Rochelle Fleming, Lead Singer and Founder of First Choice, Dies at 72

(ReggaeVibeMedia.com) - Rochelle Fleming, lead singer and founder of the 1970s girl group First Choice, has died at 72. She died on November 5 in Philadelphia.

First Choice were disco-era staples. "Love Thang" and "Doctor Love" were the records that carried them, songs that filled dance floors in the 1970s and never really left the crates of DJs who know the era. Fleming's voice was the one at the front of it — the lead singer of a group she founded, not just a voice hired for the part.

The loss lands close to home for the Reggae Vibe family. Fleming died in Philadelphia, the city at the heart of our Tri-State base, and the diaspora connection runs deep. First Choice came out of Philly's rich soul and disco scene, the same city whose sound shaped generations of Black music on both sides of the Atlantic.

Girl groups of that era do not always get their due in the histories. The focus tends to fall on the solo stars and the producers, while the groups who cut the records that kept the clubs moving get a line or two. Fleming and First Choice were one of those groups — a working vocal group with hits that outlived the charts they came from.

"Love Thang" still gets played. "Doctor Love" still gets pulled. That is the measure of a legacy: not the obituary, but the records that keep turning up decades after they were cut.

Reggae Vibe Media sends condolences to Fleming's family, friends, and the First Choice family. Rest in peace, Rochelle Fleming.