Alicia Bridges

Born on July 15, 1953, in Lawndale, North Carolina, Alicia Bridges eventually relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where, in her late teens, started doing behind-the-scenes work DJ/VJ-ing before snagging her own recording contract with Polydor in early 1978. She was given full creative control of her choice of material, unlike many newly signed artists. In turn, Alicia chose to pair up with fellow musician Susan Hutcheson to create songs for her first album, with Alicia writing the lyrics and Susan doing the music. Her fist album, called "Alicia Bridges", contained a song that became a dance phenomenon and her biggest hit: "I Love The Night Life (Disco 'Round)", which raced into the Top 5, reaching #2 on the dance charts, and become a signature staple song for the gay community. Another song, "Body Heat", managed to chart in the Top 100, peaking at a low-but-relatively-impressive #86 in the Pop charts. Other standout tracks included the country-tinged "City Rhythm", the funk groove "In The Name of Love", the blues ditty "Broken Woman" and the classic rock anthem "Diamond In The Rough". Her next album would prove even less successful. "Play It As It Lays" was issued in mid-1979, and no song on it managed to land on the charts. However, it included songs such as the original footloose dance number "Learned To Dance Too Soon", the classic rock anthem "What Would You Do...", the piano bar jazz number "Cheap Affairs", the electrified synthetic and robotic "Rex The Robot" and the song about deceit and hocus-pocus magic "Under The Cover of Darkness". After the failure of her second-to-last album for Polydor, Bridges quit her singing career, venturing back to DJ/VJ work, in the mid-1980s. She briefly returned in 1984 to record her third and final album, "Hocus Pocus". Since then, she moved to San Francisco, then back to Atlanta, where she has been a longtime DJ at the famous gay nightclub, The Otherside Lounge.