Return to Rock-and-Roll Page.Sandy Posey put some very popular songs on the pop chart in the 60's, did a lot of work as a session singer, and was popular on the country chart into the 1980's.
Sandra Lou Posey was born in 1946 in Jasper, Alabama, and moved to West Memphis, Arkansas when in her teens. She obtained employment as a receptionist at a music studio. This opened the door for Sandy to display her vocal talents, which were considerable. Before long she was a session singer and was doing back-up vocals for more established singers, in both Memphis and Nashville, in addition to her songwriting. One such record on which Sandy sang backup was Percy Sledge's When A Man Loves A Woman in early 1966. It was not long before she came to the attention of Memphis record producer Chips Moman, who recognized her talent and encouraged her to continue with her singing and songwriting. Sandy's first release as a solo artist was Kiss Me Goodnight, the flip side of which was First Boy, but it met with little commercial success.
Encouraged by Moman, Sandy continued with her session work, back-up vocals, and solo recording until she came up with her first big hit, Born A Woman, in the summer of 1966. She followed it several months later with another big hit, Single Girl , and had established herself in a competitive market as a singer with a great voice who could deliver hits. Both of these songs had been written by Martha Sharpe. Single Girl gained her notice in Great Britain as well. By the end of the year, Sandy Posey had received two Grammy nominations.
She continued recording on the MGM Records label and had two more top forty hits in 1967 with What A Woman In Love Won't Do and I Take It Back. Moman brought her to his American Studios to accompany another popular singer from the Memphis area, Elvis Presley. Posey sang back-up on some of Presley's gospel recordings and on his Mama Liked the Roses. Posey appeared with Elvis as a backup singer on some of his early shows in Las Vegas in 1969. By that time her popularity as a pop singer had waned. Sandy took a brief break from the music business, but returned to continue recording other types of music.
Sandy gained notice with her recordings of some Nashville songs. Throughout the 70's she released songs that were described as "countrypolitan," and drew favorable comparisons to established Nashville singer Skeeter Davis. She recorded for a variety of labels, including Columbia, Monument and Warner Brothers Records. Some of her well-known songs during this period included Why Don't We Go Somewhere and Love, Losing Out To You, Don't and Born To Be With You. In the mid-70's Sandy became a born-again Christian and made a number of religious-themed recordings.
In the early 80's Sandy stopped recording as a solo artist and went back to session work. She has worked as a backup singer on the Nashville Network, and has continued recording into the twenty-first century. She married Wade Cummings, who has worked as an Elvis impersonator under the name Elvis Wade.
When MGM Records was promoting Sandy as a talented pop singer in the 60's and she was recording with her distinctive voice and singing style, she left a legacy that included three songs which curiously all rose to number 12 on the pop chart: Born A Woman, Single Girl and I Take It Back.
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