Degrees of fame through the years

Here the group’s lead singer tells Joanna Davis why she thinks the threesome is still going strong after 50 years in the business.

I AM a little in awe of speaking to Valerie Holiday. I’ve been trawling through The Three Degrees’ many hits on YouTube and I am astounded by how Valerie’s voice has retained its quality over the years.

A recent recording of the band singing When Will I See You Again has been posted on Valerie’s website and the vocals sound as fresh as if the song were written yesterday.

And the New Jersey-born singer has been maintaining these standards since joining the group in 1967, with The Three Degrees, formed in 1963, making the claim as the longest running female vocal group in history.

When Will I See You Again was a major hit record throughout the world, topping the chart in the US, the UK, Japan and most European countries.

Valerie answers her phone at her Atlanta home at the precise time our interview is arranged for and greets me warmly.

A self-confessed Anglophile, she is married to an Englishman and relishes the thought of spending more time in the UK on the upcoming tour, beginning on January 21.

Valerie said: “My husband is from Nottingham. I think as a country, Britain enjoys the music and they seem to respect the fact that we’ve been around for so long. The secret to it is staying on top of everything and taking care of yourself.”

The group’s hard work in the early years has held them in good stead for today’s more demanding audiences, Valerie thinks.

“For us, it’s still exciting and we still enjoy our work.

“We are blessed with a wide age group appeal... from 15 to 65. This is why we have survived, I think. We learned and were taught how to entertain and even before we had hit records. We knew how to do our job – our choreography, our costumes, the lights... these were all things that we learned at an early age,” she added.

Valerie says one of the most important things for her is to spend an hour and a half walking every day.

“I’m a real walker,” she says, “the only problem is that Georgia has quite a few hills and they’re not the easiest to get up and down.”

The Three Degrees were formed in Philadelphia and their line-up today consists of Valerie, Helen Scott and Freddie Pool.

Not long after they wrap up their UK tour on February 14, they’ll be beginning a tour of Japan on February 22.

Valerie said: “You get used to all the touring.

“I think my secret though is wearing a surgical mask on the flights. It helps you avoid all the germs in that recycled air!

“It can be terrible, sometimes you’re sat next to someone who’s coughing and sneezing and not putting their hand over their mouth. You look at them and say ‘didn’t your mother tell you to cover your mouth when you do that!’”

The Three Degrees earned the nickname ‘Charlie’s Angels’ after Prince Charles publicly acclaimed the group as his favourite.

They were invited guests at the wedding reception of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, with the only other American guest Nancy Reagan and actress Susan George the only other showbusiness guest.

Valerie said: “The British Royal Family was an institution and it really didn’t sink in at the time the magnitude of the people we were meeting. “But the British people – the actual people – also took to us very quickly and very warmly and that warmth has always remained.”

I ask Valerie if she’s toured in Dorset before.

“I think I have but it’s been so many years of touring round you tend to forget all the places,” she tells me.

She does, however, have one very strong link to Dorset.

Valerie grew up in the county town’s Stateside equivalent – Dorchester, Massachusetts.

This was the place where she found her voice.

Her family joined a new church with a children’s choir and this is where her vocal and performing training began.

“With my soul in the music and a better understanding of the words, I could express the songs that would have the congregation standing in agreement.

“Dorchester was very enjoyable and it was a place where I could enjoy being a teenager and I grew up in an environment where there wasn’t too much going on.

“It was good that I had that grounding and I learned a lot from teachers at school.”

But back then Valerie never thought she could be a professional singer and decided she wanted to be a nurse.

She said: “I had a part-time job working at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“I really was taken with it and I thought that’s what I was going to pursue. But then I got side-tracked with the music!”

And all these years later, Valerie remains ‘sidetracked’, with the group still in much demand and new member Freddie Pool joining in 2011.

Recently Valerie has even branched out to do some solo gigs.

Valerie said: “It’s just a case of finding the time to do it all and right now I don’t have time to do both so I’m doing the stuff with The Three Degrees.

“We spend a lot of time working on our routines. Freddie the new girl has been working on the choreography with us.

“We’ve had to tweak it a little bit. When you’re used to doing it one way it’s not always possible to find someone who’s a trained singer and dancer. But we’ve been very lucky.”

The one song that Valerie never tires of performing is My Simple Heart, a 1979 hit for the band.

She said: “It’s the message behind it that I love so much. There’s a loving message there that’s very strong.”

And Valerie experienced plenty of that love, spending Christmas and New Year surrounded by family and friends at home in Georgia.

“Sometimes the weather can be gorgeous in the winter but today it’s cold and grey – a bit like England!” she said.

n The Three Degrees are at Weymouth Pavilion on Saturday, January 24.