Scherrie Payne was born in Detriot, Michigan on 4th November and is the sister of Freda Payne (of the monster selling hit Band of Gold).
Scherrie was very nearly named Elzada (Scherrie tells me that it is pronounced "Elzayder"!) after her aunt, but her mother had second thoughts and stuck with the name that she had originally chosen!
Her first taste of the recording business came at the tender age of 3 when she recorded Hey Bop-a-Be Bop when her uncle took her and sister, Freda, to a local store where you could cut your own acetate record for just a dollar!!
In 1958, she recorded her first song, entitled Gee, I feel sorry for me, then in 1962 she performed her first professional
gig with the Louis Helfrick Quartet at Michigan State University. Then, in 1968 her break came when her sister was
signed to the Invictus label and Scherrie got to know Holland-Dozier-Holland who later signed her to a group being
formed called The Glasshouse. The other members that were also signed were: Pearl Jones, Ty Hunter and Larry Hunter.
The first track that they recorded was Crumbs off the table, which has become a song that The Supremes now sing, with
the lead vocals performed by Scherrie.
By 1973 a few changes had started to take place: Pearl Jones had been replaced by Sylvia Smith and Ty Hunter left to join the Originals. Then Holland-Dozier-Holland asked Scherrie to become the Lead singer of Honeycone to replace Edna Wright who went solo; but fate lended a helping hand and Mary Wilson asked her to join the Supremes - the only drawback was that she was still under contract to Invictus until 1974 which is when the Supremes started recording their next album with new member, Scherrie.
The first show that she performed in as one of the Supremes was at the State Fair in Phoenix, Arizona. By this time, Scherrie's contract with Invictus had ended and they could now start to record their next album and the first song that she recorded with the Supremes was The Shoop Shoop Song(It's in his kiss) which was never released and then 18 years later Cher released the song and stomped up the English charts.
In 1975 the group recorded the song He's My Man then an album followed. The fans were encapsulated with The little lady with the big voice, as she became known.
1976 came and so did two more albums: High Energy and Mary, Scherrie and Susaye. In addition, it was decided by senior officials that Cindy's by this time voluptuous figure was not the right image that they wanted to convey for the group, so out went Cindy and in came Susaye Green just in time for the recording of the first album.
1977 came and it was decided that Mary Wilson should go solo...
they gave their final farewell concert on the 12th June at the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane.
1978 saw Mary in a legal wrangle with Motown and plans for the group to reform with a new third member - Joyce Vincent-Wilson were dashed on the rocks. Motown had lots of singles that Scherrie had recorded solo but never released any of them. Scherrie and Susaye released an album entitled Partners and then a single entitled Leaving Me Was The Best Thing That You've Ever Done but it never saw any success as by this time Motown had lost interest in the girls. Scherrie had another single out entitled Fly which was from the film Moi Fleur Bleu which starred Jodie Foster.
1982 came and saw a slight change of direction for Scherrie as she wrote the musical Ten Good Years but all of the backing for the show fell through and so the musical never made it to the opening night. The next year Scherrie did a recording for Rick Gianatos that was a dance style remake of 10CC's I'm Not In Love .
She starred in a musical herself - Dreamstreet - which was performed in Las Vegas with George Soloman. Scherrie release yet another single on the Altair label called One night Only which was from Dreamgirls.
Dreamstreet closed in 1984 and then Scherrie found out that she was expecting a baby (Shoshana). Scherrie signed up with the record label Superstar International in 1986, then in 1987 an album was produced entitled Incredible. A few singles had also been released, two of which were duets with Philip Ingram (the brother of James Ingram). Superstar International were by this time interested in reforming the group the Supremes with Scherrie, Jean(Terrel) and Cindy joining forces again. Cindy was at the same time asked if she would like to embark on a solo career in England on the HiHat label which she accepted and so they brought in one of the original 8 Supremes, Lynda Laurence to make up the trio and the group recorded under the name The Former Ladies of The Supremes.
The Former Ladies recorded a single entitled We're Back with the 'B'side being Get Away. Shortly before Superstar International folded, Scherrie's Incredible album was cut and released, but only a few copies ever got out and the Former Ladies never recorded any more with that label.
1988 saw Scherrie recorded Pure Energy for the Nightmare label and in 1990, Scherrie, Jean and Lynda were asked to sign for the Motorcity label and their first single released was Crazy 'Bout The Guy to coincide with the Legends of Motorcity tour in late 1990. They recorded a number of songs including the remake of Stoned Love and other original Supreme's songs. Scherrie recorded a number of solo songs including Who's wrong, Who's Right, One More Time, I'm Still Waiting and Aint No Mountain High Enough.
In 1991 they Toured again after recording a song called I Wanna Be Loved and yet again,
in 1993 she recorded some more solo songs - Give Me The Night, Don't Rock My World and
Keep On Loving Me all of which appeared on their first album with the new label entitled
Supreme Voices and to date she is constantly on the go with lots of more albums released
and many, many, concerts performed including an International one just recently completed
where the Former Ladies were on tour with The Three Degrees and Sister Sledge, touring
all around the country as well as Italy and other European countries.
She wouldn't change her hectic lifestyle for anything, though... She loves the madness too much!!!!!
Neil Dudding (c)1997
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