Deniece Williams

June Deniece Chandler – AKA soul and gospel singer Deniece Williams – was born on June 3, 1951 in Gary, Indiana. She is best-known for a string of hit singles including her Number 1 hit “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” in 1984. In her long and illustrious career, she has been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning four in various gospel categories. Her first studio recordings – as Deniece Chandler - were in the late ‘60s. She moved to California in the early 1970s, and became a member of Wonderlove, who provided backing vocals for Stevie Wonder. She worked on his critically and commercially successful albums Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life. She also provided backing vocals on albums by Syreeta Wright, Minnie RIperton, and Roberta Flack. Her first solo album, This Is Niecy, was released in 1976. Co-produced by Earth Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, the Gold-certified album rose to Number 3 on Billboard’s Top Soul/R&B Albums chart. Williams recorded a duet album with Johnny Mathis in 1978 entitled That’s What Friends Are For. The Mathis/Williams single “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” hit the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles, Hot Soul, and Adult Contemporary charts. Her 1982 album Niecy featured a cover of the Royalettes’ “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle”, which reached Number 1 on the Hot Soul Songs chart and Number 10 on the Hot 100 Singles. She and Johnny Mathis reunited to record “Without Us”, which was used as the theme song to the hit television series Family Ties, which premiered towards the end of 1982. In 1984, she released the album Let’s Hear It for the Boy. The title track reached Number 1 on the Hot 100 Singles chart and appeared in the hit film Footloose. By 1985, Williams began turning her attention to the gospel market. Her first gospel-focused album, So Glad I Know, was released in 1986. After six Grammy nominations, she won two awards for tracks taken from So Glad I Know: Best Female Soul Gospel Performance (“I Surrender All”) and Best Duo or Group Gospel Performance (“They Say” with Sandi Patti). She won a Grammy Award for Best Female Gospel Performance in 1988 for “I Believe in You”, a song lifted from her 1987 album Water Under the Bridge. Williams continued to release albums, winning a Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Grammy for her 1999 album This is My Song.