If you are an average soul music fan then seeing a beautiful, classy looking, blonde, southern lady smiling at you from the cover of a "Motown" album might fill you with dread. Afterall over the years Motown has made some fairly dire attempts at developing white pop music artists. Chris, however, was a GENUINE solid gold discovery. Chris Clark's performances on Motown's under-rated V.I.P label rank up there with the best of the best.

Chris Clark's biggest hits for Motown were "Love's Gone Bad", "From Head To Toe" and the sensational "I Want To Go Back There Again".

"I joined in 1963, I was essentially a blues singer, that's what I wanted to be, but Motown didn't really know what to do with me. I started in the reception at Motown's offices and after two years cut a demo. Then I had to go back in Reception for another year before anything happened. I recorded my first single, "Do Right, Baby, Do Right",(in December 1965) which was written and produced by Berry Gordy. It also featured the background harmonies of The Lewis Sisters.

The single was followed by "Love's Gone Bad" (July 1966) which became her only R&B chart entry. With this success Chris was required to promote the record, presenting Motown with a problem... they had to admit she was White!

"With the record coming from Motown the stations thought I was Black and when I went on television they almost had a heart attack!"

Perhaps it was this that prevented her next single from garnering much Black radio support, subsequently, a song that is widely regarded as one of the most soulful tracks Motown ever made, failed to appear in the R&B charts! However, it charted in the 'Billboard Hot 100' and was a hit all around the world. The track was "I Want To Go Back There Again", which Chris actually co-wrote with Berry Gordy, although she was not credited on the label.

"Initially I did work in the background, so I didn't really worry about it. I was in the learning process. Just working with Berry was a lot more important, but we changed that later on."

Chris transferred from Motown's 'V.I.P' label to the 'Motown' label for her next project, which never materialised. Several years later Motown's "Weed Records" released "CC Rides Again"... again Chris Clark is uncredited. Other tracks have crept out of the archives over the years, but Chris's singing career is sadly yet another missed opportunity for Motown. Chris continued to work behind the scenes for Motown for many years including work for the TV and Movies division, in the lofty position of Vice-President, where one of her many tasks was to help re-write the script for the hit Diana Ross movie, "Lady Sings The Blues".

Information and interview segments gleaned from the book "Motown: The History" by former UK music paper columnist, Sharon Davis.