(July 28, 2023) Paulette McWilliams plays a key role in the Chaka Khan and Rufus creation story. McWilliams, like Chaka, is a native of Chicago, and she grew up performing. McWilliams was Rufus’s first lead singer, and she recommended that her good friend Chaka take her place when McWilliams left the band to focus on raising her daughter. The rest, as they say, is history as Chaka Kahn went on to become an icon, first as lead singer for Rufus and then as a solo artist.
McWilliams went on to have quite a distinguished career in the music and commercial jingles industries. McWilliams collaborated with Quincy Jones and Bobby Caldwell, and she’s provided backing vocals for Bette Midler, Luther Vandross, David Bowie and Marvin Gaye, just to name a few. She’s released jazz and R&B albums, with the most recent being 2020s A Woman’s Story that includes stunning jazz interpretations of R&B and pop hits like “At Seventeen,” “So Amazing,” “Both Sides Now” and “Just to Keep You Satisfied.”
Now McWilliams returns with “Tell Me You Love Me,” the first single from her upcoming album These Are the Sweet Things, which drops on July 28. The tune is a mid-tempo adult R&B song that finds McWilliams adopting a conversational, sensual tone to let her lover know that she needs some verbal assurances of his commitment.
The song will go down easy for those pining for strong vocals rendering a song with a clear message in an R&B jam that has a touch of jazz. Check out Paulette McWilliams’ “Tell Me You Love Me” here.
By Howard Dukes
Paulette McWilliams
"Tell Me You Love Me"