[Read our 30th Anniversary tribute to En Vogue’s Born To Sing here]
Those opening bars to En Vogue’s debut single “Hold On” remain the stuff of legend.
Before unleashing the booming new jack funk of the track which was brilliantly repurposed from James Brown’s 1973 jam “The Payback,” En Vogue used a lush a cappella rendition of the Smokey Robinson penned “Who’s Lovin’ You”—most famously performed by The Jackson 5—to introduce the song.
To say it created a sensation at radio and retail would be an understatement.
In the 30 years since “Hold On” and the group’s inaugural album Born To Sing (1990) stormed the charts, En Vogue have continued to seamlessly blend the past, present and future of R&B, soul and black pop to awesome effect. And while the commercial scene hasn’t always been in step with these trailblazing women, they’ve remained committed to their craft as their most recent affair Electric Café (2018) demonstrates.
When I sat down to interview two-thirds of En Vogue’s current configuration—founding members Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron-Braggs—the bulk of our conversation centered around that fantastic first set the vocal powerhouse (then a quartet) issued in 1990. With a luxe digital re-release complete with a slew of bonus tracks—including the rare Japanese-only B-side “Mover”—now in stores, Ellis and Herron-Braggs warmly shared their insights about what it was like for them write and record Born to Sing and why it continues to thrill audiences even now.
Further, the two women also fondly (and candidly) looked back at another project that is also celebrating a birthday this year too—their fourth studio album Masterpiece Theatre (2000).
Hello ladies! Congratulations on the reissue of Born To Sing. First, let’s go back to late 1989 and early 1990—can you talk about the other girl groups out on the charts at that time?
Cindy Herron-Braggs: Just before we hit the scene, there were a few girl groups out at the time, Exposé…
Terry Ellis: Sweet Sensation.
Cindy: Sweet Sensation, Good Girls, Bananarama…
Terry: Right. Bananarama, they were before us.
Cindy: Oh yeah!
Terry: And the Pointer Sisters were still on the scene doing their thing.
So, with that said, En Vogue came into that chart environment with Born To Sing. Why do you think the group and the album made such an unprecedented impact at that time?
Terry: When we came out, no one had fused fashion and street funk together. No other girl groups had done that. The Supremes—and all the other girl groups that had gone before us—were fashionable, beautiful, and classy. But I don’t think that anyone had come out and fused “the classic” with the street funk. And we were at the top of that.
Cindy: And then also some of those other girl groups mainly had one lead singer; we all traded off singing lead.
Terry: The blueprint for girl groups then was, usually, three girls in a group and like Cindy said, one sang lead. This was the first time (in a long time) when there were four girls in a group and all four sang lead.
Can you take me back to the Born To Sing sessions—what was it like to record the album?
Terry: We had so much fun! We just laughed and kidded around 99% of the time. And then (Denzil) Foster and (Thomas) McElroy gave us the opportunity to write—which they didn’t have to—but they extended the opportunity to us. Creatively, we were pretty much always on the same page. So, I would just say that is was a lot of fun.
There are two amazing covers on Born To Sing: the Andrew Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and Natalie Cole’s “Just Can’t Stay Away.” How did those covers come about?
Cindy: I think that for the Andrew Sisters idea—it’s hard to remember—I might have brought that idea to the table because I was such a big fan of ‘40s era music, vocals, girl groups and singers like Ella Fitzgerald. I was really big on that back then. And I thought, ‘we should do that, like who’s doing this, we should do it, let’s try to bring it back!’ For “Just Can’t Stay Away,” I don’t know how that came about, but I know that Terry was a huge fan of Natalie Cole.
Terry: Yeah, it was kind of surreal actually because Tommy (McElroy) and Denny (Foster) said they wanted to do a couple of remakes—because we were looking to do some remakes—and the next time they were listening to a bunch of songs when we came to the studio, “Just Can’t Stay Away” was one of the songs! I was like, [gasp] ‘oh my God, I can’t believe it!’ [laughs]
Did Natalie Cole ever get to hear your cover and let you know what she thought of it?
Terry: She did! We got to sing it with her! Can you believe it? We were on…remember that talent show she used to have?
Cindy: Yes! I can’t remember that name of it, she hosted a show, a talent show (Big Break), and she had us on as guest performers. And we had a moment where we sat down on the stairs—these stairs on the stage—and sang that with her. It was really cool.
Terry: It took everything in me not to cry, I couldn’t believe it was happening. I was scared too!
Can you talk about the title of the album and what inspired that?
Terry: Let me tell you the story behind that. We were all supposed to come up with names for the group and so, I remember I was home—Dawn (Robinson), Max (-ine Jones) and I all lived together in the beginning—and I was just thinking about my history in singing and how it led me to Oakland, California and singing with this group. Then, I thought about the girls and their stories and so I thought this was fate, it was destiny, this was supposed to happen. These girls were the ones that were supposed to be together—because initially it was meant to be three girls and it turned out to be four girls; I ended up as the fourth.
So, I just thought, you know, we were born to sing together. When we came back to the studio to draw the names from the pot, that one stuck out for everybody.
Born To Sing spun off four hit singles in “Hold On,” “Lies,” “You Don’t Have to Worry” and “Don’t Go.” Were there any other songs you all would have liked to see get the single treatment that did not?
Terry: Oh yeah, gotta be “Part of Me.”
Cindy: Yes, I’d say that one too.
What’s special about that song for you?
Cindy: I think the message.
Terry: The message…yeah.
Cindy: And the overall tone and feel of the music and the harmonies. Also, I would say “Just Can’t Stay Away” would’ve been a great radio song.
Terry: Oh yeah, I agree.
Thirty years on, Born To Sing continues to resonate with music lovers. Why do you think that is?
Cindy: Maybe because it was our debut record and it introduced us to the world. It kind of introduced a new style of music and vocals that created its own niche and then, you had the first single (“Hold On”) with the a cappella of “Who’s Lovin’ You?” At the time, that was really an unorthodox way to start a single, a radio single. Born To Sing just introduced us to the world and had so many great songs on it—it resonated with people.
And the visuals too…the dresses from the video for “Hold On,” those kind of became iconic. Women all over had a little black dress and you started seeing the hairstyles that sort of resembled what we wore.
I just think that it was a gamechanger on a few levels like that—music, style, vocal harmonies.
Terry: Yeah, I think you’re right. I agree.
With the digital reissue of Born To Sing happening, could there be an additional compact disc or vinyl expansion waiting in the wings?
Terry: I’ve heard there may be a vinyl (release), but I don’t know how true it is. [laughs]
Cindy: And I heard that it was only going to be a digital release, so I don’t know which one is true!
En Vogue has another album hitting an anniversary milestone this year: Masterpiece Theatre. Can you discuss what impact this album had on the En Vogue canon?
Terry: Oh my gosh, wow. I don’t know how you feel Cindy, but I feel like Masterpiece Theatre is our greatest work, we definitely pushed the envelope on that album. But that’s what we like to do because we love all types of music. Vocally, it was so challenging for us, which at the same time is what made it fun. And there was a track that we did that we could not get the release for, the musical release, which was called…um, what was the name of that song we made?
Cindy: Oh! It was the theme to The Godfather (“Speak Softly, Love”/“Love Theme”) and we recorded vocals for that song and called it “I Love You More.” Actually, you can find it somewhere out there online. But we could not get the rights to release it as a single and put it on the album, but it is such a great song!
Terry: It was so great! We had written the publisher (of the original song), but he turned us down, so we went to Francis Ford Coppola and presented it to him, and he loved it. He wrote a letter to the publisher asking for permission—he (Coppola) approved it—but the publisher still wouldn’t approve it, so we couldn’t put it on the record.
That’s so unfortunate!
Terry: I know! I feel like that (Masterpiece Theatre) is our greatest artistic endeavor.
Cindy: Yeah it is. And it really went over the heads of so many people, including our record label (Elektra).
Terry: But you know what I think though Cindy, I think if the record label had been behind it, I think people would have got it.
Cindy: I think so too.
Terry: There are so many people who don’t even know about the project or haven’t heard it.
Cindy: But then there are a lot of people who know about it who ask, “What happened to this record? And why wasn’t it pushed more?” I get a lot of those questions too. So, I just think that the record label couldn’t get it because we did a whole classical love suite and…they just couldn’t get it.
I want to state how wonderful your last album Electric Café is. Are there plans for a follow-up sometime soon?
Terry: Thank you! We’re looking forward to something, we don’t have any plans yet.
Cindy: Nothing solid.
Terry: Once we get past this quarantine and we’re able to get back to work, we’re looking forward to continuing the celebration of (Born To Sing’s) 30th and then hopefully, at some point, getting back into the studio to record a new album.
Cindy: And it may not be a full album right away, but we’ve discussed at least recording either an EP or just recording two or three really great singles and releasing them.
And lastly, what are your five favorite albums of all-time, ladies? Now Cindy, we have yours from the last time you and I spoke, would you care to make any changes to that list?
Cindy: Okay! I want to add Michael Jackson’s Forever, Michael and Teena Marie’s Robbery.
Terry: Oh gosh! I’ve got to give you five? Okay, Natalie Cole’s Natalie Live!, El DeBarge’s Second Chance; The Emotions’ Rejoice, Earth, Wind & Fire’s The Essential Collection and India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul. Can I add two more?
Yes, I’m sure we can make an exception for you.
Terry: Okay, I’m going to add Whitney Houston’s I’m Your Baby Tonight and Rufus’ Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan!
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