Ep 79: singer Taylor Dayne with co-host Ray Allen

The Baub Show

May 23, 2011- With confidence maturity and an indisputably amazing voice, Taylor Dayne stands out as one of music's most dynamic artists. Her versatile and powerful voice has gained recognition in multiple genres from pop, dance and rock to adult contemporary. Taylor's unique vocal style has earned her numerous multi-platinum and gold selling albums, including the multi-platinum albums "Tell It To My Heart" and "Can't Fight Fate" as well as the gold album "Soul Dancing." She has sold-out two world tours, garnered three Grammy nominations and has successfully appeared in numerous film, television and stage roles including a stint on Broadway in 2001 when she made her Broadway debut in the Elton John/Tim Rice, Tony award-winning musical "Aida." Taylor recently completed recording her fifth studio album which was released in early 2008. She presently is working on a new country album. Taylor (born Leslie Wunderman) grew up in New York and began hitting New York clubs like CBGB's, the Bottom Line, and Trax by night and studying music theory and composition in college by day. She received classical training from Maestro Carelli, Master at the Manhattan School of Music. In 1985 she joined the new Wave band "The Next," but soon realized that she could best pursue her musical calling as a solo artist. In 1987, Taylor and Rick Wake recorded the single "Tell It To My Heart" which led to her first major label deal with Arista Records. In 1988, as Taylor Dayne, she released her debut album, "Tell It to My Heart" which stormed up the charts all over the world and sold over two million copies in the US alone. The album included four top ten singles: "Tell It To My Heart," "Prove Your Love," "I'll Always Love You" and "Don't Rush Me." Her second album, "Can't Fight Fate," released in 1989, more than matched the success of her debut. Once more the album contained four top ten singles, including the #1 smash "Love Will Lead You Back." "Can't Fight Fate" again earned Taylor a double platinum album in the US and yet another sold out world tour which took Taylor to Australia, the Far East, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Following the tour Taylor took a hiatus to prepare for her third album and in 1992 she was back with "Soul Dancing." Again she raced up the charts all over the world with her cover of the Barry White classic "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" produced by C+C Music Factory. Few artists have the guts and soul required to pull off such an ambitious rendering. The track hit the top of the charts in the US, UK and Australia and stayed on the charts for over 20 weeks. In 1994 Taylor's career began to broaden as she was cast by Warren Beatty to appear in her first movie, "Love Affair" starring Beatty and Annette Benning. In that same year Jim Steinman sought out Taylor to record "Original Sin," the theme song from the movie "The Shadow." She also starred in the successful Mel Brooks production of "Archie and Mehitabel," in the role of the alley cat, Mehitabel, which was originated by Eartha Kitt in 1950. In 1996 Taylor released her "Greatest Hits" album and continued her film career. She starred in "Fools Paradise" and in the HBO film "Stag" with an all-star cast that included Mario Van Peebles, Kevin Dillon and Ben Gazzarra which solidified her position as a multi-faceted performer. In 1998 Taylor again took the reins of her musical career as she co-wrote and produced her fourth album for her independent venture, Neptune Records. "Naked Without You," her most personal album to date, included the singles "Unstoppable" and the dance hits "Whatever You Want" and "Naked Without You." This was followed by a Live CD in 2000 and later in 2000 she recorded and co-produced "Planet Love" with Peter Lorimer which was the title song for the Robert DeNiro film "Flawless." This dance hit went to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart. In 2001, Taylor made her Broadway debut in the Elton John/Tim Rice, Tony award- winning musical "Aida," portraying "Princess Amneris" for which performance she drew rave reviews and remained in the role for nine months. For two seasons beginning in 2000 Taylor guest starred in the Showtime series "Rude Awakenings." In 2001 she recorded the song "How Many" for the "Circuit" soundtrack which was produced by Tony Moran. The song hit the top of the dance charts. Taylor tours constantly and continues to write and record music. She recently she recorded songs for the feature film soundtracks "Lizzy McGuire" and "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton". The soundtrack for "Lizzy McGuire" went multi-platinum with her song "Supermodel." Most recently Taylor has guest starred on the hit show "Rescue Me" and "Cold Case" and currently is appearing in "Gone Country" on CMT. She also is featured in the independent feature film "I Am Bad", currently in post-production.