Lady Flash

Lady Flash was an American trio of singers whose members were Lorraine Mazzola, Monica Pege and Debra Byrd. They were the featured backup group for Barry Manilow from 1974-1979 and released one hit of their own, 1976's "Street Singin'". The tune, which was written and arranged by Manilow, reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart. The song came from their album, Beauties In The Night which was also produced by Manilow.

Originally called The Flashy Ladies, a reference to a song on Manilow's first album, the trio (with Ramona Brooks, whom Pege replaced in 1976) sang backing vocals for Manilow in live performance and on his first 7 multiple platinum albums. Their first recorded appearance was in 1975 on Soundstage. They later appeared with Manilow on his Emmy-award winning first special and on numerous TV shows including Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, The Midnight Special, American Bandstand and Donahue. They performed with Manilow on his first European tour in 1978 with concerts at the Olympia in Paris, The Palladium and Royal Albert Hall in London, and the Concertgebouw in Amersterdam.

Because Pege and Byrd were African-American, and Mazzola, in the middle position, was Caucasian, Manilow often jokingly referred to them as "The Oreo Sisters."^[1]

Since its inception, Debra Byrd has been, and is currently, the vocal coach for contestants on American Idol.

Monica Pege sang with Barry Manilow again from 2004 - 2010 in Las Vegas at the Hilton and his coliseum shows.

Lorraine Mazzola was previously a member, and for a time, lead singer of Reparata and the Delrons. Currently, she is a screenwriter.

References

• Joel Whitburn. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. 7th edn, 2000