Biography
Dee C Lee is a highly successful recording artist who has been at the heart of the British Soul and R & B music scene for more than thirty years. With her distinctive and entrancing vocal tone, she has performed with chart-topping acts, including Wham! Animal Nightlife, The Style Council, Guru and Mother Earth, as well as writing her own hits such as the acclaimed ballad See the Day (revived in a cover by Girls Aloud).
Dee started her career as a backing singer and first came to public attention when she performed with Wham! on their hits including Club Tropicana and Bad Boys. Keen to establish herself as a solo artist, she left Wham! and secured her own recording contract with CBS Records. She released her first solo single, Selina Wow Wow, which received significant airplay.
In May 1983 while still pursuing her solo career, she teamed up with The Style Council and appeared on their 2nd single Money Go Round and their debut album Cafe Bleu. Dee's distinctive and soulful voice can be heard on many tracks including Headstart for Happiness, It Didn't Matter, The Lodgers, Walls Come Tumbling Down, and Shout to the Top.
Lee continued to record solo material during this time, with popular singles such as Yippee Yi Yay! and Don't Do It Baby. In 1985, after the release of the second Style Council album Our Favourite Shop, Lee released another solo single. The self-penned ballad See the Day became an instant classic. The single was a huge UK hit and peaked at No.3 in December 1985, selling a quarter of a million copies in the UK alone and earning Lee a record industrySilver Disc. Lee followed up the success with two further solo singles: a cover of Judie Tzuke's Come Hell or Waters High, and the self-penned Hold On. Both tracks were featured on her 1986 album, Shrine. Twenty years later, See the Day was covered by Girls Aloud, their version peaking at no 9 on the UK Singles Chart in December 2005.
Throughout the rest of the 1980's, Lee (by then married to Style Council front man Paul Weller) continued to work with the band on their albums Home and Abroad (1986), The Cost of Loving (1987), Confessions of a Pop Group (1988) and Modernism: A New Decade (1989).
After a career break to have children, Lee teamed up with Robert Howard of The Blow Monkeys and Paul to form the recording act Slam Slam. They achieved a number of UK club hits, including Move (Dance All Night) and Free Your Feelings, the latter produced by The Young Disciples. These tracks were club hits in the US and UK. In 1993, Lee collaborated with Gang Starr frontman Guru on a single from his solo project Jazzmatazz called No Time to Play, which also featured Ronny Jordan. She met Guru after he heard Slam Slam and more of her “honey” voice. He did a re-mix of Free Your Feelings and in 1993 asked her to perform on the Jazzmatazz Vol.1 album. No Time to Play featuring Dee C Lee was the first single from the album and reached no 25 in the UK. The subsequent tourof the UK, Europe and Japan saw her working with legends Roy Ayres, Courtney Pine, Lonnie Liston Smith and Donald Byrd.
Lee released two further solo albums: Things Will Be Sweeter (1994) and Smiles (1998) recorded for and released in Japan. 12-inch New Reality Vibe, was released on the Mo Wax label also 1994 and while Dee was recording the Things Will Be Sweeter album she also sang on Jamiroquai's Return of the Space Cowboy and Jazzmatazz album Volume 2 The New Reality hosted by Guru. She also travelled to Japan to promote the Things Will Be Sweeter
album.
1998 saw Lee writing with Adamski, Tiki Tok and Kamus in New York after which she put her career on hold to be Mum until her children left home in 2009. In 2011 she played some London dates to delighted audiences all the while continuing to write with Mike McEvoy (co-writer of New Reality Vibe and tracks on Sweeter and Smiles); and Arden Hart (co- writer of tracks on Sweeter & Smiles).
2019 saw Lee doing interviews and live recording of It's A Very Deep Sea for the Long Hot Summers -The story of The Style Council film for Sky released in 2020 along with the album. This renewed her friendship with Eddie Piller and in the summer of 2021 she signed a deal with Acid Jazz for a new album (no title at the moment). Produced by Tristan Longworth, it is a musical and lyrical reflection of Lee's life and sees her collaborating again with McEvoy, Hart and Ernie McKone, as well as very old friend Mick Talbot and hit song writer Paul Barry (James Bay, James Morrison).
The interim years have seen Lee performing for Refuge's Glamour Ball, appearing on Loose Women and doing the occasional podcast interview. Other than song writing, her main focus has been working on a book about previous generations of her family and the twists and turns of her life. Now with both her children married and being a Nana for the first time, she's more than happy and excited to be releasing a new album and working with Acid Jazz Records.
2023 / 2024 - Dee signs to Acid Jazz Records
Dee’s first single on Acid Jazz Don’t Forget About Love’ / ‘Be There In The Morning saw release as a 7" single on 29th Sept 2023, a double A-Sided single. ‘Don’t Forget About Love’ finds one of the finest and most in-demand British soul singers of her generation in outstanding voice on a gentle, uplifting song written by Dee with Mike McEvoy and Ernest McKone as an antidote to the hate and negativity of lockdown. ‘Be There In The Morning’ was originally co-written and recorded by Australian soul singer Renée Geyer. Reminded of the song by Acid Jazz’s Eddie Piller, Dee was enthusiastic to record her own version and delivers a euphoric vocal on another impressive return to form.
The highly rated album JUSTSOMETHING topped the Jazz Charts in March 2024. It features 11 songs: nine originals co-written by Dee, a song penned by her daughter Leah Weller, a successful singer/songwriter in her own right, and two inspired covers. Produced by Sir Tristan Longworth, the album is a soulful collection that frames her instantly recognisable vocals in luxurious horns, percussion and keys, and heritage soul with a disco backdrop. While making the record has been a collaborative process, ‘Just Something’ is nevertheless the sound of a singer in charge of her own style and direction. Her vocal delivery and phrasing steal the show throughout, bright and lilting one moment, passionate and ringing the next. She cites Chaka Khan and Jean Carn as major influences, but Lee’s voice is resolutely her own, the product of a life lived.
Inspired by classic Motown, the 2nd single ‘Walk Away’ was written by Dee with one of her ‘brothers from another mother’, former fellow Style Council member Mick Talbot, and features Talbot’s distinctive piano and Wulitzer playing on the track. Talbot also plays on another of the album’s many standouts, the Leah Weller-penned ‘Everyday Summer’.
A further 7" single BACK IN TIME was released on Acid Jazz in June 2024. Having served as the album’s thrilling opening track, for this release a new radio mix, highlighting the slick, disco-tinged soul at its heart: a perfect soundtrack to the summer. The 7” is backed with ‘Walk Away’, written with fellow Style Council member Mick Talbot, and already a firm fan favourite after its digital release preceding the album. It is presented in a wonderful picture sleeve, with a new portrait of Dee by Will Parsons, with a classic Acid Jazz disc label. Limited to 500 copies.
Look out for a limited 12" Extended Versions vinyl in September 2025.
A 10 date UK tour commences on September 24th in Glasgow, ending in London on 8th October as Dee takes her Just Something album on the road with her 9 piece band band, which includes drummer STEVE WHITE.
Full details on releases, the tour and Merchandise are within this site.
More from Dee in 2025 ....