Friday, January 25, 2019

AccuRadio Song Of the Day-Xena

Artist:Xena
Song:On The Upside
Album:Electro Classics Volume 2: Deep Beats





On The Upside was a hit in dance clubs in 1983. Xena is a pseudonym for legendary background singer Lisa Fischer. She was one of the stars of the 2013 Oscar winning documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom. You can watch that on Netflix. She still tours. I saw her live a few years ago. She was born Dec. 1, 1958 in Brooklyn, NY. She got into studio work in the early 80s. After appearing on albums by Kleeer and D-Train, she recorded On The Upside as Xena. Most of the folks behind this record were also behind the 1984 smash hit Let The Music Play by Shannon. It's on the same label Emergency Records. The key guy seems to be veteran session musician Robbie Kilgore. On The Upside was early in his career. He would go on to work on among other things the 1988 Steve Winwood album Roll With It. The producer is Chris Barbosa who is mainly a remix guy but he also produced Let The Music Play. After recording a couple more songs as Xena, Lisa began her backup singing career with Luther Vandross. And she has toured with The Rolling Stones since 1989. After scoring a huge hit with How Can I Ease The Pain in 1991, Lisa returned to studio work and was mostly anonymous until Twenty Feet From Stardom. She currently tours with her band Grand Baton. I saw them live a couple of years ago. Check them out if they are coming your way and watch Twenty Feet From Stardom on Netflix. Here's a video for On The Upside by Xena.

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