Geraldine Carroll was born on 21 August 1968 in Newmarket, England to a Scottish mother and an American father, and started singing at age of five, where, despite the lack of formal vocal coaching, she won a local talent competition in 1981, at the age of thirteen. By sixteen she was signed to Morgan Khan's London-based StreetSounds record label, which was primarily a compilations company known for its electro music albums. She moved to West London and recorded two singles in 1985 for the company's StreetWave dance music singles label, with 'Set It Off' and 'One Nation' being credited to a non-existent group called Masquerade. After six unproductive months, she left StreetSounds/StreetWave, with Khan going on to use the Masquerade name again for further singles, while Carroll secured a recording contract with Jive Records/Zomba and released a number of singles in 1989 and 1990. After a short time at Jive, Carroll was spotted by Dennis Ingoldsby, one half of newly-founded First Avenue Management, who were already managing a dance production duo called Quartz. Quartz were made up of Ronnie Herel and Dave Rawlings, and so Carroll was brought in to provide vocals for the duo on their cover of Carole King's 'It's Too Late', which topped the dance charts and reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1991, and which was followed by the number 39 hit 'Naked Love (Just Say You Want Me)'.
After these two singles with Quartz, First Avenue decided to relaunch Carroll as a solo artist, and she was signed to A&M Records by managing director Howard Berman. Her first solo single was 'Ain't No Man', released in June 1992, and which reached number 16 in the UK chart, and to capitalise on its success Carroll and her co-writer Nigel Lowis worked on future singles together, as well as recording songs for her debut album. The album 'So Close' was released in March 1993 and entered the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart, generating further hit singles with 'This Time' and 'Express'. One of the tracks on the album, 'Don't Be a Stranger', was a cover version of a song originally recorded by Chyna, and a new version was recorded for the single release, with the London Session Orchestra providing strings for a new backing track. This completely transformed the song, and when it was released, it became Carroll's biggest chart hit, reaching No. 3 and spending many weeks inside the top 10. She was named Best Female Artist at the BRIT Awards in February 1994, but then took a break from her recording and touring obligations, stating that she felt "burned out", although 'So Close' kept her name in the public eye by remaining in the UK Top Ten for most of 1994, and by being short-listed for the Mercury Music Prize.
Rumours of new songs started to surface in the summer of 1995, but instead of releasing them, she found herself in the midst of contractual problems. Howard Berman, who had originally signed her to A&M, had moved to Mercury Records, but there were problems in convincing them to move Carroll with him. Eventually, Mercury agreed but it was not until May 1996 that the release of a new single was confirmed, with 'Escaping', a song written by Barry Blue, finally appearing in September, almost three years after her last record. The song entered the chart at No. 3, and a new album, 'Only Human', followed in October, debuting at No. 2 on the album charts. During the recording of 'Only Human', Carroll discovered that she had developed otosclerosis, a hereditary bone disease which affected her ears, but she postponed treatment until after all her recording duties had been fulfilled, and then had an operation to replace a whole eardrum, from which she made a reasonable recovery, despite some inevitable permanent hearing loss. She was nominated for "Best British Female Artist" in the 1997 BRIT Awards, but then went into artistic hibernation for a year, returning to the drawing board in 1998 for her third album. For this, she went to Los Angeles to work with producer Rhett Lawrence, and although the original collaboration was intended only for three tracks, they ended up recording a full album in Rhett's home studio, and the lead single 'One, Two, Three' was released in October 1998.
The new album, 'Dina Carroll', was originally planned for release at the end of 1998, but it was postponed as Carroll was not totally happy with some of the mixes on the album. Instead, her record company decided to relaunch her as a dance diva, and a new up-tempo track 'Without Love' was chosen to be the next single, with a host of remixes to suit all sections of the club scene. A follow-up single, 'Say You Love Me', was scheduled for release in November 1999, and the remixed version of the album was planned to follow two weeks later, but Mercury suspended the release of the single, and both the single and the album were shelved. In 2000, First Avenue Management entered into a crisis phase when most of their artists were dropped by their labels, and along with Eternal, Louise, Dana Dawson, Kele Le Roc, Honeyz, Kéllé Bryan, and Michelle Gayle, Carroll left First Avenue at the end of 2000. Due to these issues with the record label and her management company, the 'Dina Carroll' album remains unreleased, and although Carroll issued a new single in 2001, followed by a greatest hits compilation, this was effectively the end of her recording career. It was an ignominious end for the double BRIT-nominated singer, and so to try and make up for it, here is that shelved third album for you to enjoy.
Track listing
01 Without Love
02 Say You Love Me
03 One, Two, Three
04 Straight To My Soul
05 Son Of A Preacher Man
06 Good To Me
07 Let It Go
08 On And On
09 I'll Be There for You
10 Livin' For The Weekend
11 Love Of My Life
12 Almaz
