Barbara Pennington - Fan The Flame

I first discovered Barbara in 1975, and we were both so very young, while holding auditions in Chicago, arranged by Danny Leake, who I'd met the year before, in England, with his group, 100% Pure Poison. We had a number one for seven weeks on the US Disco Charts with "Twenty Four Hours A Day". In the Eighties, I got her signed to Record Shack. This song was one of the most beloved of the Record Shack classics, and Barbara's biggest pop hit in the UK. After the success of "Twenty Four Hours A Day", and her being known as one of the Queens of Disco, now she wanted to go smooth and sultry. She made two huge soul classics of the 1980s, "Fan The Flame", and "On A Crowded Street". This was the first of the two, and became a Soul Anthem in London in the 1980s, especially plugged to death by Tony Blackburn on Radio London. It gave Record Shack a new direction in 1984, moving away from High Energy into more traditional soul. People still remember the song to this day, twenty three years later, and it still looks cool and smooth, except for those awful dated breakdancers at the beginning, but after all, it was 1984, and that was the year for it. But the rest hasn't really dated. Barbara looks sultry and sings like velvet. One of the greatest and most remembered Soul Boy Anthems of the 1980s.