Pamela Hutchinson, a member of the singing group The Emotions, which scored a #1 pop and R&B hit in 1977 with “Best of My Love,” died on Friday, September 18. The group announced her death on their Facebook page. Hutchinson was 61 and had been battling health issues for several years.
“Pam succumbed to health challenges that she’d been battling for several years,” read the statement. “Now our beautiful sister will sing amongst the angels in heaven in perfect peace.”
The family singing group began as a gospel group, the Sunbeams, in Chicago, Ill., in the 1960s and enjoyed their first chart success in 1969 with their debut album, So I Can Love You. After more than a dozen singles on the R&B chart and some modest success crossing over to pop, they leapt to the top of the music world with “Best of My Love,” an uptempo number composed by Maurice White and Al McKay of Earth, Wind & Fire. (White produced it with Clarence McDonald.) The album from which it was released, Rejoice, topped the R&B chart and sold over one million copies.
Watch them perform “Best of My Love” on Soul Train
The song went on to win the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocals, and was certified Platinum in the U.S.
Two years later, the Emotions sang on EW&F’s tour-de-force, “Boogie Wonderland,” which was also a significant hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1979.
Hutchinson was joined in the Emotions with her sisters Wanda and Sheila.
Related: Our obituary on Maurice White, who died in 2016
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