Theresa Davis

Theresa Davis (born 22 August 1955) is an American vocalist who came to prominence as a member of the Chicago vocal group The Emotions.
 

Early Life

A native of Chicago, Illinois, she was a member of Pervis Staples's stable of young vocal talent and a close friend and cousin of the Hutchinson sisters, whose gospel-rooted vocal group would become The Emotions.

Career

In 1970, when founding member Jeanette Hutchinson took a leave of absence from The Emotions to marry and start a family, Davis was brought in as her replacement, joining sisters Wanda and Sheila Hutchinson in the group. She remained with The Emotions for four years, recording material that would eventually surface across three album releases for Stax/Volt. The first, 1971's Untouched, was largely produced by Isaac Hayes, David Porter and Ronnie Williams and yielded the singles "Show Me How," which reached number 13 on the Billboard R&B chart, and "My Honey and Me," which reached number 18. Davis also contributed as a songwriter, co-writing the album track "Boy, I Need You" with Wanda and Sheila Hutchinson.

Between 1972 and 1974, the group recorded a planned follow-up, tentatively titled Songs of Innocence and Experience, which Stax did not issue at the time; that same body of recordings was eventually released, combined with additional unreleased sides, as the 1977 album Sunshine, credited to the group's Stax-era lineup including Davis, and featuring the single "Shouting Out Love."

When Jeanette Hutchinson returned to the group in 1974, Davis departed to pursue a solo career. In 1985, she released the single "I Can't Stop (Loving You Either)," featuring soul singer Jerry Butler. Over the course of her career, Davis has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Otis Clay, Tyrone Davis, Billy Price, Gene Chandler, Syl Johnson, Walter Jackson, Corky McClerkin, Ramsey Lewis, Gregory Bibb and Brian Culbertson, and has toured internationally with Otis Clay, Ramsey Lewis, Percy Sledge and Dennis Edwards of the Temptations, as well as with gospel group Sue Conway and the Victory Singers.

In more recent years, she has recorded as a jazz vocalist for the BluJazz label alongside bassist, composer and keyboardist Ernest McCarty Jr., appearing on the albums A Reunion Tribute to Erroll Garner and I Remember Love, the latter featuring songs written specifically for her voice by McCarty Jr. Her work outside of group and solo recording has also extended to commercial jingles and vocal work for film.

The recordings Davis made during her time with The Emotions have gone on to become some of the most widely sampled in soul music, drawn on by rappers including Big Daddy Kane, Tupac Shakur, LL Cool J, Wu-Tang Clan, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Salt-N-Pepa, De La Soul, Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest and the Notorious B.I.G., as well as by singers including Toni Braxton, 112, Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Mary J. Blige, Ginuwine, Keyshia Cole, Tamia and Janet Jackson.

Personal Life

Known to those in the business as "Tee," she is remembered as a distinctive voice within The Emotions' early-1970s Stax era and for the enduring influence of that work on generations of R&B and hip-hop artists