Redd was born on October 19, 1945, in
Norfolk, Virginia, to Gene and Katherine Redd. Gene Redd was a producer and musical director at
King Records, and her stepfather performed with
Benny Goodman's orchestra. Her half-sister
Penny Ford is also a singer with two solo albums to her credit and known for her work as the main singer for
Snap!,
Soul II Soul, and
the S.O.S. Band. She began her recording career with four singles in 1968 for the
United Artists label, three written and all four produced by songwriter and record producer
Bobby Susser. Susser chose the
Hank Williams song "
Half as Much" to be Redd's first single. Redd's vocals, against Susser's heavy-bass track, made her presence very quickly known to R&B radio stations. Redd, as a budding actress, got a major break when she starred in an
Australian production of the
rock musical Hair. Aside from
Hair, Redd also appeared in
Ti-Jean and His Brothers and, in 1974, traveled to London to star in an American production of
The Wedding of Iphigenia. 1978 also saw Redd feature as a guest in the musical ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. In the mid-1970s,
Bette Midler was looking to replace Merle Miller and Gail Kantor, both of whom had left after Midler's 1973
tour to pursue their own interests. Midler auditioned over 70 performers, but Redd landed the job, becoming one of Bette's
Harlettes. Aside from performing as a Harlette, Redd also provided
backing vocals for
Carol Douglas ("Burnin'" and "Night Fever") and
Norman Connors ("You Are My Starship"). Following the success of this new version of "
Can You Handle It", she recorded a single entitled "All the Way to Love", The virus had weakened her immune system, which had become ineffective following the singer stepping on broken glass on stage. In 1993, Redd's vocals featured on the duet track "Under Pressure", as found on her half-sister Penny Ford's self-titled album. ==Legacy==