Gloria Scott (born February 26, 1946) is an American soul singer.
Gloria Scott was born in Port Arthur, Texas, but was raised in the city of Houston, before moving with her family to northern California when in her early teens. Her aunt sang in a group with Sly Stone (then Sylvester Stewart), along with his sister Rose and cousin LaTanya. She first met Stone, three years her senior, during one of the group's rehearsals and then again a couple of years later at a high school dance.
After hearing Gloria Scott sing "Gee Whiz" by Carla Thomas, Stone formed a group with Scott as the lead, "Gloria Scott and the Tonettes." Her first 45 single “I Taught Him” was written and produced by Stone in 1964. Reminiscent of girl groups like Martha and the Vandellas, The Shirelles and The Ronettes, Warner Brothers picked up this single for distribution." In an interview with Christian John Wikane of Popmatters, Scott says : "Stone just kind of took me under his wing. I sang at the Cow Palace. Sly and his sister and his cousin LaTanya backed me up and they were called the Tonettes: Gloria Scott and the Tonettes."
The group disbanded after recording a few sides but the young singer continued performing around the San Francisco Bay area as a solo act. Charles Sullivan, the owner of the Fillmore Auditorium, helped Gloria Scott land her next gig -- as a backup singer for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Tina Turner says in her autobiography: "After the Ikettes Robbie, Jessie and Venetta walked out, Ike had quickly scooped up two inexperienced L.A. girls, Maxine Smith and Pat 'P.P.' Arnold, and a young club singer from Palo Alto named Gloria Scott."
Nevertheless, being a full-time Ikette proved to be a somewhat punishing schedule and after an altercation with Ike about money, she left to fend for herself. She began to set up her own solo gigs in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, as well as fronting a variety of rock-orientated groups and, for a while, working with Johnny Otis. Having settled in Hollywood, she was about to embark on the next phase of her career. Barry White took an interest in Scott through the recommendation of her songwriting partner, Sonny Chaney. White signed the young singer to his Soul Unlimited Companyand landed a deal with Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records. White produced and arranged her only album, What Am I Gonna Do, which was released in the winter of 1974.
Two tracks were released as singles. The album is notable for being the second released on the Casablanca label. At that time Warner Brothers distributed the album, in multiple countries. A confluence of events, however, hindered the album's impact. First, Casablanca had yet to establish its identity in the marketplace. Because Scott's deal was with White's company directly and not Casablanca, she missed opportunities to build a rapport with executives at the label who might have lent more support.
Second, Barry White had suddenly found phenomenal success with his own releases and did not accord Scott's career the same kind of attention. Casablanca released a non-album single, "Just as Long as We're Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)" which was also produced by Barry White. This song peaked at #14 on the Hot Dance charts, #16 on Billboard (Feb 22, 1975) Hot Soul Singles and on the U.S. R&B. It was played on the famous TV show Soul Train but a second album never materialized.
Scott's contract with Barry White stipulated a seven-year commitment, yet White only delivered one album for her. Frustrated by the lack of direction, Scott requested a release from her contract during the sixth year. While Barry White scored hit after hit with his own singles and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, Gloria Scott found herself abandoned. She was however credited as a backup singer on the 1979 self-titled album by Mary Wilson (of the Supremes), and in the late 1970s and early 1980s, also toured with Mary and fellow background singer, Karen Jackson after which she lived in Guam for about eight years and did quite well. In the early nineties, Gloria returned to the recording studios for a one-off 12” release, ‘It’s So Wonderful’, issued on her own Glosco label but it would be her last release until 2009.
Soul music lovers, however, did not abandon Gloria Scott. Vinyl copies of What Am I Gonna Do have traded hands upwards of $300 over the years and earned the singer a cult following in Europe. The album has been re-released at least three times on CD over the past 15 years and Gloria Scott even re-recorded some of the more popular cuts in Germany with the Baltic Soul Orchestra with which she has performed every year since 2008 at The Baltic Soul Weekender in Germany until Covid 19 stopped the festival.
Before COVID-19, Scott had been singing at various music events in Lake County, California, where she presently lives, sitting in with top-shelf locals like Rob Watson and Howard Reggie Dawkins.
(Edited from an article by C.J. Wikane @ Soul Tracks, Wikipedia & Lake County News)