Freda Payne

Freda Payne was born in Detroit in 1942 and started singing in church choirs and local shows. She signed with Motown in the mid-1960s and put out her first single, "You Brought the Sunshine." Her voice had a clear, strong quality that worked well in the studio.

In 1970, she recorded "Band of Gold," written by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team. The song went to number one on the R&B chart and made the Top 5 on the pop chart. It became her signature track, with that aching vocal about a marriage that falls apart before it really begins. Other songs from around that time, like "Bring The Boys Home" and "Deeper And Deeper," showed her range.

She kept recording through the 1970s, though the hits became less frequent. There was some personal difficulty, including a custody case that got attention in the press. She kept performing in the decades that followed, and in 2003 she was inducted into the Black Music Hall of Fame.