Helen Baylor

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 8, 1954, gospel singer-songwriter Helen LaRue Lowe is known by her stage name of Helen Baylor. After moving to L.A. aged 11, Lowe cut her teeth as a nightclub singer before going on to open for Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and B.B. King as a late teen. Under the professional name Little Helen, she released two soul singles with Bobby Sanders, "The Richest Girl" (1967) and "What About Me Boy", (1968) for the Soultown label. At 17, Baylor began touring with the stage production of the musical Hair and became a background vocalist for Captain & Tennille and Chaka Khan. She joined the soul and funk quartet Side Effect, appearing on Side Effect's “What You Need” and performing the lead vocals on the group's Top Five Billboard club hit Ronnie Laws' "Always There". In the 1980s, Baylor's career would veer off course as a result of substance abuse, but she became sober and focused on Christianity. In 1990, she released her first gospel album, Highly Recommended, and a second album, Look a Little Closer, followed in 1991. Start All Over, released in 1993, featured "Sold Out", which won a Dove award for Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year. But it was The Live Experience that sealed Baylor's fate as a gospel figurehead in 1994, reaching the top of Billboard's gospel chart. Two Top Ten gospel records, Love Brought Me Back (1996) and Helen Baylor...Live (1999), drew the 1990s to a close for Baylor who was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2000.