Born Marybelle Luraine Ellison, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a musical household, Ellison sang in church buildings from the age of six and attended the John Bartram Excessive Faculty. She initially sang gospel music, working within the teams the Ellison Singers and the Golden Chords within the early Nineteen Sixties. In 1963, Ellison appeared with the Golden Chords on the Introducing The Candy Chariot The Sensational New Pop Gospel Night time Membership With Soul Recorded Stay album, main “Wake Me, Shake Me”. Ellison additionally appeared on the Pageant of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She switched to the R&B style in 1964 and her first launch was a chart entry, “I Dig You Child” in 1965 on Mercury Data, which reached No. 22 on the US Billboard R&B chart. Initially a sluggish vendor, 5 months after its launch, its reported nationwide gross sales have been 40,000.
After one other unsuccessful single with Mercury, she signed with Warner Bros. Data, and in 1966 recorded “Stick with Me” at a last-minute reserving, following a studio cancellation by Frank Sinatra. “Stick with Me” reached quantity 11 within the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and quantity 64 within the U.S. Billboard Scorching 100 chart. The tune was produced and written by Jerry Ragovoy. A few of her later single releases have been on Warner’s subsidiary soul music file label, Loma Data. “Stick with Me” would turn out to be her signature tune. Her follow-up single was “Coronary heart Be Nonetheless” a minor hit in 1967. Ellison additionally recorded “Attempt (Only a Little Bit Tougher)”, a tune later coated to extra success by Janis Joplin. Peter Jones of File Mirror rated Ellison’s “Attempt (Only a Little Bit Tougher)” 4/5 stars, writing, ‘Soul-filled ballad right here, intense vocals from Lorraine and the femme vocal group. Intense however same-y’. In Might 1967, Ellison was because of tour the UK and Eire, however cancelled because of sickness.
Ellison composed a few of her personal songs (by herself and with supervisor and later husband, Sam Bell, who was lead singer of soul vocal group, The Enchanters). She had her personal compositions recorded by a number of different artists, together with Jerry Butler, Garnet Mimms, Howard Tate and Dee Dee Warwick. After leaving Warner, she recorded a minimum of two unissued tracks for the then fast-growing Philadelphia Worldwide label in her hometown.
Twice-married and utilizing the surname Gonzalez-Keys, Lorraine Ellison gave up the music enterprise to maintain her mom, however continued to sing in church. Ellison died in January 1983 from ovarian most cancers on the age of 51.
