Artist:Angela Bofill
Song:Tonight I Give In
Album:I Try: Anthology 1978-1993
Angela Bofill started out as a jazz singer in the late 70s. But she had her greatest success on the R&B charts in the early 80s with hits like Tonight I Give In. She was born May 2, 1954 in Brooklyn, NY but she was raised in The Bronx. Her father was Cuban and her mother was Puerto Rican. So she grew up listening to Latin music and soul. She sang in the All City Chorus which was made up of the best singers from New York City high schools. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1976. Angela was friends with jazz flautist Dave Valentin and he took her to his record label GRP Records owned by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. They produced the 1978 album Angie featuring the single This Time I'll Be Sweeter. At this point she was presented as a jazz singer. GRP was distributed by Arista Records. And Arista owner Clive Davis thought Angela could be a big R&B star. So she was moved to Arista and Narada Michael Walden was brought in to produce the 1981 album Something About You. Walden is a jazz drummer turned R&B producer. He had just had great success producing teen R&B singer Stacy Lattisaw. Angela recorded three albums with Walden and all three were very successful on the R&B charts. Tonight I Give In is from the 1983 album Too Tough. This was probably Angela's most successful album. Tonight I Give In reached #12 on the R&B Singles chart and Too Tough reached #5. Though Angela frequently wrote her own songs, Tonight I Give In was written by Lana Bogan and Lonnie Shelton. Shelton is a session guitarist. Lana wrote songs for and toured with Seals & Crofts. Among the musicians on the album were Jerry Hey and Wayne Wallace arranging the horns, Nat Adderley Jr. on keyboards, Randy Jackson on bass, Walden on drums and Sheila E. on percussion. Angela faded after she split with Walden. She left Arista in 1985. You can get all of her hits on this 2CD comp. Angela also recorded for Capitol and Jive but she didn't have the same success. Angela suffered a stroke in 2006 and then a second stroke in 2007. That ended her career and she died on June 23, 2024 at age 70. Here's Angela Bofil performing Tonight I Give In on Soul Train 1983.
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