You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-Nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (19 page)

Afterward he wanted to sign me to a production deal. We went to see Prince together to get songs for the project. He gave me two songs on a cassette (which I can’t find to save my life). Prince met us backstage at the Universal Amphitheatre. He saw me, and George said, “This is Vanessa.” Then he saw Ramon and said, “Oh, I forgot.” We never recorded the two songs. I guess since I wasn’t romantically available, I also became professionally unavailable. But the meeting was thrilling.

Working with George Clinton had given me some street cred. Most record companies don’t want to hear from you if your background is in theater. That’s cornball city to them. They were looking for singers with raspy voices, which I didn’t have. “Do Fries Go with That Shake?” turned out to be the second-highest charting single of George’s solo career, peaking at number thirteen on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart.

That got me a dinner meeting with Ed Eckstine, who’d just been named general manager of Wing Records—a small, new record label that was part of PolyGram. At Columbia Records I had met with Benny Medina, who wanted to sign me to a production deal. But it was Ed who said, “Let’s make you an artist.”

Ed and I hit it off right away and he signed me to the label. Ed had a great sense of humor and was really smart. Besides having similar
musical tastes, Ed and I looked like we could be from the same tribe. With his light black skin and blue eyes, he could have been my long-lost cousin. He was ten years older than me, so he wasn’t the guy in a suit behind a huge desk smoking a cigar. Ed, the son of popular singer Billy Eckstine, was hungry to make a name for himself and the division. He’d spent years working under Quincy Jones and now he was on his own.

Ed had something to prove. I had something to prove. Ramon, as my new manager, had something to prove. When everyone has something to prove, that’s when magic happens.

Still, it was a struggle getting music. The big-name pop writers assumed I would be a flash in the pan. Back then, the record labels all had an A & R department—Artists and Repertoire—so Ed had a team of people poring through the tapes that were sent in. We listened to all the hungry young writers looking for their big break. I didn’t want to discount anything because you never know when you’ll find the jewels. We loved to find the people who hadn’t had the shot but were tremendously talented.

One time the UPS guy was delivering something to my house. He knew I was recording an album and he handed me a cassette.

“Will you give this a listen?” he asked.

I threw it in the car along with all the other cassettes I’d collected. Then I popped it into the player while I was driving. “Can This Be Real?” was a beautiful ballad that I knew would be perfect for my voice. I ended up including it on my first album,
The Right Stuff
, all thanks to the UPS guy.

Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and L.A. Reid, both singers and songwriters (who would later become producers), had just moved to Los Angeles from Cincinnati. Ed had called them and they said they had a song called “Girlfriend.” I listened to it at Ed’s office and then met with them in their small two-bedroom apartment/studio on Highland Avenue. They played the song for me on an electric
piano. The song had a lot of attitude—a great hook and it screamed R & B hit. While we sang it through at the piano, a younger singer named Pebbles walked into the apartment.

“Wow, that’s the jam,” she said when I finished.

“I know,” I said.

“No, that’s the jam,” she said again.

“Yeah, I know.”

Hmmm… You know how this ended up.

“Girlfriend” became Pebbles’s first single from her platinum-selling album. Pebbles also eventually married L.A. Reid. They’re now divorced and she’s an ordained minister.

I couldn’t focus on these setbacks since most of my days were spent taking care of Melanie and adjusting to motherhood. I loved being a mom, and it came naturally for me—maybe because I had babysat a lot of the children in our neighborhood when I was growing up.

Dad would always say, “Just let kids explore. Let them figure things out on their own and test their limits. Don’t give them fear.” Melanie and I would take long walks together in the neighborhood and go to Mommy and Me classes at My Gym. Even as a baby she was a very dreamlike, expressive child. Sometimes we’d curl up on the couch and watch videos of ballets and musicals. Melanie could watch an entire performance of
Swan Lake
and be fascinated. She also loved
Singin’ in the Rain
.

My career was focused on recording. The routine was that when Ramon came home from work, I’d jump in the car and head out to a small studio in the back of a house in Toluca Lake. I’d work late into the night—and sometimes into the morning—putting together
The Right Stuff.
It was a very relaxed atmosphere, although I knew there was a lot on the line.

In the summer of 1988, “The Right Stuff” single came out at the same time as my labelmate Nia Peeples released
Nothin’ But
Trouble
.
She was already well-known for her role as Nicole Chapman on the television show
Fame
. So the focus at the label was on her. They invested their sales and marketing efforts in her album.

The inside word was:
Don’t get excited about Vanessa, Nia’s the one to watch.

Business Affairs saw me as a one-hit wonder. They thought I’d have this one album, garner a bit of interest from the public because of my Miss America past, and then disappear for good.

I was getting used to being discounted so immediately. “You’re a beauty queen? Now you’re a recording artist? Yeah, right.” But I knew I had to show people that I was more than the headlines. I had such great support from Ramon and my parents. Growing up, when my parents discovered I had talent, they never discouraged me or suggested I have a backup plan. They never said, “Get a real job!” They told me I could do it. “Work hard, do your best, and live your dream,” they said. So I never had any doubts. Besides, being the underdog is something I thrive on. It pushes me to excel. After all, success is the sweetest revenge. I was determined to make this album work.

Ramon, Ed, and I all knew there was a lot of pressure to have a successful first album. In the record business, you rarely—if ever—get a second chance.

When I went on the road to promote the album, Ramon and Melanie came with me. The record company had me scheduled for radio station interviews, track dates (where you sing live to your taped music), summer festivals, you name it—anywhere I could get my R & B audience to hear my music. We were a family on the road: Mom up front, Dad managing from behind, and Melanie tagging along and wiggling to my music in her car seat on our cross-country adventure.

We’d drive from one town to the next—meeting with program directors and praying the single would climb the charts. We’d hit
every local R & B station and then pop stations. I’d do radio interviews, sit in as a guest deejay for Tom Joyner, pose for photos with program directors. I’d appear at record store signings (thank God the lines were long—there’s nothing worse than the fear that no one will show up). I’d introduce acts like Paula Abdul, En Vogue, and New Kids on the Block at the big outdoor festivals in major cities. Paula Abdul and I performed together in Indiana and on
Showtime at the Apollo
. (Years later, when “Save the Best for Last” hit number one, Paula sent me flowers and a congratulatory note, which I thought was very classy of her, since earlier her album had soared past mine—and gone multiplatinum).

After we were done stateside, we hopped on a plane and traveled abroad through Germany, England, France, Australia, and Japan.

It paid off. “The Right Stuff” was the first single released and it hit number four on
Billboard
’s R & B chart, followed by “(He’s Got) The Look,” which hit number ten. “Dreamin’” reached number one on the R & B chart and hit number eight on the singles chart.

HELEN’S RIGHT STUFF

Vanessa called us one day to say that she was nominated for Grammys. She was so excited and we were thrilled. “The Right Stuff” was one of my favorites, especially the video because it highlighted her dancing skills so well. All those years of dance classes were finally paying off! Of course we thought she should win everything. When she didn’t, we were just happy she was getting the recognition she deserved.

The album eventually sold more than 500,000 copies and went gold. It earned two Grammy nominations, and I was nominated in the Best New Artist category!

But with each success, I didn’t feel like I could relax. I still had so much to prove. When the first song was a hit, people would say it was just because the media was curious and I got more press than I really deserved. When the second song did well, the attitude was “Hmmm, she got lucky. But can she do it again?”

I did it again.

There was this premise set up that because I was a former beauty queen—a scandalous beauty queen—I was getting more attention than I should have.

Journalists could not get past the scandal. I’d be interviewed about my music, but in my head, I’d be ticking off the minutes until the Question would come up. I’d think,
Okay, when is “it” coming?
I could almost predict it. They’d ask me the album questions, the family questions, and then right before the interview was over, they’d slip in some kind of scandal question. At first I’d feel blindsided by it.

One time right before Melanie was born, a reporter said, “Congratulations! You’re married and you’re having a baby!” I smiled and said, “Thank you.”

“So, what will you tell your child about the scandal?”

What? Are you kidding me? My baby hasn’t even been born yet!

No matter what I did, I was always reduced to those photos.

When I became Miss America, I was twenty, freethinking, and optimistic. By twenty-one, I had become really guarded. I had to be a tough chick, always ready to be on the defensive and shut people down.

Early on, just as I was starting my career as an actress, Bryant Gumbel, then one of the
Today
show hosts, interviewed me about a
guest role on
Partners in Crime
, a show starring Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter. We had an agreement with the producers beforehand that Bryant wouldn’t ask me any questions about Miss America. As we were wrapping up the interview, Bryant said, “What do you think of this?” Then they rolled a clip of Bob Guccione stating that the
Penthouse
scandal made my career. (Of course it hadn’t!) NBC technically didn’t ask about Miss America but they snuck it in through the back door. And you wonder why I had trust issues with the media.

HELEN’S ADVICE ON HOW TO RAISE A SUPERSTAR… OR, AT LEAST, A HAPPY ADULT

• Give your child as many opportunities as you can. You expose them to as much as possible.

• Let them participate in as many activities as they can handle—but don’t push your own agenda.

• If they have a good singing voice, let it develop naturally. Too many parents force their children into voice lessons when they’re not ready. They develop a sound that doesn’t suit them and often ruin their vocal cords in the process.

• Allow your children to find their own strengths and paths in life. Never discourage them—even if it’s not what you want them to do (unless it’s something illegal).

I remember shopping for my first car in Los Angeles—a Saab. Mark, the salesman, congratulated me on the album and I said to him, “Okay. When is this going to hit me? Should I feel something
right now?” My album was selling, but I hadn’t made any money yet. I learned that a record company operated just like a bank. All the money they’d pumped into promoting my album came out of my pockets. Promotion, road costs, videos—they all get recouped by the label before you see any real money. I was waiting for my payday.

And then my album finally went gold, but all I could think was
Why hadn’t it gone platinum?
Paula Abdul, Nia Peeples, and Pebbles all had albums that debuted when mine did—and theirs had all gone platinum. Why hadn’t mine?

I never stopped and just enjoyed the fact that going gold was pretty great. I wanted more. I had so much more to do and prove. Even while I was listening to my songs being played on the radio, I had to think about my next album. I had to make an even better follow-up album to show everyone that what I’d just accomplished wasn’t some type of fluke.

I had so much more work to do.

On location in San Francisco for my first acting job after resigning as Miss America, here as Rosselle Robinson on the NBC show
PARTNERS IN CRIME
,
starring Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter