b. 16 February 1956, Akron, Ohio, USA. A singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Ingram moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s where he played keyboards for Leon Haywood, and formed his own group, Revelation Funk. He also served as demo singer for various publishing companies, an occupation that led to his meeting and working with Quincy Jones. Ingram’s vocals were featured on the US Top 20 singles, ‘Just Once’ and ‘One Hundred Ways’, taken from The Dude (1981), Jones’ last album for A&M Records. Signed to Jones’ own Qwest Records label, Ingram had a US number 1 in April 1982, duetting with Patti Austin on ‘Baby, Come To Me’, which became the theme for the popular television soap General Hospital. In the same year, he released It’s Your Night, an album that eventually spawned the US hit single ‘Yah Mo B There’ (number 19, December 1983), on which he was joined by singer-songwriter Michael McDonald. Ingram made the US Top 20 again the following September when he teamed up with Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes for ‘What About Me?’.
Ingram’s subsequent albums, Never Felt So Good, produced by Keith Diamond, and It’s Real, on which he worked with Michael Powell and Gene Griffin, failed to live up to the promise of his earlier work, although he continued to feature on the singles chart. ‘Somewhere Out There’, a duet with Linda Ronstadt recorded for Steven Spielberg’s animated movie An American Tail, reached US number 2 in December 1986, and provided Ingram with his first UK Top 10 single the following July. ‘I Don’t Have The Heart’, meanwhile, topped the US chart in August 1990. The same year Ingram was featured, along with Al B. Sure!, El DeBarge and Barry White, on ‘The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)’, from Quincy Jones’ Back On The Block. In 1994, Ingram recorded ‘The Day I Fall In Love’ with Dolly Parton. Ingram has also served as a backing singer for several other big-name artists, such as Luther Vandross and the Brothers Johnson. His compositions include ‘P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)’, which he wrote in collaboration with Quincy Jones for Michael Jackson’s 1982 smash hit album Thriller.
