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Rita Coolidge
Coolidge performing at an outdoor concert in Seattle in September 2002
Background information
Born	(1945-05-01) May 1, 1945 (age 73) Lafayette, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Pop adult contemporary country Native American[1] soft rock
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter
Instruments	Vocals piano
Years active	1969–present
Labels	A&M Monument Attic Alpha Pony Canyon Concord
Associated acts	Joe Cocker Leon Russell Kris Kristofferson Delaney & Bonnie Eric Clapton Stephen Stills
Website	www.ritacoolidge.com

Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on Billboard magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts,^[1] and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and then-husband Kris Kristofferson. Her most famous recordings include "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", "We're All Alone", and the theme song for the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy: "All Time High".

Coolidge at Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic in 1972.

Coolidge with Kris Kristofferson at the private party after the premiere of the movie A Star Is Born, on the third floor of Dillon's Disco on December 18, 1976.

Career

Coolidge is a graduate of Florida State University. After singing around Memphis (including a stint singing jingles), she was discovered by Delaney & Bonnie, who worked with her in Los Angeles. There, she became a background singer on many other people's albums.^[2] She sang for Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Harry Chapin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills.^[3] She was featured in Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and album, singing Russell's and Bonnie Bramlett's song "Superstar." She became known as "The Delta Lady" and inspired Russell to write a song of the same name for her.^[4]

In November 1970, she met Kris Kristofferson at the Los Angeles airport when they were both catching the same flight to Tennessee. He got off in Memphis with her, rather than continue to his intended destination in Nashville. The two married in 1973 and recorded several duet albums, which sold well and earned the duo a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1974 for "From the Bottle to the Bottom", and in 1976 for "Lover Please".

Coolidge's greatest success on the pop charts came during 1977–1978 with four consecutive top 25 hits, remakes of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone", the Temptations' "The Way You Do The Things You Do", and Marcia Hines' "You".

Coolidge also was among the first hosts on VH1, a U.S. cable network. In 2006, she recorded a standards album, And So Is Love.^[3]

Layla

In the recording of the original hit "Layla" by Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos in 1970, Clapton returned to the studio where he heard the band's drummer Jim Gordon playing a piano piece he had allegedly composed himself separately. Clapton, impressed by the piece, convinced Gordon to allow it to be used as part of the song in the coda section. Though only Gordon has been officially credited with this part, the band's keyboardist Bobby Whitlock claims, "Jim took that piano melody from his ex-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge. I know because in the Delaney & Bonnie days, I lived in John Garfield's old house in the Hollywood Hills and there was a guest house with an upright piano in it. Rita and Jim were up there in the guest house and invited me to join in on writing this song with them called "Time". Her sister Priscilla wound up recording it with her husband, Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & the M.G.'s). Jim took the melody from Rita's song and didn't give her credit for writing it. Her boyfriend ripped her off".^[5] "Time" ended up on the 1973 album Chronicles by Booker T. and Priscilla.

Personal life

Coolidge is the daughter of Dick and Charlotte Coolidge, a minister and schoolteacher, with sisters Linda and Priscilla, and brother Raymond.^[6]

Coolidge was married to Kris Kristofferson from 1973 to 1980.^[1] They have one daughter, Casey, born in 1974. In her memoir, Coolidge describes her marriage to Kristofferson as volatile due to his alcoholism and infidelity.^[7] She alleges he was abusive and when they divorced she didn't ask him for anything.^[7] In 2016, Coolidge told People that she and Kristofferson still share a bond.^[8]

Coolidge previously had romantic liaisons with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. Rita leaving Stills for Nash has been cited as a contributing factor behind the initial 1970 breakup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.^[9] She was the "sweet little Indian girl" named "Raven" in the Grateful Dead collaboration "Cowboy Movie" on David Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name.^{[citation needed]}

Coolidge was also involved with Leon Russell and Joe Cocker. During the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, Coolidge's claims her boyfriend at the time, Jim Gordon, physically assaulted her which resulted in a black eye for the rest of the tour. Coolidge ended the relationship and never spoke to him again.^[7]

Coolidge married Tatsuya Suda, a world leader in computer architecture research, on June 19, 2004, in the Cook Islands.^[10] Suda, a Japanese citizen, retired in 2010 after a long tenure as a professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (UC Irvine), when allegations against him surfaced. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of receiving illegal payments.^[11][12] Coolidge had lived in Fallbrook, California, where she painted and exhibited her work.^[3] Her autobiography, Delta Lady: A Memoir, was published in April 2016.^[13] In 2017, Coolidge rekindled a romantic relationship with a former college lover, Joe Hutto,^[14][15] and moved back to Tallahassee.^[16]

In October, 2014, Coolidge's sister, Priscilla, was killed by her husband, Michael Siebert, in a murder/suicide. The pain of that loss was exacerbated when the killer's ashes were delivered to Rita's home and she had to dispose of them.^[17]

Walela

In 1997, Coolidge was one of the founding members of Walela, a Native American music trio, that also included Priscilla and her daughter Laura Satterfield. The trio released studio albums in 1997 (Walela) and 2000 (Unbearable Love), a live album and DVD (Live in Concert) in 2004 and a compilation album (The Best of Walela) in 2007.^[18] Walela means hummingbird in Cherokee. Coolidge considered this group important, not only in honoring her Cherokee ancestors but also in bringing their culture to others. Also as part of her Native American heritage, she performed with Robbie Robertson, who has Mohawk ancestry, at the 2002 Winter Olympics.^[3]

Discography

Albums (North American)

Albums with Kris Kristofferson

International albums

Compilation albums

Singles

• 
  ^A B-side of "Fever"


• 
  ^B Charted as a double A-side in Australia backed with "I Don't Want to Talk About It"

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rita Coolidge.

• Official website


• Rita Coolidge on A&M Records


• Records discography