I saw an ad in the Asheville Urban News newspaper that caught my eye. It pitched a DVD about Frances Nero, who had a brush with greatness in 1965 when she won a Detroit talent contest judged by Motown’s Berry Gordy. The ad pitched Nero as “the first American Idol.”
Over the weekend, I came across Nero’s autobiographical video on URTV. It’s called “Mountains, Motown and Motion Pictures” and chronicles her story of childhood sexual abuse, her singing career and her work to make her own movie. The video was pretty amateur, but I was captivated by Nero’s stories of growing up in Asheville and moving on to the big city.
This bio tells her story in brief:
Her first performance came in the seventh grade when she appeared on a showcase of WNIC radio in Asheville. Her first professional appearance came while attending high school, playing area gigs with a couple of glee club girls and some members of the school band. Soon, like most groups, members started dropping, the first being the two girls. She later teamed with a guy named Bill who sang with a band called the Tams. After that stint she sang with a band at a supper club owned by a doctor in Greenville, S.C.
Her break came shortly after moving to Detroit. In 1965, she entered a talent contest judged by Berry Gordy and took first prize, winning $500, a dozen red roses, and a one-year Motown recording contract. A few months later she recorded for the first and last time in a Motown recording studio, with William “Mickey” Stevenson, James Dean, and William Weatherspoon writing and producing the sides.
She only recorded two sides, and Motown released the single “Keep on Loving Me” in March of 1966. WCHB played it every half-hour in Detroit with the announcement that she had won their contest. The label also took the option to extend Nero’s contract for an additional year, though months went by while nothing happened — no recording and no performing, since a Motown artist had to be granted permission to perform. When Nero demanded a release, they dropped her. (She also claims she never received any money from Motown.)
She continued to sing until her mother’s death in 1978, but then cared for ill family members until Britisher Ian Levine approached her. Levine, a Motown fanatic, had already experimented with recording obscure American soul artists with little success.Nero recorded more than a dozen tunes, and earned her first hit with “Footsteps Following Me,” which charted at number 17 in the Great Britain. British disc jockeys named it “The Soul Anthem of the Nineties” in 1992. Nero also appeared on many British television shows, including Top of the Pops and The Terry Wogan Show. In 1996, Hot Productions released The Very Best of Frances Nero in the States.
This link explains a little more about Nero’s U.K. hit:
Ian Levine has split soul fans in two camps, those who despise his recordings with more than 100 former Motown artists, and those who thank him for getting such talented artists to work again. Frances Nero had only a few singles released on Motown before retiring completely from the music business. 24 years later, it was Ian Levine who persuaded her to record again, and he did for her what Berry Gordy never did: he gave her a hit record. The brilliant “Footsteps Following Me” reached the UK Top 20 in 1991, displaying Frances’ sunny, bright voice on a catchy, flowing tune.
No doubt there were countless Neros who aspired to be the next big Motown star but never quite broke through. But Nero spins a tale of optimistic persistence that paid off in the early 1990s with a mild hit in the U.K. It’s a story worth listening to and learning from.