Becoming Beyoncé

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  The next evening, Andretta invited all of the parents to attend rehearsal at her home, after which she explained the details about the trip. They had about five weeks to get ready for the show, she said. They would need to perform three songs. “Are you girls game?” she asked, looking at the group. With wide eyes and big smiles, they all nodded enthusiastically.

  As the date neared, the girls rehearsed their songs day and night. “By this time, we were performing at my mother’s shop, Headliners, every other day for the customers there,” Beyoncé recalled. “Looking back on it, you have to feel badly for those poor women. My mother would say, ‘Okay now, here’s Girls Tyme, so enjoy, y’all. And it didn’t matter whether they liked us or not, they were obligated to applaud. It was good for our egos but maybe not so good for the customers,” she concluded, laughing.

  “You would be amazed at how much we learned by performing in Miss Tina’s shop,” LaTavia Roberson adds. “They would sit there with their arms folded across their chest as if to say, ‘Okay, little girls. Let me see what you got.’ You really had to show them something. But looking back on it now, I don’t think Miss Tina would have had us out there singing if she didn’t think we could deliver. She was very protective of us and would’ve hated to see us criticized by anyone, especially at that age. We always delivered, though. Then, after we sang, everyone would compliment us as Miss Tina handed us brooms and made us sweep hair from the floor.”

  “At this same time, we started this program we called ‘Boot Camp,’ ” Tony Mo. recalled. “It was mostly Lonnie’s idea. He worked the girls hard every day, even having them sing while jogging so they wouldn’t get winded while dancing and singing onstage. We prepared hard for this convention.”

  The weekend before the show, Andretta took the youngsters to have their hair styled at Headliners and their nails done. At a local clothing store, she purchased sparkly white tuxedo jackets with shoulder pads and silk blouses and bow ties for the girls to wear onstage, along with stretch pants and matching patent leather Mary Jane shoes. It was a good look for them, a Motown-infused, Jackson 5 kind of image. By hand, Andretta and Tina then added sequins and purple appliqué to the outfits so that they would pop under the spotlights. The two women spent hours on the couch at Tina’s home, sipping coffee and laughing while working on what they called “the girls’ uniforms.”

  “Then Miss Tina took us to the Galleria,” the preeminent shopping mall in Houston, recalled LaTavia Roberson. “She’d seen these glow-in-the-dark boots and thought they’d be cool for us to wear if we booked another showcase while we were in California. ‘You never know what can happen,’ she told us, ‘and you have to be ready with a change of clothes.’ A change of clothes! Well, that had never even occurred to us!”

  “When we got to the shoe store, the boots were way out of our budget,” Nina Taylor continued. “ ‘Oh, come on, now,’ Miss Tina said, pleading with the clerk. ‘You just have to give us a discount. The girls are going to perform in California!’ But he wasn’t budging. Finally, Miss Tina said, ‘Okay. Well, what if the girls perform right here and now? I promise you they’ll bring a huge crowd into this store, and that’ll be good business for you!’ And we were like, ‘Miss Tina, we’re in the middle of a mall! And we have no music! And you want us to perform?’ But before we could even protest, Beyoncé just fell right in line with her mother’s idea and said, ‘One, two, three, hit it, girls!’ and we all started performing out little song, ‘Sunshine.’ And, sure enough, we drew a nice crowd and got a sweet discount on those glow-in-the-dark boots!”

  The next day, Mathew, Tina, and Beyoncé awoke at the crack of dawn to prepare for their trip. Mathew had to take a couple days off from work, and Tina away from the shop—they would leave Solange with a relative—but it was worth it just to see firsthand how things would turn out for Beyoncé at the convention. Of course, the flight to the West Coast was memorable. “It was everyone’s first time on a plane,” Beyoncé once recalled. “I remember looking out the window of the jet as we took off and thinking, ‘Wow. Okay, now. Will you just look at this!’ ”

  Before the show, Mathew gave Beyoncé a little pep talk. “The only thing you can do out there is give it your best, and leave the rest to the audience,” he told her in front of some of the other parents. As it would happen, Mathew would unknowingly author the template for similar talks of encouragement the other parents would give their daughters. Soon other adult voices were heard echoing the exact same phrase: “The only thing you can do out there is give it your best, and leave the rest to the audience.” When Mathew heard Ashley’s mother, Carolyn, parrot his advice to her daughter, he could only chuckle.

  “But what if I get scared and forget my words?” Beyoncé asked Mathew.

  “First of all, you won’t get scared,” he said. “But if you do, you just look out to the front row and you’ll see me there, and when you see me, you won’t be scared anymore. Okay?”

  She nodded.

  “And if you forget the words . . .” he began.

  She leaned in, paying very close attention. Forgetting her lyrics was a big concern of hers. Even as an adult it would be a great worry.

  “If you forget the words, just act like you’re home writing a song,” he told her, “and just make up any old words. The audience, they don’t know the difference.”

  Beyoncé laughed. “You so crazy,” she exclaimed. She then hugged him tightly.

  At the Gavin Convention, Girls Tyme was to entertain on a bare stage with just a riser upon which would sit the instruments that would be used by the other bands. The girls would perform live with background instrumentals on tape as recorded earlier and produced by Lonnie Jackson. In their slick white-and-purple stage wear, the group looked very professional and polished, not at all like amateurs. The three in front—Beyoncé, Ashley, and Kelly—wore head mikes. Ashley looked to be about four inches taller than Beyoncé, maybe more. Beyoncé was short and round, built pretty much like many nine-year-olds. Kelly, thin and wiry, appeared to be very nervous.

  During a musical break in the song “Boy, I Want You,” Beyoncé stepped forward and beckoned the audience to “wave your hands in the air, wave your hands like you just don’t care.” Then the three girls up front sang an interesting, jazz-inspired harmonic riff that sounded almost exactly like the bridge in the 2001 Destiny Child’s hit “Bootylicious.” In retrospect, it seems obvious that Beyoncé was inspired by “Boy, I Want You” when she wrote that particular Destiny’s Child hit. At the end, in a music break, each girl went to the front of the stage to be encouraged by her group members in a dance-off (“Go, Ashley! Go, Ashley! Go, Beyoncé! Go, Beyoncé!”). Finally, LaTavia stepped forward with a little rap that included the names of some of those on their creative team: “I like Lonnie / Lonnie’s cute / ’specially when he wears / his tailored suit.”

  The group was a real crowd-pleaser; the audience was on its feet as soon as they finished their final number. “We would like to thank Andretta Tillman,” Beyoncé said, to which Ashley added, “and Lonnie Jackson and Tony Mo., too.” As the girls bowed and accepted their standing ovation, Mathew stepped forward from the audience in a smartly tailored suit and handed each a red rose.

  A Star Is Born

  A few days after everyone returned from the Gavin Convention, there was another parents’ meeting at Andretta’s. The showcase had been so successful, Andretta told everyone, that an executive from the Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, by the name of Arne Frager had contacted her to offer to record the girls. The Plant Studios—formerly known as the Record Plant—was one of the most famous studios in the country. Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, Sly Stone, and pretty much every major recording artist had at one time or another recorded there. The girls jumped up and down and squealed as they always did when they got good news. Meanwhile, the parents stood on the sidelines, shaking hands, slapping each other on the backs, and hugging each other.

  Andretta then outlined the plan: In two wee
ks, the contingent would leave for California. However, she explained that since they were now on such a tight budget, she couldn’t afford to spring for tickets for everyone. This time, Ashley and Beyoncé—“the co–lead singers,” as she put it—would be the only ones traveling, along with herself, Kenny Moore, Lonnie Jackson, and Tony Mo. Of course, this news didn’t make the four remaining girls and their parents very happy, but it wasn’t negotiable. Arne Frager was cofinancing the trip with Andretta, and their limited budget precluded travel by all.

  Beyoncé and Ashley actually got along quite well. There was no jealousy between them. They were just little girls who wanted nothing more than to sing and were grateful for the opportunity to do so. When they shared a lead, they could be found in a corner, commiserating with furrowed brows as they reviewed their parts and offered each other helpful tips. They quickly starting making plans for their little adventure, excited about what they might experience in California.

  Also at this time, Arne and Lonnie formed a production company called A&A Music, which was established to produce the music of Girls Tyme. Tony Mo. signed a deal that tied him to A&A Music as a songwriter. Andretta also had the group sign a more official contract with her Tillman Management/Girls Tyme Entertainment. Deborah Laday and Denise Seals still had a side deal with Andretta, so that agreement had to be revised as well. In about two weeks, the paperwork for all of the deals was finalized . . . just in time for the trip to California.

  On October 9, 1991, Andretta and Kenny found themselves at the Houston Intercontinental Airport with Beyoncé and Ashley and their parents, Mathew and Tina and Carolyn and Nolan. (Lonnie and Tony Mo. had caught an earlier flight.) It was difficult for the parents to say goodbye. After all, this was the first time they’d allowed the girls to travel without them. “The first of many times, I’ll bet,” Carolyn Davis said sadly. “I want her to make it,” she told Tina of Ashley, “but right now, I don’t think I can let her go.”

  Tina felt the same way. “They’re just so damn little,” she said, embracing Beyoncé. “My God! They’re only ten!”

  As Mathew rushed off to buy going-away flowers, Tina pulled Beyoncé aside and suddenly became very emotional. “She couldn’t keep her composure,” Kenny recalled, taken aback at how quickly she became overwrought.

  “I just think they’re too young for this,” Tina said. “They’re just babies!”

  “What are you talking about, Tina?” Carolyn asked, surprised. “No they’re not,” she added. “They’re fine, Tina. The girls are just fine! They want this!”

  Beyoncé and Ashley looked from one adult to the other with wide eyes, not saying a word—maybe even a little frightened that their trip might suddenly be canceled.

  “Tina, let me promise you something,” Kenny finally said. He reached out and took both her hands into his own. “As long as I have anything to say about it, I promise that I will never let anything happen to Beyoncé.”

  Tina looked at Kenny with hopeful eyes. “Really?”

  “Yeah, really,” he said. “I promise, Tina.”

  “Okay,” Tina said. “I’m trusting you, Kenny. You’d better not let me down. I’m serious.” The way she looked at him, he knew she meant business.

  “I won’t.”

  Dabbing at her eyes, Tina started to calm down just as Mathew was returning with flowers for the girls. He immediately noticed that his wife was distressed. “What goin’ on?” he asked, concerned. “Oh, nothing,” Tina said, trying to compose herself. “Everything’s okay.” Mathew pulled her aside and held her in his arms for a moment, trying to relieve her sadness. “It’s okay,” he told her. “Beyoncé wants this, Tina. She and I talked about it. She really does.” Beyoncé nodded her head vigorously. “It’s okay, Momma,” she said, joining her parents in a group hug. “I’ll be home soon,” she added. “Don’t worry.”

  Finally, the parents said goodbye to their children, telling them how much they loved them and would miss them. Then the girls and their chaperones were off to the West Coast.

  During the flight to San Francisco, Ashley sat next to Andretta and Beyoncé and Kenny Moore sat across the aisle, all four in first class. Kenny recalls Beyoncé peppering him with questions during the entire flight. “She talked pretty much nonstop, excited about what hotel we’d be staying in, what the studio might be like. She was very chatty, giddy with excitement,” he recalled. “I wanted to sleep, but there was no hope of that ever happening,” he recalled, laughing. “At one point, she asked me to take a picture of her in the plane. She wanted it for her scrapbook. From that time on, I always called her ‘my Bey,’ because after those hours together, I felt we had a special kind of friendship.

  “When we finally landed, she and Ashley were blown away by the fact that Andretta had a white stretch limousine waiting for us. ‘I sure could get used to this,’ Ashley said. We were then driven to the Claremont Hotel, which, as a five-star hotel, was impressive. Both girls’ eyes were wide open.”

  The next day, October 10, Ashley and Beyoncé rerecorded “Sunshine” at the Plant Studios with Arne Frager at the recording console as engineer (with his colleague Scot Skidmore) and Lonnie Jackson producing. Arne, a white guy who with his long gray hair looked like a hippie, had a terrific sense of humor and a way of making the girls feel comfortable.

  A second round of recording sessions in Sausalito would prove the venue for what can only be described as a defining moment in the career of Beyoncé Knowles. It happened during the recording of a song Tony Mo. wrote for the girls called “Blue Velvet.” The song boasted a tricky melody involving fast, syncopated phrasing that ran so counter to the musical norm even a seasoned vocalist might have trouble with it. “I was proud of it because it was so different,” Tony Mo. would recall. “I wanted to write a song that was so sassy and quick with the tongue, you’d listen to it and ask, ‘What did she just say?’ because it was just that fast! I knew it wouldn’t be easy to record, though, especially for a young girl.”

  He was right. The song was almost impossible for Ashley Davis to get through in the recording studio. Producers Lonnie Jackson and Arne Frager continued to slave away with her, hoping for the best, and even Tony Mo. added his two cents to help out, but it was slow going and tedious. “She was definitely struggling with it,” Tony Mo. recalled. “I thought maybe we’d have to just abandon the song.”

  Meanwhile, as Ashley and the creative team tried to harness Tony Mo.’s beast of a song, Beyoncé sat on the other side of the glass booth next to Kenny Moore and behind Andretta Tillman, waiting for Ashley to finish. She was fidgety and impatient, Kenny recalled, “as if to say, ‘Hurry up and get it done so we can just move on . . . dang!’ ”

  “Beyoncé, what the heck is wrong with you?” Kenny finally asked. “Settle down, now, girl.”

  She rolled her eyes, tilted her head back, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

  “Do you think you can sing that song better?” Kenny asked.

  “Yes, Mr. Kenny,” she answered, suddenly perking up. “I sure do. Heck yeah, I do.”

  He studied her for a moment and realized she was serious. From her expression and conviction, he could tell she truly believed she could nail “Blue Velvet” if just given the opportunity.

  “Andretta,” Kenny finally said, tapping her on the shoulder. “Let’s put Beyoncé in there,” he told her when she turned around. “Let Beyoncé try.”

  “Hell no,” Andretta responded. “Ashley’s just fine. Give her more time. She’ll get it.”

  “But Beyoncé can do it right quick,” Kenny said. “Let her try, at least.” He noted that they had a lot of songs left to record. It made no sense to sit there all day long while Ashley worked on the one tune. Beyoncé had sung leads every now and then, why not now?

  “Oh, goddamn!” Andretta exclaimed. She was annoyed at the interruption, especially as she was trying so hard to concentrate on Ashley’s work. “Okay, fine,” she decided. She turned to Lonnie and Arne and told them that she was send
ing Beyoncé in to sing “Blue Velvet.” Ashley was out.

  “Oh, hell no,” Lonnie exclaimed, echoing Andretta’s first reaction. He said that he’d been working with Ashley for more than an hour and he intended to finish with her. Andretta reminded him that she was paying for the session, “so, please, let’s try it with Beyoncé. If she can’t do it, fine,” she said. “We’ll just send Ashley back in.”

  They made the switch: Ashley was out, Beyoncé in.

  Once Beyoncé got into the studio, it was quickly obvious to all that she knew exactly what to do with the complicated arrangement. “Her phrasing, her articulation, her sense of rhythm, all of it was . . . bananas!” recalled the song’s writer, Tony Mo. In about fifteen minutes, Beyoncé had recorded “Blue Velvet,” not only to everyone’s satisfaction, but to their astonishment. It was as if in those few moments a star had been born.

  “Goddamn! Now will you just listen to that little girl sing?” Arne said with a satisfied smile as he played back the tape.

  Lonnie nodded his head as he rocked back and forth in his chair to the music. “She’s good, all right,” he observed, not really surprised. After all, he had always had a secret fascination with Beyoncé’s talent. “Technically, Ashley still had the better instrument,” he recalled. “But what she didn’t have was Beyoncé’s execution. We decided right then and there we had to explore her sound. We had no choice.”

  “It was like listening to a young, female Michael Jackson,” Kenny Moore recalled. “It was one of those amazing moments where you just had to stop and take it all in and say, ‘Wow! What the hell just happened here?’ ”

  As the adults played back the song, Beyoncé stood in the corner with her eyes closed, as if deeply concentrating on her performance. “I think maybe I can do it better,” she finally offered. “I don’t like the bridge.” The bridge! Already, she was using obscure musical terms. She wanted to make it better, perfect it, or, at the very least, try it another way. She was told that what she’d already done was good enough—that actually it was amazing.