Sonya Grier - Love Flight 109 - 1987 - RCA
Click above for big pictures, click below to play me…
The Song
Ooooh, I quite like this. It’s just the right side of perky.
In fact, it brings together two phrases very rarely on speaking terms :
a) ‘ This is quite good ‘, and
b) ‘ Remixed by Shep Pettibone ‘
OK, we have a song that should have sounded like ‘Rescue Me’ by Martha and The Vandellas fused with the filthy bounciness of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Sea, Sex and Sun’ - which unfortunately, in Shep’s hands, ends up as a hybrid of ‘Frankie’ by Sister Sledge and the theme tune from Moonlighting. However, in this case it strangely appears to be no bad thing.
It does contain a vast array of mixed metaphors - the flight itself isn’t an actual flight, and yet she picks her beau up at a ‘ticket counter’ from ‘the back of the line’, making it sound like she is choosing luncheon meat at her nearest branch of Sainsburys.
Or maybe that’s the point.
It also contains the phrase ‘As we clear the runway’, which must be one of the most bizarre metaphors for sexual penetration ever committed to vinyl.
Why wasn’t it a hit?
In the year that Rick Astley scored the biggest selling single with ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ I have no idea, and it is positively insulting. It’s saucy in an inoffensive Carry On way, and as cute as a purring kitten. In fact, I’m going to start a campaign to get Sonya back into a recording studio immediately and re-record this, it has Euro Hit written all over it - we could have a nice and cheesy global smash on our hands people.
In short : listen…. and bounce.
Where Is Sonya?
Bugger.
She’s dead.
According to some chap called David on myspace, Sonya was a ‘wonderful gospel singer’, ‘blind’, and now ‘in heaven’. And that, dear friends, is the only piece of information about Sonya I can find anywhere : a casual mention by some bloke’s internet friend on myspace.
And you thought you were depressed after listening to Georgio.
Money Update
Cost : 8 pence
Current value : It feels almost dirty and disrespectful, but here we go. Importantly, my copy was made in the UK which seems to up the value for some reason. Must be the tasteful pastel colour scheme on the cover. Either way, the cheapest one I can find on gemm.com is…. bloody hell….. 26 American dollars and 66 cents - which works out at 13 English Pounds and 33 English pence.
And what’s more it’s worth every bloody penny.
Current Profit : 13 pounds and 17 pence. And it’’s all thanks to Sonya, God rest her soul. Hurrah!











May 9th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
If you go here:
http://www.soul-treasures.com/featurearticles/soulproject/soulproject.htm
you will hear her sing to you. It seems she spells her name “Sonja” - brings up loads of Google hits.
Time for my medicine…
April 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thank you . I have searching for this song for years. Me and my sister taped it from the radio in 1986 and loved it. So good to hear it again.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:38 am
The version I have is a twelve-inch and VERY different-sounding from your copy, got it from a radio station in southeastern Massachusetts when they were moving their library to CD. Anyhow, the comment from Ian was most helpful. Apparently “Sonya” wasn’t the correct spelling because you can find Sonja’s 2008 album “Soul Evolution” at Amazon .MP3 and CDBaby. The final groove is an Extended Mix, which might be a nice addition to someone’s collection. Thanks for the nice retrospective and the informative follow-ups.