The Intro

Disco may have been starting to wane by 1980 but there were still plenty of hits for the genre, including this one, by former session singer Fern Kinney. Despite failing to chart in her home country, it’s one of the more obscure UK number 1s of 1980 – a year packed with legendary chart-toppers.

Before

Fern Kinney-Lewis was born in Jackson, Mississippi on 11 July 1949. In 1966 she became a member of girl group The Poppies, who split only a year later after little success. She recorded a solo single in 1968, but Your Love Is Not Reliable also failed to chart.

Kinney moved into session singing, performing backing vocals on King Floyd’s 1970 hit Groove Me. Six years later she did the same for Dorothy Moore – former bandmate in The Poppies – on her hit Misty Blue, which peaked at five in the UK. She eventually left the music business and decided to concentrate on being a housewife.

However, in 1979 she decided to try her luck with a comeback. She recorded her own version of Groove Me, and it was a runaway success in the US, reaching six on the Billboard dance chart.

Together We Are Beautiful was originally recorded as a sweet, tender piano ballad by its songwriter, Ken Leray. The original is better than the next version, released in 1979 by Steve Allan, which lays on some thick syrupy strings. Lyrically it’s an odd beast, as it’s sung from the point of view of a man celebrating both he and his partner have had more attractive lovers before, but never mind because together, they are beautiful! Wonder if his partner agrees with this sentiment?

Review

Kinney’s version, in which she purrs over a slinky light disco groove, is easily the best of the three versions. She swaps the roles around but the conceit remains, so it’s still a weird one to enjoy. But it’s nice in a very early 80s way. Still, it’s understandable that this isn’t up there with some of the other chart-toppers of 1980.

After

Finally striking lucky, in the UK at least, Kinney continued to strut down the disco route, but couldn’t even claim a chart position with singles such as Let the Good Times Roll (1981) and Beautiful Love Song (1983). After the release of the latter, she returned to a career as a backing vocalist, and has disappeared into obscurity.

The Outro

Kinney’s version of Together We Are Beautiful has appeared in several adverts over the years, including Physio Sport in 1999 and EDF Energy in 2013.

The Info

Written by

Ken Leray

Producers

Carson Whitsett, Wolf Stephenson & Tommy Couch

Weeks at number 1

1 (15-21 March)

Trivia

Births

21 March: Northern Irish motorcycle race doctor John Hinds

Deaths

15 March: Chess player Gerald Abrahams/Businessman Sir Cyril Harrison
17 March: Journalist Cyril Hamnett, Baron Hamnett/Novelist PM Hubbard
18 March: Paralympic Games pioneer Ludwig Guttmann
19 March: Conservative MP Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax/Physicist Reginald Smith-Rose
20 March: Historian Alun Davies