Linda Lewis was a one-off. Not just for her extraordinary five-octave-spanning voice, nor her blissful smile, but just as a black girl with a guitar.

She made her mark in 1973 with Rock-A-Doodle-Doo, a song which defies simple categorisation as ‘soul’ – she was Influenced as much by Joni Mitchell and Harry Nilsson as Billie Holiday and Smokey Robinson.

But we had heard her before, even if we didn’t know it.

Linda sang backing vocals with David Bowie (Aladdin Sane) and Cat Stevens (Catch Bull At Four), with whom she completed a world tour, and had just had a no.1 with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (Make Me Smile).

Some had seen her on screen too: under her birth name Linda Fredericks she was a child actor who had appeared in non-speaking parts in films including A Taste Of Honey and A Hard Day’s Night.

An East End girl (born in West Ham), Linda went on to join a British ska band, The Q Set, and earned her first solo deal with the help of John Lee Hooker, after joining him onstage in a Southend nightclub in 1964 to sing Dancing In The Streets.

Under the guidance of notorious music manager Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne’s dad) she made her debut with You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet – now a Northern Soul classic – before replacing Marsha Hunt in the soul-rock band The Ferris Wheel in 1970.

That same summer she performed at the first Glastonbury Festival .
This song reached no.15 in the summer of 1973 and she would go on to have a bigger hit with a disco version of It’s In His Kiss (aka The Shoop Shoop Song), on which she extended her vocal range to its full five octaves, giving Minnie Riperton a run for her money at the upper end of the register.