The story of Suzette Charles’ debut album is a remarkable odyssey, one which has taken 33 years to reach fruition. It involves Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, the end of Stock, Aitken And Waterman and how the first bi-racial Miss America defied her record company to fly to London to work with SAW – only to be dropped for doing so, seeing the results of their music sit in the vaults for three decades.
It’s an ultimately redemptive tale, in which Suzette left a controlling marriage for a supportive new husband and to resume singing, finally finishing the album whose original six songs have become the ultimate lost gems for a generation of pop fans.
That Suzette Charles’ self-titled album lives up to the story of its creation is testament to a versatile singer whose powerful voice masters pure pop, showstopping ballads, Japanese city pop and wild dance music with equal skill, helped by the equally diverse talents of writer/producer Mike Stock at the top of his formidable game. However you look at it, this is compelling pop music from a compelling artist.
“Finishing this record is living out a dream,” says Suzette. “I’ve thought about these songs constantly for 33 years. It’s an amazing opportunity that Mike and I have finally been able to revisit them and create new songs at the same time.”
“I’m extremely happy we’ve got to finish our record,” enthuses Mike. “I know there’s a lot of Stock, Aitken And Waterman fans who’ve waited a long time for this album. I hope they like it – and I hope this is just the springboard for Suzette’s music.”
In 1993, Suzette was signed to RCA in America. A former opening act for Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Sammy Davis Jr, she was taken on by Barry Manilow’s manager. But Suzette was unhappy with the R&B direction RCA were moving her towards.
“I never liked the music I was given at RCA,” explains Suzette. “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t exciting. I needed music which meant something and which excited me.” Suzette was an admirer of Stock, Aitken And Waterman, originally through Rick Astley’s debut album. “Rick had wiped everybody off the map in America,” recalls Suzette. “He had a unique pop/R&B/jazz flavour. I quickly became a fan of Stock, Aitken And Waterman, and saw that they had a musical family, with talent like Kylie Minogue and Bananarama. It sounded like music I could do, in my niche, so if they could give me just one song, that would be fantastic for me.”
So Suzette decided to fly to London to SAW’s studio and demand a meeting. “That was a big step,” acknowledges Suzette with some understatement. “I’ve always had that determination, ever since I was a child actor and had to learn to cope with getting over a lot of ‘Almost’ roles.”
Indeed, Suzette appeared in Sesame Street and ABC soap Loving, but she also got down to the final two for Irene Cara’s lead role in Fame – “We shared the same manager, and I learned that he was pushing Irene, rather than me, but Irene did a good job” – and Diahann Carroll’s daughter in Dynasty: “I had 10 screen tests with Aaron Spelling. I was almost, almost, almost. I’ve had it in me to always do my best, because one time it will happen.”
It happened when Suzette became the first bi-racial winner of Miss America, aged 21 in 1984. She explains: “My mother grew up in Atlantic City, which was the place for Miss America. As the youngest of seven children and a West Indian immigrant, mom always had this grandeur in her mind about Miss America. She told me not to worry about whether I look the right way and to just enjoy the opportunity. I’m still doing that now.”
When Suzette turned up at PWL’s studio, the receptionist was naturally sceptical. “She told me: ‘People send us cassettes every day – see that pile over there?’” laughs Suzette. “What I had in my favour is that I already had a record deal. I was able to say: ‘I just want to meet with SAW because I love the music. I don’t need a deal.’ And I made it clear I wasn’t leaving without meeting them.”
Impressed at her tenacity, and realising that, yes, Suzette Charles really did have a record deal with RCA, Pete Waterman met with her. “I didn’t know that Pete was such a bigger than life personality,” Suzette smiles. “That made it easier, as he was so friendly and excitable.”
Mike wanted to check the realities of Suzette’s capability of joining the SAW family. He remembers: “Suzette said: ‘Play me anything and I’ll sing it,’ so I played her You Are My Sunshine. Other singers would have tried to give it this great solo flair, all bells and whistles, but Suzette was happy to keep an appropriate little tune. She picked it up beautifully. I liked her instantly.”
Within days, Suzette had recorded six songs with Mike. These included the classic pop earworm Don’t Stop – “I love that, and my 30-year-old daughter does too, it’s so timeless,” notes Suzette – and the tender After You’re Gone, which has taken on a new meaning in the intervening period: “Now, it brings to my mind the loss I felt when my mother passed. She was the inspiration for my love for music.”
“That’s a sad little song,” adds Mike. “It’s never been released properly, yet the person who does my social media has its lyrics tattooed on his forearm: ‘And the spirit of you is still here in the room after you’re gone.’ I had no idea how much that song means to people.”
The album’s closing song, Every Time We Touch is as epic a ballad as anything Mike Stock has ever written, a glorious anthem carried along by Suzette’s impassioned yet controlled vocals. “I haven’t had much chance to do a song like that before, but I knew Suzette could deliver it,” says Mike. “Suzette was a natural for that song, which is one that could have been written any time in the last 50 years. There’s a drama to Every Time We Touch.” Suzette adds: “I cried when I recorded it, as it’s so sweet, innocent and pure. It’s so delicate and so different from anything else Mike has done.”
As stellar as the original six songs were, only one was released in 1993. Free To Love Again stalled at No 58, yet Suzette had a ball promoting it, doing a club PA tour, a BBC Radio 1 tour, and appearing on This Morning With Richard And Judy: “I had a great time with some dancers on Richard And Judy, performing with them outside.” There were also huge billboard posters, as Suzette laughs: “I saved one of those posters and showed it to Mike recently, complete with an advert at the bottom which said you could hear Free To Love Again for just 39p by calling this number. So there was some excitement about my song. But when I went back to New York: nothing.”
In fact, worse than nothing. RCA’s nose was spectacularly out of joint at their singer recording six songs without their permission. Suzette says: “RCA told me: ‘Whatever you recorded, it’s not coming here. Your deal with us is done.’ I was dropped, but I’d taken a chance and it had resulted with a magical encounter with the kings of pop. So I didn’t feel too bad about that.”
For their part, Stock, Aitken And Waterman were unable to help. The trio’s incredible run of hits was coming to an end, and they had differing ideas about how to revive their fortunes. Matt Aitken had left by Suzette’s arrival, while Mike and Pete had also become professionally fractious.
As Mike puts it: “The public stayed with us, but you can get too familiar: ‘Oh no, here comes another PWL record.’ The industry was always ready to give us a right-hander anyway, and that gets wearying after a while. We wanted a break from each other. Those songs with Suzette were the last thing Pete and I worked on together.”
Suzette quickly landed a new deal with Atlantic, as part of mega producer David Foster’s idea to revive a new line-up of The 5th Dimension, with Suzette in the role Marilyn McCoo had originally taken in the Up Up And Away hitmakers.
That ultimately became another “Almost” part in Suzette’s life, with their album remaining unreleased. Then she married a man who had no interest in Suzette carrying on her career. “He wanted me to support his career, while I stayed at home with the children,” says Suzette. “As a performer almost all my life, that was so hard to fathom. How could it be that I wasn’t going to sing or perform again, when it was so much a part of my life?”
As Mike says: “I hadn’t followed Suzette’s career after our work together, because sadly her marriage meant she didn’t have one. It’s such a shame.”
In 2016, two weeks after filing for divorce, Suzette and Mike met for the first time when she flew back to London. “A lot of women come out of a relationship like mine, thinking: ‘Where am I as a person?’,” says Suzette. “I called friends and asked them to remind me who I was. My marriage had turned me into someone I didn’t recognise. I didn’t want to be that person. Reconnecting with Mike, it opened up the possibility of doing this again.”
Their respective busy lives meant it took until 2024 for working together to become a reality, but the old magic was instantly back. The fizzing dance euphoria of We Lost The Beat tells of the 33-year wait to release an album, while Whenever You’re Around fits into the Japanese revived city pop genre, as Mike explains: “Two of Warner’s biggest artists are city pop, in Japan. They’re both in their seventies, and they’ve sold millions of albums. It’s a song with an international element. The album version is longer, with a groove intro that lets listeners see where the song is going. Working with Suzette again has been joyful.”
The beautiful Simple Life sees Mike predict that Suzette might one day move from her 28th-floor Manhattan apartment to the countryside. He’s got a pretty good track record for prescient songwriting, not least After You’re Gone’s eerie mood about someone whose spirit lingers, which foretells how Suzette’s music has stuck around with pop fans in the long wait for an official release. “That happens every time with artists,” admits Mike. “You feed in what you think about them into the songs, and subconsciously it comes true a lot. Knowing Suzette as she is now, I’ve tried to tie that all together into these new songs.”
Suzette says of her return to the studio: “It felt like no time had passed. Working with Mike now is as magical as it was then. I don’t drink or smoke, so my voice has the same power and I’m raring to go. That goes for doing shows too. I’ve kept my body limber for any dancing, because deep down I always thought I might get the chance to do this again. On the new videos, I even had the same make-up woman I’d used for Free To Love Again in 1993.”
Of course, it’s unusual for an artist to be releasing their debut album after 33 years. As Suzette reasons: “This music transcends age. Look at Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones: music is timeless and ageless. I hope this album reaches people who can enjoy music forever. Pop music isn’t about age. It’s fairy dust that everybody can feel.”
With both Suzette and Mike hoping they can resume working on a second album at some point, in the meantime dive in for some irresistible earworm pop which will become instantly addictive whatever your age. Some albums are worth the wait.