Dee C. Lee

The graceful and radiant voice of Dee C. Lee is a key ingredient in the evolution of British pop and soul, from Brit-funk to acid jazz, across multiple generations. First heard by a broad audience on a clutch of major 1982-1983 U.K. pop hits -- Wham!'s "Young Guns (Go for It)" and "Bad Boys," followed by the Style Council's "Money-Go-Round," Lee entered the spotlight in 1985 with "See the Day," the self-written Top Five single from her debut solo album Shrine. In addition to sustained Style Council success through the rest of the '80s, Lee went on to chart as one-half of Slam Slam, and deeper into the '90s fronted Guru's Top 40 single "No Time to Play." She released two lower-profile albums that decade, and returned around the turn of the 2010s after a lengthy hiatus from music. Just Something, her fourth album, arrived in 2024 with a familiar if fresh sound true to her past. Before she made her solo debut, Dee C. Lee -- born Diane Catherine Sealy in Balham, South London -- was known as a backing vocalist. Over the first few years of the '80s, she recorded and performed with Central Line, Animal Nightlife, and Wham!, and joined the Style Council after recording "Money-Go-Round"). While in the Style Council during 1984, Lee began a solo career on CBS with "Selina Wow Wow," "Yippee Yi Yay!," and "Don't Do It Baby," a mostly pop-oriented run of singles produced by former Heatwave member Roy Carter. "Selina Wow Wow" was Lee's first headlining entry on the U.K. pop chart, peaking at number 88. The next year, she scored her biggest solo hit with the self-written "See the Day." A sweeping, Rose Royce-like ballad produced by Style Council collaborator Brian Robson, it went up to number three during a 13-week stay and earned a silver BPI certification. This set up the 1986 release of Shrine, Lee's full-length debut, which yielded another charting ballad with "Come Hell or Waters High" (number 46), originally recorded by Judie Tzuke. Lee married Style Council bandmate Paul Weller in 1987, and closer to the end of the decade started working with the Blow Monkeys' Dr. Robert under the name Slam Slam. The acid jazz-flavored project placed "Move (Dance All Night)" and "Something Ain't Right" on the singles chart ahead of Free Your Feelings, their lone album, released in 1991 (by which point the Style Council had split). Two years later, Lee was part of Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1, featured beside guitarist Ronny Jordan on the number 25 U.K. hit "No Time to Play." Lee toured with the Gang Starr MC and consequently performed with many of the album's other featured musicians, such as trumpeter Donald Byrd, whose funkier '70s Blue Note dates were a formative influence. In 1994, Lee issued a one-off single for James Lavelle's hip Mo Wax label, "New Reality Vibe," and independently released Things Will Be Sweeter, a solo album made in collaboration with "New Reality Vibe" co-producer Mike McEvoy, DJ Jazzy Nice, and a handful of additional songwriting associates. Four years later, Lee issued her third album, the Japan-only Smiles, and divorced Weller. Lee made other featured appearances throughout the '90s on songs from Weller, Mother Earth, Nobukazu Takemura, and Jamiroquai, among other artists. During an extended break from music, Lee devoted her time to raising children Leah and Nathaniel (both of whom would become involved with music and, in Nathaniel's case, acting and modeling as well). In 2005, Girls Aloud covered Lee's "See the Day" and took it to the Top Ten of the U.K. chart. Later in the decade, Lee appeared in the feature-length film Rabbit Fever and the short film The Town That Boars Me, and started performing again. Signed to Acid Jazz, Lee released her first single in over two decades in 2023, consisting of the original song "Don't Forget About Love" and an update of Renee Geyer's "Be There in the Morning" (a 1977 rare groove cut brought to a wider audience two years later by Norman Connors' version). Both sides of the single appeared the following year on Lee's Just Something, produced by Tristan Longworth. "Walk Away" reunited Lee with Style Council bandmate Mick Talbot.
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