Yvonne Fair passed away 30 years ago last week.

Yvonne was born Flora Yvonne Coleman in Richmond, Virginia in 1942 and had to leave school early because she fell in love and married Leroy Fair from whom she took her stage name. He later advised her to join an all-girl group called the Chantels and later became a member of James Brown’s singers in 1961. Whilst there she recorded an answer version to Brown’s song I Got You (I Feel Good) as I Found You.

The soul singer Chuck Jackson got her a deal with Motown and she became an opening act for The Temptations and the Jackson 5 among others. In 1974, she recorded a cover of Kim Weston’s 1963 song It Should Have Been Me which eventually made the UK chart two years later.

She retired from music in the mid-1980s and became Dionne Warwick’s wardrobe assistant. She died of pancreatic cancer in Las Vegas 30 years ago this week.

Let’s remember her only UK hit.