Peak was born in 1943 in
Asheville, North Carolina, In 1960, she married Detroit, Michigan native Johnny Nero and moved to the city. She almost joined
The Marvelettes, but returned to Asheville for a time before going back to Detroit and settling into married life. She had two children; her son J. Darryl born July 28, 1963 and daughter Robin born on January 21, 1965 and sang
jazz in
nightclubs, before entering a talent contest on
WCHB, the
soul radio station in Detroit, sponsored by Motown. She became the first
live performance winner in
Motown Records's history, emerging the winner out of 5,000 contestants in June 1965. She was awarded $500, a dozen long stemmed red roses, a recording contract for one year and the honor of being the first female artist signed to Motown's subsidiary
Soul label. Her first record release was "Keep On Lovin' Me", written by
William Weatherspoon and
James Dean, and originally intended for The Marvelettes. It was
produced by
William "Mickey" Stevenson, and released by Soul in early 1966. However, it was not a major hit. She made no further recordings with Motown, and left the company after three years. Her first recording for 23 years, the single reached No. 17 in the
UK Singles Chart in 1991, and was dubbed by British disc jockeys "the soul anthem of the nineties". She appeared on Canada's television program,
Swinging Time with host
Robin Seymour, and on UK shows such as
Top of the Pops,
The Terry Wogan Show and
The Hitman and Her. == Discography==