Born Brenda Shannon Greene, Washington, DC, USA. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Shannon is best known for her 1984 US Top 10/UK Top 20 dance classic, “Let The Music Play”.
She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and studied both singing and dance as a child. Shannon was attending York University when she recorded “Let The Music Play”, originally for Emergency Records, in 1983.
Mirage Records, a division of the larger Atlantic Records, picked up distribution of the single, which had been setting clubs alight for several months. It subsequently made its way to number 2 on the US R&B charts and number 8 pop. The follow-up, Give Me Tonight, also reached the R&B Top 10 but did not make the pop Top 40. In the UK, she gained two further chart hits with “Give Me Tonight” and Sweet Somebody both reaching the Top 30 in 1984.
Shannon had one final pop chart single, Do You Wanna Get Away, in 1985, but continued to place on the R&B charts for another year, finally achieving a total of seven singles on that chart. Her debut album, Let The Music Play, also charted, but by the late 80s Shannon’s name had disappeared from the US music scene. During the 90s, she continued to tour and also appeared in several off-Broadway productions.
She returned to the studio in the late 90s as featured vocalist on hits by Todd Terry (It’s Over Love) and Sash! (Move Mania). Her first album in over 10 years, the trance-influenced The Best Is Yet To Come, was released in March 2000.
