Phyllis Hyman

Early life and early career

Phyllis Hyman was the oldest of seven kids, born in Philadelphia to Phillip, a World War II veteran, and Louise Hyman, a waitress at a local nightclub. She was raised in St. Clair Village, in Pittsburgh's South Hills. After leaving Pittsburgh, she studied at a music school and, upon graduating, joined the group New Direction for a national tour in 1971. When that group broke up, she performed with All the People and also with The Hondo Beat.

She had a role in the 1974 film Lenny and led her own band, Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor, for two years. In 1975, industry figures Sid Maurer and Fred Frank discovered her and signed her to their Roadshow Records/Desert Moon label. She then moved to New York City, singing background vocals on Jon Lucien's Premonition and performing in clubs. Norman Connors, unable to secure singer Jean Carne for his album, saw Hyman perform after a Jon Lucien concert at Carnegie Hall and asked her to be the female vocalist on his fourth Buddah Records album.

The title track "You Are My Starship" went gold, and together they had an R&B hit with a cover of "Betcha by Golly, Wow."

Later career

Before her debut album came out in 1977 on Buddah Records, Hyman had already performed with Pharoah Sanders and the Fatback Band. When Arista took over Buddah, she moved to the new label. Her first Arista release, Somewhere in My Lifetime, arrived in 1978, with Barry Manilow producing its title track. The next album, You Know How to Love Me, reached the R&B Top 20 and found success on club-dance charts.

She also sang backup on The Beck Family’s first album, Dancin' on the Ceiling. In the late 1970s, she wed her manager Larry Alexander, brother of pianist Monty Alexander, but both the marriage and business partnership ended in divorce. Around then, she started using cocaine, which became a lifelong struggle. Her first solo R&B Top Ten hit was 1981’s “Can’t We Fall in Love Again?” with Michael Henderson, recorded while she starred in the Broadway show Sophisticated Ladies.

She stayed in that role for nearly two years, earning a Tony nomination and a Theatre World Award. Tensions with Arista led to a break in her recording career, so she turned to movie soundtracks, TV ads, and guest vocals with Chuck Mangione, The Whispers, and The Four Tops. She sang on three tracks of McCoy Tyner’s 1982 album Looking Out, and kept busy with regular tours and a college lecture circuit.

Death

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression in the 1980s, Phyllis Hyman struggled with these conditions for years, frequently turning to alcohol and drugs to cope and openly discussing suicide. On June 30, 1995, she took her own life in her New York City apartment by overdosing on tuinal and vodka. Found unconscious at 2:00 p.m., she was pronounced dead at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital at 3:50 p.m., just hours before she was due to perform at the Apollo Theater.

Her note included the lines: "I'm tired. I'm tired. Those of you that I love know who you are. May God bless you." Following an autopsy, her body was cremated, and a memorial took place at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Manhattan.

Posthumous releases

Five months after her death, in November 1995, Phyllis Hyman's album I Refuse to Be Lonely came out. A compilation called One on One followed in April 1998, gathering three of her earliest solo recordings and nine collaborative tracks, such as "Take the 'A' Train" with Gregory Hines, "Maybe Tomorrow" with the Four Tops, and "Betcha by Golly, Wow" with Norman Connors. That same year, a second posthumous album, Forever with You, collected previously unreleased material from sessions spanning the mid-1980s to early 1990s.

It featured love songs, torch songs, bittersweet ballads, smooth jazz, and uptempo numbers, many reflecting Hyman's take on heartbreak and strife—songs she described as being about "relationships gone bad." Much of this material was originally intended for her Living All Alone album. The track "Funny How Love Goes" became a posthumous duet with vocalist Damon Williams, with half her vocals re-recorded so both singers could alternate. In 2003, the UK label Expansion released In Between the Heartaches, a jazz-soul compilation including collaborations with Norman Connors, McCoy Tyner, Jon Lucien, and Pharoah Sanders, plus five unreleased Arista-era tracks.

An authorized biography, Strength of a Woman: The Phyllis Hyman Story by Jason A. Michael, came out in September 2007, noting her relationships with men and one woman. In 2008, an original version of the James Bond theme "Never Say Never Again"—unused in the film due to contractual issues—was released by co-writer Stephen Forsythe.

Did You Know?

• Hyman recorded the title song for the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again, but it was replaced due to a contractual dispute with composer Michel Legrand.
• She was the cousin of actor Earle Hyman, who played Russell Huxtable on The Cosby Show and voiced Panthro on Thundercats.
• Her first number-one R&B hit, 'Don't Wanna Change the World,' also became her first Billboard Top 100 entry in 1991.
• She was married once, to her manager Larry Alexander, brother of Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander; they divorced in 1982.