Kelly Marie

Early career

Born to parents Alex and Jeanette McKinnon, the future Kelly Marie began to train for a performing career at age ten: she began appearing in singing competitions at age twelve and made her television debut at age fifteen. At age sixteen as Keli Brown she appeared on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks winning four times with her rendition of "I Don't Know How to Love Him". This exposure led to her signing with Pye Records, who released Marie's debut single "Who's that Lady with my Man" in April 1976: that track reached #5 in France during the summer and earned a gold disc for sales in excess of 300,000 copies: the follow-up, "Help Me", was also a hit in France, reaching #17. Also in 1976, Marie was credited for her cameo vocal on "Sister Mary" a #2 hit in Ireland for Joe Dolan. Her 1977 single, "Run to Me", was a hit in the Netherlands (#22) and South Africa (#5) and in 1978 "Make Love to Me" gave Marie her most significant success (to that point) in the English-speaking world, reaching #2 in South Africa and #5 in Australia: the track spent forty-one weeks in the Australian Top 40 and was ranked as the #12 hit of the year.

"Make Love to Me" might also have returned Marie to the U.S. club charts where "Run to Me" had reached #27, had Helen Reddy not covered the track for the U.S. market.

"Feels Like I'm in Love"

Marie chanced across the song "Feels Like I'm in Love" in a music publishing office: Ray Dorset had written it in 1977 in hopes of having Elvis Presley record it: it's unclear if the song was ever pitched to Presley before his death that year. Dorset's group Mungo Jerry did record the song but their version was relegated to the B-side of a Belgian single "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon" (A-side).

Marie and Peter Yellowstone — who had co-written her hits with Mike Tinsley — saw the potential of the song as a follow-up to "Make Love to Me", and Marie's recording of "Feels Like I'm in Love" returned her to the Top 10 in South Africa (#7) in November 1979.

Like all of Marie's recordings to that date, "Feels Like I'm in Love" failed to become a hit in the UK, but it did become a popular disco item first in Scotland and eventually all over Britain. The track's prolonged popularity in the clubs led Pye to re-release the song in the summer of 1980, after a #61 debut on the chart dated 2 August "Feels Like I'm in Love" entered the Top Ten 23 August and spent the weeks of 13th and 20 September at #1. The track also enjoyed international success with chart rankings of #6 in Austria, #2 in Belgium, #6 in Australia, #5 in Germany, #3 in the Netherlands and #3 in Ireland. In addition the track reached #10 on the U.S. dance charts in 1981.

Later career

The intense success of "Feels Like I'm in Love" did not result in any significant stardom for its singer. Marie opined that the media were so focused on the success story of her fellow Scotswoman Sheena Easton that she received little attention above and beyond her hit record.

The decline of Marie's mainstream career became clear when her UK releases subsequent to "Feels Like I'm in Love" charted first outside the Top 20 ("Loving Just For Fun" #21; "Hot Love" #22) and then outside the Top 50 ("Love Trial" #51). Marie continued to record dance tracks, through which she remained a presence on the international club scene. She took a break from recording in 1984, around the time she met her husband and began a family which would extend to five daughters and one son. Marie did return in 1988 with the Ian Levine production "Stealing My Time" whose lack of impact in the English speaking world has been attributed to fears of plagiarism assertions caused by its resemblance to the Eria Fachin dance hit "Savin' Myself". However the track did give Marie a latterday mainstream pop hit reaching #2 in Denmark.

After another absence from recording, Marie cut a new version of "Feels Like I'm in Love" in 1997, and continued recording with dance versions of "Rescue Me", "I'm in the Mood For Dancin'", "Blanket on the Ground", "Runaway", "Millennium", "I Need a Man" and "River Deep - Mountain High" as well as a new version of "Hot Love". Her final recording to date would seem to be a 2002 collaboration with Tina Charles with whom she remade "To Sir With Love" and "Your Disco Needs You".

On 7 May 2005, Marie appeared on the ITV show, Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, singing "Feels Like I'm in Love" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" in hopes of progressing to the final to compete for the major label release of a new single. The popular vote went to Chesney Hawkes.