Linda Clifford - You Are, You Are (Curtom Records 1978)

Linda Clifford is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Runaway Love" and "Red Light". Clifford is a former Miss New York State, and fronted a jazz music trio before switching to R&B. After winning her title, Clifford started working as an actress, playing minor roles in major films such as The Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda, Coogan's Bluff with Clint Eastwood and Sweet Charity with Shirley MacLaine. Unsatisfied with her roles, Clifford decided to concentrate on her singing career, performing for a year in Miami-area night clubs with the Jericho Jazz Singers, before forming her own group Linda & The Trade Winds.

In 1973, she was signed to Paramount Records and her first single, "(It's Gonna Be) A Long Long Winter", became a minor hit on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in the winter of 1974. She moved to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records label in the mid 1970s. 1977 saw the release of her first album, Linda, but it was her dance cover of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" in 1978 that she had club and pop chart success with. It was her first number one on Billboard dance chart. Album of the same name became her most successful and included also "Runaway Love", a mid-tempo R&B track that proved to be one of her most recognizable tunes. In 1979 she released her disco version of "Bridge over Troubled Water" from the album Let Me Be Your Woman, followed by another record the same year, Here's My Love.

In 1980 Linda released a duet album with Curtis Mayfield, The Right Combination, and recorded a song "Red Light" for the Fame soundtrack in 1980. It became another hit, reaching number one spot on American dance chart. (She would go on to have two more No. 1 disco hits in the USA: "Shoot Your Best Shot" (1980) and "Don't Come Crying to Me" (1982), which makes four in total.) She released six high-profile albums when she was under contract on the Curtom label, all supervised by Curtis Mayfield, generally produced by Gil Askey (jazz trumpet player and musical director for many Motown acts) with many mixes by Jim Burgess or Jimmy Simpson, brother of Valerie Simpson from Ashford and Simpson. The sixth, I'm Yours, was produced by Isaac Hayes with the exception of one song from the Fame soundtrack ("Red Light" written by Pitchford and Gore). Curtom records were distributed by Warner Bros. (in 1977–1978), by RSO (in 1979–1980) and by the end of 1980 by Capitol.

Her contract switched entirely to Capitol for an additional album, her seventh, named I'll Keep on Loving You (1982). It included collaboration by Luther Vandross and the original version of "All the Man That I Need", another song written by Pitchford and Gore; they wrote this particular song with Clifford and her husband in mind and a year later it was covered by Sister Sledge, in 1990 by Whitney Houston and in 1994 by Luther Vandross under the name "All the Woman That I Need". On his album Songs, Vandross even credited Houston for being the "artist who did the original version of the song", forgetting that it was originally Clifford's song and that he was a background vocalist and the vocal arranger of her version.

You are you are

You are you are a love I'm after
You are the life and breath the tenderness the laughter
You are my heaven on earth silver and gold and all I know
You are this hour the fire within me that warms me so

You are you are that wonderful, wonderful person
Always to be you see it, darling the very first one
You are you are my personal needs? the ultimate goal is you and I
Loving and loving forever and ever

Ooh you're so wonderful yes you are
All the rumors going 'round of this new love I've found oh baby
But all I know is I love you so and you are where I wanna be
I said I wanna be having you all over me
We're just dancing and dancing and dancing
We're just dancing and dancing and dancing

Ooh you are you are the early morning
You are the early light after night's that are stormy
You are my heaven on earth silver and gold and all I know
You are this hour the fire within me that wants me so
You are you are that wonderful, wonderful person

Always to be you see it, darling the very first one
You are you are my personal needs and ?
The ultimate goal is you and I
Just loving and loving forever and ever

All the rumors going 'round of this new love I've found, baby
But all I know is I love you so and you are where I wanna be
I said I wanna be having you all over me
We're just dancing and dancing and dancing
We're just dancing and dancing

Oh you are you are
Yes you are yes you are
You are where I wanna be
Yes you are, yes you are where I wanna be
'Cause you are, you are, you are
Ooh ahhh hey yes you are
Yes you are