Forgotten Soul: Alton McClain & Destiny

There were a quite a few great girl vocal groups in the late 1970s disco/soul scene: The Emotions, High Energy, and more. I'd almost forgotten about Alton McClain & Destiny, a trio who made it big in 1978-1979 with this hit, "It Must Be Love."

"Love" is a great piece of late 1970s disco/R&B: Alton McClain's agile, feather-light soprano washes over a bouncing musical sea not unlike, say, The Emotions "Best of My Love."

Here's another clip of them singing the same song. The budget for this one didn't cover much beyond the camera, donuts and the cost of filling the pool behind them, but video is fun to watch. And they shake a little harder in this one:



Alton McClain & Destiny broke up in the early 1980s. Alton married the supremely gifted songwriter Skip Scarborough--one of my favorite songwriters--who will get profiled here in the Closet soon, trust me. Just for openers, Scarborough co-wrote LTDs "Love Ballad," wrote "Lovely Day" with Bill Withers (who also sang it); Phyllis Hyman's "The Answer is You"; Anita Baker's "Giving You the Best the I've Got." He also produced Confunkshun during their peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But I digress...

Sadly, Destiny member D'Marie Warren (she's wearing black pants in the second video above) was killed in a car accident in 1985. Scarborough's sensitive pen was silenced in 2003 when he died of cancer. Alton McClain Scarborough is still in the game and sounding good. Here she is giving glory to the Lord last year at Mt Pleasant Ministries in Bethesda MD.