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Vonda Shepard

Vonda Shepard
Vondashepard czarnob.jpg
Background information
Born (1963-07-07) July 7, 1963 (age 53)
New York City, U.S.
Origin California, U.S.
Genres Rock, acoustic
Occupation(s) Singer, pianist, songwriter, actress
Instruments Vocals, piano, guitar, bass
Years active 1987–present
Labels Reprise/Warner Bros. Records
550 Music/Epic/SME Records
VesperAlley Records
Website vondashepard.com

Vonda Shepard (born July 7, 1963) is an American pop/rock singer, songwriter, and actress. She appeared as a regular in the television show Ally McBeal, in which she played a resident performer at the bar where the show's characters drank after work. Her version of Kay Starr’s Christmas classic "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man with the Bag" was featured on a season 4 episode of Ally McBeal and has become a popular holiday song. She plays piano, and guitar.

Vonda Shepard was born in New York City but her family relocated to California when she was a child. She played piano from an early age. Her father is Richmond Shepard, a mime and improv actor. Vonda has three sisters.

After performing as a backing singer for many years she was eventually given her own recording contract. Shepard's first chart appearance was in 1987 when she recorded a duet with Dan Hill entitled "Can't We Try". Before this she tried out for the part of Michael J. Fox's sister in Light of Day but lost the part to Joan Jett. She was also poised to sing on Peter Cetera's duet "The Next Time I Fall" but he picked Amy Grant instead. She released her first self-titled album in 1989 with little fanfare. The album did yield one chart single, "Don't Cry Ilene", a mid-tempo piano-driven jazz-R&B flavored song dealing with the break-up of a relationship between a black woman and a white man, arising from adult peer pressure. The track is sung from the perspective of the woman's white female friend, who harbors a desire to have the man for herself, but keeps her distance out of respect for her friend. The song peaked at Number 17 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart and stayed on the charts for 12 weeks.


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