", which reached the Billboard Hot 100, the top-20 position on the R&B chart, and top-10 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming her biggest success in that country. "This is It" also became the number 1 disco track in the UK for that year. It was 18 years later when Australian singer Dannii Minogue covered this song and made it to number 10 on the ARIA chart.
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