Music / Film & TV
Chris Clark
born 1946 · singer, screenwriter, executive
California-born Motown singer of the northern soul favorites "Do Right Baby Do Right" and "Love's Gone Bad", later Oscar-nominated for co-writing Lady Sings the Blues.
- Born
Santa Cruz, California
age 80- Birth name
- Christine Elizabeth Clark
- Detroit years
- mid-1960s–early 1970s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Clark was one of the few white artists on Motown's 1960s roster. Her 1965 single "Do Right Baby Do Right", written by Berry Gordy, and Holland–Dozier–Holland's "Love's Gone Bad" (1966) on the V.I.P. label became cult records on the British northern soul scene; her first album, Soul Sounds, appeared in 1967, followed by CC Rides Again (1969). Moving into film, she co-wrote the screenplay of Lady Sings the Blues (1972), starring Diana Ross, and received an Academy Award nomination. In the early 1970s she was a vice president of Motown's film and television division in Los Angeles, worked on Mahogany (1975), and headed Motown's creative affairs from 1981 to 1989. She later returned to singing, screenwriting and photography in California.
Highlights
- "Love's Gone Bad" (1966) on Motown's V.I.P. label
- Album Soul Sounds (1967)
- Oscar nomination for co-writing Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
- Head of Motown creative affairs 1981–1989