Album Notes

Reclamation. Whether it is breathing life into old houses, restoring antiques, or renovating an abandoned forty-six room mill in Massachusetts, there always seems to be something new for Sharon Paige to reclaim. Small wonder then she now lends her voice to this tribute album to a master lyricist of the American Popular Song, winner of three Academy Awards, who wrote hundreds of songs for Hollywood, Broadway and TV, whose lyrics are as well known as his name, perhaps, is not.

Sharon's first romance with the American Songbook came from the jukebox in her father's diner in Baltimore where he featured his three year old daughter dancing and singing atop the lunch counter. She was seventeen the day her best friend Ellen Cohen (aka Mama Cass Elliot) came by announcing "Put on your leotard, you're going to audition," and the lunch counter got replaced by summer stock. Next came New York City and the beginning of ten years of Off-Broadway,Off-Off Broadway, more summer stock, dinner theaters,cabaret, film, and TV. She sang back up on "Missing You", Freddie Cole's single dedicated to his brother Nat. She did the National Company tours of "Hello Dolly", "Your Own Thing" and "Stop The World I Want To Get Off".

As easily as she slipped into the business, she slipped out. Sharon had something new and more important on her plate. She had a child to raise. So on to selling antiques, renovating nine houses, running a gourmet bakery with her daughter, Melanie. She graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College, then went on to become a master teacher of the Orton-Gillingham method used to remediate dyslexic children. And when the demands of life began to ease, her idea of kicking back was to return to singing.

It was Joe Regan, Jr. (Regan) who, after he heard Sharon sing " A Woman's Intuition" at Trudi Mann's Fabulous Open Mic for singers, suggested that Sharon look into other Ned Washington songs. Sharon took this idea to Keith Ingham and the CD they had been working on went on hold. Sharon, Regan, Keith and his musicians are all of one heart: that Ned Washington reclaims his place in the sun.