Shannon ~ Let The Music Play 1983 Funky Purrfection Version

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There are three songs that carried the spirit of disco into the future, Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat", Indeep's "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" and the sparkling energy of Shannon's "Let The Music Play". They continued the dance pop sensibility that disco had established, the sing a long style with killer beats and booty movin' bass lines. "Let The Music Play" hit #1 disco for six amazing weeks and introduced a new genre of dance music called "freestyle", an electronic version of latin rhythms.

Shannon was born Shannon Brenda Greene on May 12, 1957 in Washington DC. A move to Brooklyn NY brought her closer to the music scene and she attended York University majoring in accounting with a minor in music as she had already studied voice and dance lessons for years. Her professors wholeheartedly supported her music career while Brenda was not so sure. Finally, in 1978 she joined the New York Jazz Ensemble as their vocalist and met Lenny White who had worked with Miles Davis. Lenny felt that "Let The Music Play" would be a good fit for her and she did the vocals not realizing that she would be listed as the artist.

She was not so sure that she was ready for fame, but once the song was released in the fall of 1983, it took her on a ride she will probably never forget. This new freestyle sound gave a a trio of #1 disco hits, this one, "Give Me Tonight" and "Do You Wanna Get Away" in 1985. In 1987 she asked to be released from her contract with Atlantic. That gave her time to tour, do jingles and soundtrack singles like "Criminal" for the Whoopi Goldberg flick "Fatal Beauty". She had one more #1 disco hit, the Todd Terry song "It's Over Love" in 1998.

he completed her studies at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts in NYC around the same time. After appearing in VH1's "One Hit Wonders", she did the tour of interviews which led to her return to the studio in 2000 for "The Best Is Yet To Come" album. She was involved with the Freestyle Extravaganza concert in 2006 that included Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, The Cover Girls and Stevie B. That same year she released her fifth album "A Beauty Returns". Most recently in 2017, she was a contestant on "Beat Shazam" with ex-Stetasonic member Bobby Simmons.