Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens, March 23, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter best known for such hit songs as “I’m Every Woman”, “Ain’t Nobody”, “I Feel for You” and “Through the Fire”. She sang a modernized theme song for the popular children’s TV show Reading Rainbow in the show’s later years. Khan was featured vocalist in the funk band Rufus with hit songs, “Tell Me Something Good”, “You Got the Love”, “Once You Get Started”, ‘Sweet Thing", “Everlasting Love” and “Stay”, before launching a solo career.
She adopted the African name “Chaka” while working as a volunteer on the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast for Children program in Chicago. During a naming ceremony at the Afro-Arts Theater, a Yoruba priest christened her Chaka Adunne Aduffe Yemoja Hodarhi Karifi.
Rufus debuted in 1973 with a self-titled album on the ABC label. The first album failed to achieve commercial success. However, by decade’s end, Rufus was among the most successful funk groups, rivaling the popularity of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores, War and The Ohio Players. With the help of Stevie Wonder, Rufus broke into both the pop music and R&B charts in 1974 with the Gold-selling hit “Tell Me Something Good”. They followed that hit with another hit single, “You Got the Love”, co-written by and featuring a then-unknown Ray Parker, Jr. on lead guitar, which propelled the album Rags to Rufus to Gold status by the summer of 1974.
In 1978, Khan recorded her debut solo album Chaka featuring the Arif Mardin-produced disco anthem “I’m Every Woman” (#1 R&B, #21 Pop,), which was later covered by Whitney Houston. Chaka proved to be a significant hit on the strength of the single written by Ashford & Simpson. Her next album, What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me, was a gold seller and included two hit singles on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart including the title song (which made #1 on the R&B chart). The album also featured the song “And the Melody Still Lingers on (Night in Tunisia)” with Dizzy Gillespie & Herbie Hancock, which has Chaka hitting “notes that aren’t in the book” according to producer Arif Mardin.