The eponymously titled LYN CHRISTOPHER album issued in 1973 by Paramount Records is being digitally re-released by Universal Music Group on March 11th. The album has kept its iconic status as one of the songs has been sampled by major hip-hop artists over recent years and it contains tracks featuring members of the rock group, KISS, on background vocals before their very own debut album was ever released.

“It’s been many years of struggle to finally see the world-wide release of my album once again. It’s a second chance not many people get,” says Lyn Christopher. “I have no words to express the level of my excitement; I never thought this would come to pass.”

Lyn Christopher was only 24 years old when she penned her first recording contract with Paramount Records, a division of Paramount Pictures, on September 27th of 1972. Her self-titled album consisted of eleven tracks recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York, NY with some of the best studio musicians in the country at the time. A couple of neighborhood musicians, GENE SIMMONS and PAUL STANLEY, later to become half of KISS, lent their vocal stylings on the tracks ‘Wedding’ and ‘Celebrate II’, drummer, PETER CRISS, another soon to be KISS member, lent a hand furnishing handclaps. Lyn’s sweetly sultry vocal highlighted an album that captured the mood of early 70’s pop optimism. Production of the album was in the hands of names like Ron Johnsen, Dave Palmer and Eddie Kramer (credited on albums by the likes of DION, CARLY SIMON, and JIMI HENDRIX respectively), so it was predicted to be a success.

The album made it to radio and Lyn’s innocent, girl-next-door persona played well on popular talk shows like The Mike Douglas Show. The record was even picked up overseas by EMI and the future looked very optimistic. Lyn Christopher was on a rocket-ride to stardom while parading with rising stars ELTON JOHN, KIM CARNES and MARC BOLAN of T-REX. Unfortunately, her debut found itself out of print after ABC’s purchase of Paramount Records within a year of the album’s original release. A second and third album would be recorded, but, unfortunately, never released.

With the exception of an independent track she recorded with another rising star, BILLY SQUIER, Lyn Christopher had to resort to a career off stage and out of the recording studio. She worked mostly for record label promotion departments where she was known as “Mom” - a term she coined in order to facilitate the process of motivating radio programmers to take her call! But by 1992, Lyn Christopher was dealt with another blow in the form of breast cancer.

From 1992 to 1995, Lyn was forced to relocate from her home in Fort Montgomery, NY to her mother’s two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn to undergo chemotherapy, radiation, and tamoxifen treatments. She survived by working odd jobs between medical appointments. However, in the process of fighting cancer, Lyn lost not only her home and all her valuables, but also the master recordings to her debut album. After years of bouts with breast cancer, Lyn Christopher, now in remission but presumed dead by most of the music industry, relocated to Suffern, NY. There, she worked at various medical facilities until she fell victim to a failing economy and found herself unemployed for the first time in her life. By 2008, with the world she knew all but a crumbled memory now, Lyn discovered rap stars, LL COOL J and 50 CENT, had recorded a single entitled ‘Feel My Heartbeat’ bearing a sample of ‘Take Me With You’, a track from her debut album.

Soon, ‘Take Me With You’ had been sampled by urban artists like SMUT PEDDLERS and WILLIE THE KID, amongst others, while Lyn had never received so much as a royalty check. She sought legal advice from her old friend and original KISS manager, Bill Aucoin, but Mr. Aucoin would himself succumb to cancer shortly thereafter. Other friends and legal representatives came to the assistance of Ms. Christopher including Alan Dowling who had successfully litigated cases against U2, ZZ TOP and Elton John. It was during this time that it was discovered that Universal now owned the rights to the master recording of her debut album, yet Lyn was not receiving any royalties from the samples.

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By 2013, ‘Take Me With You’ had been sampled yet again by MOBB DEEP’S HAVOC on his track, ‘Favorite Rap Stars’, featuring RAEKWON and STYLES P. Her legal affairs, now in the hands of New York based attorney, Robert Garson, included a partial resolution for Universal Records to re-release Lyn Christopher’s debut which had never crossed over into the digital realm, not to CD nor MP3. In light of the album’s 40th anniversary, as well as KISS’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Universal has agreed to a digital release of the Lyn Christopher album on March 11th.

“Being part of the team to have Lyn Christopher's iconic album re-released has been a labor of love. It is a strange testament to an artist that she has been so widely sampled, but it shows the strength and beauty of her music,” admits Garson.

In 2013, Lyn’s influence was felt in Ken Sharp’s KISS book, Nothin’ To Lose, and she began to once again make public appearances: a KISS convention in New Jersey and a KISS KRUISE pre-party event where she performed in Miami, FL. Lyn Christopher will also be included in an upcoming book about influential underground artists by Paul Rochman entitled Lost Rockers, which will accompany a film of the same title.

For more info visit LynChristopher.com.