Rita Coolidge

TWO-TIME GRAMMY WINNER MAKES FOLLIES DEBUT

Rita Coolidge Lifts Plaza Theatre Audiences "Higher & Higher" With Billboard Hits

One of the most masterful singers of the past thirty years is two-time Grammy Award-winner Rita Coolidge. In 1977, she topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" and has continued charting hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts ever since. She now shares many of those hits in her debut appearance with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies.

Born in 1945 in Lafayette, Tennessee, of Scottish and Cherokee Native American ancestry, Coolidge graduated high school in Jacksonville, Florida, and attended Florida State University, where she earned a B.A.

She began her career as a highly in demand session vocalist for artists such as Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and Leon Russell.

Her first solo single was recorded in 1968, after former Elvis Presley chief aide and close friend, Marty Lacker, discovered her. Lacker produced Coolidge’s "Turn Around And Love You", which became a regional hit in Los Angeles and the West Coast. She then worked with Leon Russell, and both became members of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Her performance of "Superstar" on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen album helped her gain national attention.

Coolidge became known as "The Delta Lady" and inspired Leon Russell to write a song of the same name for her. It was during this time that she met Kris Kristofferson while filming Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in which she played Maria; the two married in 1973. With Kristofferson, she recorded several duet albums, two of which earned a Grammy.

Her most successful album, the platinum certified Anytime . . . Anywhere, spawned three Top 10 singles including (the aforementioned) "Higher and Higher," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and the gold certified, "We're All Alone."

Coolidge continued to score hits with "One Fine Day," "Words," "I Don't Want to Talk About It," "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love" and "You."

She also found success vocalizing for movie soundtracks. In 1983, she recorded the song "All Time High" for the James Bond film Octopussy. The single was one of her two #1 hits and topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts. Coolidge also recorded the love theme from the movie Splash, "Love Came For Me."

In 1997, Coolidge formed Walela, a Native American recording trio, with sister Priscilla and niece Laura Satterfield. Walela means hummingbird in Cherokee. "In the Cherokee nation, women are revered as they age," says Coolidge. "I am in the middle of the process, and I’m trying to embrace it with grace and dignity."

And, along with her hit music, that’s exactly what Rita Coolidge brings Follies’ audiences this season to the stage of The Historic Plaza Theatre.