Barbara Pennington

Britisher Ian Levine had a burning desire to create soul music. On one of his first treks to the U.S. he came armed with a production budget for Voltafine Productions, which he partnered with the help of Danny Leake. Levine persuaded his generous father to bankroll the project, the goal of which was to make soul music. The fall of 1975 found Levine in Chicago scouting for talent; with the help of arranger/producer Paul Wilson, the Brit uncovered Barbara Pennington, a woman who shared vocal similarities with another Chicagoan, Chaka Khan. On a previous trip to the States, Levine had produced sessions with the Exciters, who featured Herb Rooney and Brenda Reid (L.A. Reid's mother). To Pennington, this was her big break; she had sung around Chicago for some time but nothing had happened to advance her career -- despite Chicago's large recording industry -- until Levine came along, thus, she jumped at the chance. Voltafine got Pennington's tracks assigned to Island Records and the first 45 single was "Running in Another Direction." To save cash, the B-side was simply an instrumental version of the same song. Soul music was new territory for Island in the mid-'70s, plus they had little experience promoting singles, being more experienced selling albums. Thus, the single, released in England, couldn't be found in record shops, despite the fact that a demand had been created by Voltafine Productions via radio stations and club promotions. The lack of airplay accounted for "Running" selling only 5,000 copies. Still, Voltafine arranged a tour of England for Pennington and Levine's other Chicago discoveries, Evelyn Thomas and L.J. Johnson. Woods' and Johnson's tracks had been placed with 20th Century and Phonogram, respectively, and were selling well in England due to better...