Edna Wright, best known as the lead singer of The Honey Cone, the girl group that went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 with the song “Want Ads” in 1971, has died.
Wright’s sister, singer Darlene Love, confirmed the news of her passing with a statement posted on social media Saturday night (Sept. 12).
“I’m in complete shock and so heartbroken by the sudden loss of my beautiful baby sister,” Love wrote on Facebook. “Please keep me and my family in your prayers during this very sad time for us.”
“I didn’t just fall into The Honey Cone,” Wright said in an interview in 2019, speaking of her group with Carolyn Willis and Shelly Clark, formed in the late ’60s. “I dreamed of that. I watched Diana Ross. I watched Martha Reeves, and I said, ‘Oh, that’s phenomenal.'”
“It was very positive,” she said of “Want Ads,” reflecting on the hit. “It was a girl that was just really tired of stupid. She was the kind of girl who knew how to say no, and knew how to reach for what she wanted.”
Wright added, “I always try to put out positive songs that reflect, that I can watch through this life and say, ‘Yeah, that was me. I’m proud of that.'”
“We have something that everybody should know. We have one mouth, and we have two ears. We should learn to hear and listen better and speak less, and then we’ll win what we’re going after,” she said.
The Honey Cone’s chart highlights also included 1971’s “Stick Up,” as well as 1972’s “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” and “The Day I Found Myself.”
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