René & Angela

Formed in 1977, René and Angela featured: René Moore, b. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. and Angela Winbush, b. 18th January 1955, St. Louis, Missourri, U.S.A. René & Angela were a duo, featuring artist/producers René Moore and Angela Winbush. Angela met René in 1980 and released a debut album the same year. Angela was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and began singing in church. Initially, she studied architecture at the Howard University, only performing to supplement her income. In 1977, Angela decided to further her musical education, and recorded a demo song. After circulating the song around various recording companies, a chance meeting with Wayne K. Garfield (a music businessman), the demo was heard by the disc jockey Gary Byrd ('The Crown' etc), who was acquainted with Stevie Wonder. The connection led to Angela joining Stevie's backing group, Wonderlove. Whilst in Los Angeles with Stevie, Angela met singer René Moore, and they began writing melodies together. René Moore is the the brother of the Rufus member, Bobby Watson, and played with the Brothers Johnson in the Seventies. Some of their early work involved Lenny Williams (on his 'Changes' album), sessions for Dolly Parton, Alton McClain and Destiny (on 'I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love', a song later covered by Stephanie Mills) and Lamont Dozier. The duo released their self-titled debut album 'René and Angela' in 1980 (featuring 'Free and Easy', 'Do You Really Love Me?' and 'I Don't Know Where Love Comes From'). This release was followed by 'Wall to Wall' in 1982 (featuring 'Secret Rendezvous' and 'Imaginary Playmate') and 'Rise' (featuring 'My First Love'), a year later in 1983. The duo began to write and produce for other artists, as their reputation's grew. They produced songs for Janet Jackson's 1982 self-titled debut album, 'Janet Jackson', and wrote 'I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love' for Stephanie Mills in 1985. Signing with Mercury Records in 1984, René and Angela released the album, 'A Street Called Desire' a year later, an album which featured the songs 'Save Your Love (For Number 1)' "I'll Be Good" and 'Your Smile'. The couple went their seperate ways in 1986, and both went on to solo careers with varying degrees of success.