26-01-2014, 09:26
number 7: RENEE GEYER
![[Image: 356751-top-50-voices.jpg]](http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/04/01/1226610/356751-top-50-voices.jpg)
Renée Geyer was born in 1953 in Melbourne, Australia, to a Hungarian Jewish father, Edward Geyer, and a Slovakian Holocaust survivor mother, as the youngest of three children.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] Geyer was named Renée for another Holocaust survivor who had helped her mother in Auschwitz after Josef Mengele had assigned the rest of her mother's family to death.[SUP][11][/SUP] At a young age, the Geyers moved to Sydney where her parents were managers of a migrant hostel.[SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] Geyer describes herself as a problem child,[SUP][11][/SUP] and her parents called her übermutig (German for reckless).[SUP][17][/SUP] She attended various schools and was expelled from a private school, Methodist Ladies College, for petty stealing.[SUP][17][/SUP] Her first job was as a receptionist for the Australian Law Society.[SUP][11][/SUP]
In 1970, at the age of 16,[SUP][11][/SUP] while she was still at Sydney High School,[SUP][18][/SUP] Geyer began her singing career as a vocalist with jazz-blues band Dry Red.[SUP][3][/SUP] This group also contained Eric McCusker of Mondo Rock fame[SUP][18][/SUP] For her audition she sang The Bee Gees' hit "To Love Somebody".[SUP][17][/SUP] She soon left Dry Red for other bands including the more accomplished jazz-rock group Sun.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] Sun consisted of Geyer, George Almanza (piano), Henry Correy (bass guitar), Garry Nowell (drums), Keith Shadwick (sax, flute, clarinet, vocals) and Chris Sonnenberg (guitar).[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] The group released one album, Sun 1972 in August 1972, Geyer had already departed in mid-1972 and later joined Mother Earth whose R&B/soul music style was more in keeping with Geyer's idiom.[SUP][4][/SUP] Mother Earth consisted of Geyer, Jim Kelly (guitar), David Lindsay (bass guitar), John Proud (drums) and Mark Punch (guitar, vocals).[SUP][19][/SUP]
RCA, who had released Sun's album,[SUP][3][/SUP] then signed Geyer to a solo contract; however, when it came time to record her first solo album, Geyer, already showing signs of her self-proclaimed "Difficult Woman" tag, insisted that Mother Earth back her on the album.[SUP][4][/SUP] Her first solo release in September 1973 was the eponymous Renée Geyer,[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][5][/SUP] which mostly consisted of R&B/Soul cover versions of overseas hits and was produced by Gus McNeil.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] Geyer left Mother Earth by the end of the year
Geyer's next album, It's a Man's Man's World, produced by Tweed Harris (ex-The Groove),[SUP][19][/SUP] was released in August 1974.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] It became her first charting album when it peaked at #28 in October on the Australian albums charts.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP] The studio band were, Harris (keyboards), Geoff Cox (drums; Bootleg Family Band), Tim Gaze (guitar; Kahvas Jute, Tamam Shud), Phil Manning (guitar; Chain), Steve Murphy (guitar; Blackfeather), Tony Naylor (guitar; Bootleg Family Band/Avalanche) and Barry "Big Goose" Sullivan (bass guitar; Chain).[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] The title track, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", was a cover of James Brown's hit from 1965, and became her first top 50 single
Having enjoyed a career peak at home in Australia, Geyer returned to live in Los Angeles in 1984 to concentrate on breaking into the musical scene there.[SUP][9][/SUP] She continued to record and perform as a solo artist over the next decade though with less chart success in her own country due to lack of profile. Her only album for WEA, Sing to Me was released in June 1985,[SUP][19][/SUP] which peaked in the top 40;[SUP][6][/SUP] its accompanying first single "All My Love" reached #28 in Australia,[SUP][6][/SUP] but was not given a US release. None of the follow-up singles reached the top 50,[SUP][6][/SUP] so Geyer and WEA parted company thereafter.
Renée Geyer was born in 1953 in Melbourne, Australia, to a Hungarian Jewish father, Edward Geyer, and a Slovakian Holocaust survivor mother, as the youngest of three children.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] Geyer was named Renée for another Holocaust survivor who had helped her mother in Auschwitz after Josef Mengele had assigned the rest of her mother's family to death.[SUP][11][/SUP] At a young age, the Geyers moved to Sydney where her parents were managers of a migrant hostel.[SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] Geyer describes herself as a problem child,[SUP][11][/SUP] and her parents called her übermutig (German for reckless).[SUP][17][/SUP] She attended various schools and was expelled from a private school, Methodist Ladies College, for petty stealing.[SUP][17][/SUP] Her first job was as a receptionist for the Australian Law Society.[SUP][11][/SUP]
In 1970, at the age of 16,[SUP][11][/SUP] while she was still at Sydney High School,[SUP][18][/SUP] Geyer began her singing career as a vocalist with jazz-blues band Dry Red.[SUP][3][/SUP] This group also contained Eric McCusker of Mondo Rock fame[SUP][18][/SUP] For her audition she sang The Bee Gees' hit "To Love Somebody".[SUP][17][/SUP] She soon left Dry Red for other bands including the more accomplished jazz-rock group Sun.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] Sun consisted of Geyer, George Almanza (piano), Henry Correy (bass guitar), Garry Nowell (drums), Keith Shadwick (sax, flute, clarinet, vocals) and Chris Sonnenberg (guitar).[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] The group released one album, Sun 1972 in August 1972, Geyer had already departed in mid-1972 and later joined Mother Earth whose R&B/soul music style was more in keeping with Geyer's idiom.[SUP][4][/SUP] Mother Earth consisted of Geyer, Jim Kelly (guitar), David Lindsay (bass guitar), John Proud (drums) and Mark Punch (guitar, vocals).[SUP][19][/SUP]
RCA, who had released Sun's album,[SUP][3][/SUP] then signed Geyer to a solo contract; however, when it came time to record her first solo album, Geyer, already showing signs of her self-proclaimed "Difficult Woman" tag, insisted that Mother Earth back her on the album.[SUP][4][/SUP] Her first solo release in September 1973 was the eponymous Renée Geyer,[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][5][/SUP] which mostly consisted of R&B/Soul cover versions of overseas hits and was produced by Gus McNeil.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] Geyer left Mother Earth by the end of the year
Geyer's next album, It's a Man's Man's World, produced by Tweed Harris (ex-The Groove),[SUP][19][/SUP] was released in August 1974.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] It became her first charting album when it peaked at #28 in October on the Australian albums charts.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP] The studio band were, Harris (keyboards), Geoff Cox (drums; Bootleg Family Band), Tim Gaze (guitar; Kahvas Jute, Tamam Shud), Phil Manning (guitar; Chain), Steve Murphy (guitar; Blackfeather), Tony Naylor (guitar; Bootleg Family Band/Avalanche) and Barry "Big Goose" Sullivan (bass guitar; Chain).[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP] The title track, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", was a cover of James Brown's hit from 1965, and became her first top 50 single
Having enjoyed a career peak at home in Australia, Geyer returned to live in Los Angeles in 1984 to concentrate on breaking into the musical scene there.[SUP][9][/SUP] She continued to record and perform as a solo artist over the next decade though with less chart success in her own country due to lack of profile. Her only album for WEA, Sing to Me was released in June 1985,[SUP][19][/SUP] which peaked in the top 40;[SUP][6][/SUP] its accompanying first single "All My Love" reached #28 in Australia,[SUP][6][/SUP] but was not given a US release. None of the follow-up singles reached the top 50,[SUP][6][/SUP] so Geyer and WEA parted company thereafter.
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.