Vicki Sue Robinson
Vicki Sue Robinson (May 31, 1954 – April 27, 2000) was an American singer, closely associated with the disco era of late 1970s pop music; she is most famous for her 1976 hit, "Turn the Beat Around". Early life Born in Harlem, New York, to African American Shakespearean actor Bill Robinson and his European American wife Marianne, a folk singer, Vicki Sue Robinson was reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for most of her early years, returning with her family to New York City when she was ten. Career She gave her first public performance in 1960 at the age of six, when she accompanied her mother on stage at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Ten years later, at the age of 16, while a student at the New Lincoln School, Robinson made her professional performing debut when she joined the Broadway cast of the musical Hair. Robinson remained with Hair for six weeks before moving to a new Broadway production, Soon, whose cast included Peter Allen, Barry Bostwick, Nell Carter, and Richard Gere. After the show's short run, Robinson appeared in the Off-Broadway play Long Time Coming, Long Time Gone, in which she and Richard Gere played Mimi and Richard Fariña. New