I've been with better-looking guys

Artist: Fern Kinney
Title: Together We Are Beautiful
Year: 1979
Chart peak: 1

In pop music, there is a thin line between being uplifting and being just plain cheesy. One disc which treads very close to this line but just about manages to avoid toppling over it, is the one and only UK top 20 hit by Fern Kinney.

Hailing from Jackson, Mississippi, Kinney's first big break was joining local girl group The Poppies. The trio had a minor US hit in 1966, reaching number 56 with the lush "Lullaby of Love". Subsequent singles failed to build on this success, though their final release "There's A Pain In My Heart" became a favourite on the northern soul scene.

After the group split, Kinney first attempted a solo career, but her 1968 debut "Your Love's Not Reliable" bombed, so instead she became a session singer, her clients including former bandmate (and fellow one hit wonder) Dorothy Moore, and King Floyd, for whom she sang backing vocals on the 1970 US number 6 hit "Groove Me".

After taking time out to start a family, Kinney returned to recording in 1978, remaking "Groove Me" in a disco style. It was a big hit in the clubs, and for a follow-up she turned to "Together We Are Beautiful", a song first recorded in 1977 by its writer Ken Leray.



There's something about "Together We Are Beautiful" that just makes it sound like happiness distilled. Kinney's high-pitched vocals soar above a bouncy disco backing as she, basically, goes on about how happy she is because she's found a man and she loves him and he loves her and it's beautiful, oh so beautiful... and while I'd usually be the first to tut and say that it won't last, in this case it seems a bit pointless because it's all about the moment - not just a moment in love, but a perfect pop moment to boot.

The trouble with perfect moments is that they're very hard to recreate, and nothing else Fern Kinney recorded ever had quite the same magic. A flop album later, she returned to singing back-up and never stepped into the limelight again.