hyllis Hyman Cause of Death: Renowned American soprano, songwriter, and performer Phyllis Linda Hyman was born on July 6, 1949, and died on June 30, 1995. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Hyman’s musical efforts brought her considerable fame. “You Know How to Love Me” (1979), “Living All Alone” (1986), and “Don’t Wanna Change the World” (1991) are some of her well-known songs. Hyman also starred in the 1981 Broadway production of Sophisticated Ladies, a musical based on Duke Ellington’s compositions. The musical ran from 1981 to 1983 with great success. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a show and received a Theatre World Award for the show.
After a protracted struggle with her mental health, Hyman sadly committed herself at her New York City home in 1995. Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of seven siblings, to World War II veteran Phillip Hyman and nightclub waitress Louise Hyman. St. Clair Village, in Pittsburgh’s South Hills, is where he was reared. On his father’s side, Hyman’s great-grandparents were Ishmael and Cassandra (Cross) Hyman.
After leaving Pittsburgh, she enrolled in a music school to begin her music study. In 1971, she went on a national tour with the musical group New Direction after her graduation. After the band broke up, she joined All the People and started working with another local band called The Hondo Beat. She had a cameo in the film Lenny (1974). She also led a musical group called “Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor” for two years after that. She was discovered in 1975 by music business veterans Sid Maurer and Fred Frank, who had previously worked as a promotion for Epic Records, and they signed her to their Roadshow Records/Desert Moon label.
In addition to working on her first solo album, “Phyllis Hyman,” Hyman also performed with Pharoah Sanders and the Fatback Band. The album was released in 1977 under the Buddah Records label. Buddha was then moved to Arista Records after her acquisition by that company. The title tune of her 1978 Arista debut album, “Somewhere in My Lifetime,” was produced by fellow musician Barry Manilow. You Know How to Love Me, her follow-up album, performed well on the club-dance charts and landed in the top 20 R&B charts. She contributed backup vocals on The Beck Family’s first album, Dancin’ on the Ceiling, at that time. The group’s song “Can’t Shake the Feeling” helped them become successful.
Hyman married her manager Larry Alexander in the late 1970s; Larry Alexander was the brother of Jamaican melodica musician and pianist Monty Alexander. But soon, the emotional and professional ties broke down as well, leading to a divorce. Hyman started using cocaine around this time, which resulted in the development of a chronic dependence. With the Top Ten hit single “Can’t We Fall in Love Again?” in 1981, Hyman had her first solo triumph in the R&B genre.
Michael Henderson and I collaborated on the tune. The song was captured on tape when she was performing in the Broadway production of Sophisticated Ladies, a tribute to Duke Ellington. She played the role for over two years, during which time she won the Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer and was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best Supporting Actress in a Musical category. Her music career was temporarily put on hold because to disagreements between Hyman and her record company, Arista. She made use of her time at this time by contributing guest vocals and soundtrack appearances for movies and TV shows. She worked with well-known musicians including The Whispers, Chuck Mangione, and The Four Tops. The 1982 CD Looking Out by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner included three tracks on which Hyman sang vocals. She often went on tours and gave a number of talks at different universities.
In the 1980s, Hyman received a diagnosis of bipolar illness and depression, with which he had long struggled. She often used drugs and alcohol for self-medication, and she constantly spoke about ending her life. Six days before to her 46th birthday, on June 30, 1995, Hyman took her own life in the afternoon. In the bedroom of her apartment at 211 West 56th Street in New York City, she overdosed on tuinal and vodka. A few hours before her scheduled concert at the Apollo Theater, at 2:00 p.m. (EDT), the person was found in an unconscious condition and died at 3:50 p.m. at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital (now known as Mount Sinai West). In part, she wrote the following in her suicide note:
November 1995 saw the publication of Hyman’s posthumous album, “I Refuse to Be Lonely,” which was recorded five months after her death. Her personal life and the circumstances of her death are poignantly explored in the album. In the R&B genre, the title tune and the song “I’m Truly Yours” both had some success. A collection of her early solo songs and collaborations may be found on the compilation album One on One, which was published in April 1998. Notable songs including “Take the ‘A’ Train” featuring Gregory Hines, “Maybe Tomorrow” featuring the Four Tops, and “Betcha By Golly Wow” with Norman Connors are included.
An album including never-before-seen material was released three years after her death. The songs were chosen from a variety of recordings made between the middle of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. A variety of love songs, torch songs, uptempo tunes, smooth jazz selections, and bittersweet ballads may be heard in the 1998 album Forever with You. Most of these songs emphasize Hyman’s common depiction of heartache and hardships. These songs, according to Hyman, were mostly about “dysfunctional relationships.”
This album has a large amount of material that was initially meant for her Living All Alone CD. There is a posthumous “duet” with singer Damon Williams on the song “Funny How Love Goes.” Williams was given additional prominence on the half of Hyman’s vocal recordings that were rerecorded with both vocalists taking turns. A collection of jazz-soul songs named “In Between the Heartaches” was issued in 2003 by the UK record label Expansion. Songs from her collaborative albums with Pharoah Sanders, Norman Connors, McCoy Tyner, and Jon Lucien were featured in this collection. It also included five previously unheard songs from her time working with Arista Records.
