Viola Wills - Gonna Get Along Without You Now • TopPop

Viola Wills was another top proponent of the Disco Dance scene with a long list of hits to her name. Born Viola Mae Wilkerson in 1939 she was married in her teens and had 6 children before the age of 21. She was discovered as a singer by Barry White in 1965 and she also worked with Joe Cocker and Smokey Robinson. Her first big break came in 1979 with Gonna Get Along Without You Now ,which is featured here on a dance show. Following this she had a string of Disco hits which resulted in three entries in The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles among other things. She did live shows in the Disco Dance scene.These were also popular with the gay community . She was known to be a good sport and the story is told of a bunch of guys who arrived at a dance venue only to find that there were only some 8 or so in attendance. Instead of cancelling the show she went through the whole show for just this small audience and sang and danced the night away with them. After her somewhat disastrous first marriage(!) she remarried in 1982 and with new husband Robert Ashmun formed Robert Viola Ashmun Records. She died in 2009 of cancer leaving 6 children, 18 grand children and 8 great grand children as well as her husband. RIP Viola.