Teena Marie
Mary Christine Brockert, known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie and later acquired the nickname Lady T, given to her by her collaborator and friend Rick James.
She was known for her distinctive and soulful soprano vocals, which caused many listeners to believe she was black. Her success in R&B and soul music, and loyalty to these genres earned her the title Ivory Queen of Soul. She played rhythm guitar, keyboards, and congas. Teena Marie was a four-time Grammy Award nominee, winning posthumously in 2023 for Best R&B Song for co-writing "Cuff It".
Early life
Mary Christine Brockert was born on March 5, 1956, in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of construction worker Thomas Leslie Brockert and home renovator Mary Anne. She spent her early childhood in Mission Hills, California. She said that her ethnic heritage was Belgian, Portuguese, Italian, Irish, and Native American. In 2005, while visiting Louisiana, she discovered that her paternal ancestors once lived in New Orleans. She took to singing naturally, performing Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" by age 2.When she was eight years old, her parents began sending Tina on auditions which, among other things, netted her an acting role on The Beverly Hillbillies, in season 3 episode “Dr. Jed Clampett,” credited as Tina Marie Brockert. She later taught herself the guitar, bass, and congas. She formed a semi-professional R&B band with her younger brother Anthony and their cousin.
In the early 1970s, after the family moved to Venice, California, Brockert spent her adolescent years in the historically black Venice enclave of Oakwood, nicknamed "Venice Harlem". There, she acquired a strong spiritual influence from neighborhood matriarch Berthalynn Jackson, a black woman who became her godmother.
While attending Venice High School, Brockert joined the Summer Dance Production and was the female lead in the school's production of The Music Man. She also fronted a local Venice rock band "Truvair" in 1974–1975. The band's members were her high school classmates. Following graduation, Brockert juggled auditioning for record companies while studying English literature at Santa Monica College.
Career
1976–1982: Gordy era
In 1976, Brockert, as the lead singer of a band she had assembled, which included long-time friend Mickey Boyce, gained an introduction to Motown Records staff producer Hal Davis, best known for his work with Brenda Holloway and the Jackson 5. It led to an audition for a film about orphans that was being developed by Motown. The project was shelved, but label boss Berry Gordy, impressed with her singing but having no need for a musical group, decided to sign her as a solo act.Tina recorded unreleased material with a number of different producers over the next few years, before being spotted by labelmate Rick James, who was immediately impressed with her sound. Some of Tina's earlier, unreleased material has been made available on the compilation album First Class Love: Rare Tee. At the time, James, already established as a successful recording artist, was on tap to produce for Diana Ross but changed his mind and decided to work with Brockert, instead.
The result was her debut album release, Wild and Peaceful. The album was, at one point, due to be credited to "Teena Tryson", but ultimately was put out under "Teena Marie", the name by which she was known throughout her remaining career. It scored Teena Marie her first top-ten R&B hit "I'm a Sucker for Your Love", a duet with James.
Neither the album nor its packaging had her picture on it, and many radio programmers assumed she was black during the earliest months of her career. This myth was disproved when she performed her debut hit with James on Soul Train in 1979, becoming the show's first white female guest. She appeared on the show eight more times, more than any other white act.
In 1980, her album Lady T, featured her portrait on the cover. It is noted for having production from Richard Rudolph, the widower of R&B singer Minnie Riperton. Teena Marie had asked Berry Gordy to contact Rudolph and secure his input, as Rick James was unavailable, and she felt unprepared to be sole producer of her own material. Rudolph had intended for "Now That I Have You", a song he penned, for his wife Minnie Riperton, but offered it to Teena Marie for Lady T. Rudolph co-composed the single "Behind the Groove", which reached number 21 on the R&B singles chart and No. 6 on the U.K. singles chart in 1980. The song was included on the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the Fever 105 radio station.
In 1980, Teena Marie released the LP Irons in the Fire, for which she handled most of the writing and production herself, an achievement considered rare at the time for a female artist. The single "I Need Your Lovin'" brought Teena Marie her first top 40 hit. It peaked at No. 28 in the UK chart.
In 1981, Teena Marie appeared on James' album Street Songs, with the duet "Fire and Desire". In an interview, Teena Marie said she had a fever at the time yet managed to record her vocals in one take. After the session, she was driven to a hospital. The two performed the single at the 2004 BET Awards, which was their last TV appearance with one another, as James died later that year.
In 1981, Teena Marie continued her success with Motown, with the release of It Must Be Magic, her first gold record, which included her then biggest hit on R&B, "Square Biz". Other notable tracks include "Portuguese Love", featuring a brief, uncredited cameo by James, No. 54 R&B Singles, and the title track "It Must be Magic".
In 1982, Teena Marie got into a heated legal battle with Motown Records over her contract and disagreements about releasing her new material. The lawsuit resulted in "The Brockert Initiative", which made it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist. In such instances, artists are able to sign and release with another label instead of being held back by an unsupportive one. Teena Marie commented on the law in a Los Angeles Times article, saying "It wasn't something I set out to do. I just wanted to get away from Motown and have a good life. But it helped a lot of people, like Luther Vandross and the Mary Jane Girls, and a lot of different artists, to be able to get out of their contracts." She left Motown as the label's most successful white solo act.
1983–1990: Epic era
Contacted by Epic Records in the fall of 1982, after expressing dismay over her Motown contract, Teena Marie signed a worldwide deal with the Columbia Records subsidiary, that also allowed her to establish her own publishing company, Midnight Magnet. Epic released the concept album Robbery, which featured the hit "Fix It", as well as "Shadow Boxing" and "Casanova Brown". Casanova Brown was one of many tracks Teena Marie wrote over the years about her real-life romance with one-time mentor Rick James.In 1984, Teena Marie released her biggest-selling album Starchild. It yielded "Lovergirl", her biggest hit, which peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1985 and at No. 9 on the R&B chart. "Lovergirl" was included in the 2002 Jennifer Lopez movie Maid in Manhattan. The label also released the moderate R&B hit "Out on a Limb", which peaked at No. 56 on the R&B chart but didn't break the Hot 100. "14k" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1985 film The Goonies, but the song was not a hit.
In 1986, Teena Marie released a rock music-influenced concept album titled Emerald City. She recorded the rock-influenced track "Lead Me On", co-produced by Giorgio Moroder, for the soundtrack of the 1986 box-office hit film Top Gun.
In 1988, she returned to R&B and funk, releasing the critically acclaimed album Naked to the World. That album contained the hit "Ooo La La La", which reached # 1 on the Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.
In the fall of 1990, Teena Marie released Ivory. It had two R&B hits: "Here's Looking at You" and "If I Were a Bell".
1991–2002: Hiatus and ''Passion Play'' and ''Black Rain''
In the 1990s, Teena Marie's classic R&B, soul, and funk records were either sampled by hip-hop artists or covered by R&B divas. Teena Marie is regarded as somewhat of a pioneer in helping to bring hip-hop to the mainstream, by becoming one of the first artists of her time to rap one of her singles—the aforementioned "Square Biz". In the hip-hop portion of that song, she mentions some of her inspirations: Sarah Vaughan, Johann Sebastian Bach, Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni. In 1996, the Fugees paid tribute to her by interpolating the chorus of her 1988 hit "Ooo, La, La, La", into its own "Fu-Gee-La".In the fall of 1994, Teena Marie released Passion Play on her independent label, Sarai Records.
On March 30, 1995, Teena Marie appeared and performed in an episode of New York Undercover as an old friend of one of the characters.
Subsequently, Teena Marie devoted most of her time to raising her daughter Alia Rose, who has since adopted the stage name "Rose Le Beau" and is pursuing her own singing career. In the late 1990s, she began working on a new album, titled Black Rain. She was unable to secure a major label deal for the album and did not want to put it out on her own Sarai label, in light of the modest sales of Passion Play. However, a version pressed for promotional purposes was widely bootlegged among fans. This contained the tracks, "The Mackin' Game", "I'll Take the Pressure", "Baby, I'm Your Fiend", "My Body's Hungry", "Ecstasy", "I'm on Fire", "Watcha Got 4 Me", "Black Rain", "1999", "Butterflies", "Spanish Harlem", "Blackberry Playa", "The Perfect Feeling", and "Rainbow Outro".