An Interview with Phyllis Hyman
My first published writing was in a free giveaway newspaper/magazine called Pop Top: The Record Buyer's Guide, that was distributed in record stores (well, that's what we called them back then...) in the 1970s. I was the R 'n' B (Rhythm & Blues) and Disco editor for several years. At the same time, I worked in a record chain called Strawberries, that dotted the New England states (I was also going to graduate school at Boston University). I was paid pretty much nothing for my writing, but I got all the records I wanted for free (and lots of cool promo stuff, too), and the best perk was that I got to see many of my favorites in concert -- Donna Summer, Diana Ross, and Al Jarreau, to name a few -- including the lovely Ms. Hyman, at the start of her career.

I've reproduced the interview below for you; as I state, she was a pure delight in person. I loved her music and followed her career into the 1990s. I was very sad to hear of her suicide in June 1995. Phyllis was raw and real; what you saw was what you got, and what you got was a powerhouse singer who could make anything sound like it had just been written for her, the day before. The world is a less lovely place without her.

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P.S. You can see my budding copy editing skills coming to the fore toward the end of the interview. When I moved from Boston to New York, I put all my music pieces into a scrapbook, and added text corrections that were never a priority for Pop Top's publisher and editor.

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