Polly Brown

Artist Biography by Bruce Eder Polly Brown (also spelled Browne) is a singer whose work on the British pop/rock and disco scenes brought her some international fame in the 1970s. In her native England, she became a very familiar voice, both as a member of Pickettywitch and Sweet Dreams, and as a solo act later in the decade. Brown was born in Birmingham, England in 1947, and was an aspiring singer in her teens. She was a founding member of the bubblegum group Pickettywitch in 1969, which enjoyed several major hits in England and was a popular draw on television as well, and for three years she fronted this group. In 1972, however, after a year of declining sales and receding fortunes, Brown left Pickettywitch and later became part of a group called Sweet Dreams, where she enjoyed a hit with their cover of ABBA's "Honey Honey." She spent a couple of years with Sweet Dreams and released her first and only solo album in the middle of the decade. Her 1973 solo single "So Much in Love" was something of a throwback to an early-'60s girl group sound, but Brown later moved into a disco mode, and enjoyed a short string of U.K. hits, one of which -- "Up in a Puff of Smoke" -- made the U.S. top 20. In the three decades since, Brown has continued to sing and also author songs. In 1995, the RPM label released Bewitched: The Polly Brown Story, which encompassed her work with Pickettywitch and Sweet Dreams, as well as her solo releases.