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"I called the album ’MIRACLE’ because -- at one point -- I felt like it was a miracle that it came out," laughs the good-natured soft-spoken Puff. "To make a record is what I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember, so I see the result of all this work as something really special."

Apparently, others feel the same way. Radio programmers across the country began playing "Forever More" weeks before Sony officially began promoting it. One San Francisco radio station even altered its "Oldies" format to accommodate the song. And that was just the reaction to the single.

MIRACLE itself -- 12 songs deep (Puff co-wrote seven of the tracks and co-produced five) and produced by a behind-the-boards A-List including Narada Michael Walden, Walter Afanasieff, Jermaine Dupri, Diane Warren and Keith Thomas -- is everything a debut album from an artist of Puff’s caliber should be. The big love anthems -- "God Sent You" and the title track -- contrast beautifully with the melodic, hypnotic "Yearning" and the mid-tempo, folksy "True Meaning of Love," all offering sterling exhibitions of Puff’s musical diversity. With a radio-genic voice as comfortable as an old friend and as exciting as a new lover, Puff works her way through cosmopolitan grooves like "Because of You" and "Come Closer" and stark tender numbers like "Please Help Me I’m Falling (In Love With You)" with the smooth verve of a singer twice her age. During the prolific social plea "Outside My Window," Puff provokes thought. During the inspirational opus "Hold Onto This Hand," she offers hope. Throughout all of MIRACLE, Puff succeeds in touching the heart and soothing the soul.

But then, you would expect nothing less from a talent who has spent practically all her life preparing for this moment. The daughter of parents who were extremely supportive of her impressive talents, Puff was born in Detroit before the family moved to Los Angeles. She was singing at the tender age of two, taking vocal lessons by age seven. Marie Johnson, Puff’s mother and co-manager, herself a former session singer and songwriter, gave her daughter the affectionate nickname, "Puff," when describing her daughter’s soft and cuddly dimensions as a baby. The name has stuck with her ever since.

According to Marie, "One of the first songs she learned all the way through was Graham Central Station’s version of ’I Can’t Stand the Rain.’ Then she learned Minnie Riperton’s ’Back Down Memory Lane.’ I remember watching people watch her sing that song. They’d wonder if Puff was going to make that high note... she always did." In retrospect, it seems that early in her development as an artist, Puff was capable of embracing songs from the opposite ends of the pop music spectrum; her interpretations of GCS’s gruff, bluesy "...Rain" and Riperton’s touching ballad precursed her easy way with both dynamic pop/R&B and yearning love songs.

By age 13, Puff had already been offered a recording contract but opted for a more conventional childhood instead. "I just felt that I was a kid, and I wanted to enjoy being a kid," she says today. "I didn’t want the responsibility of being a recording artist just then."

Instead, she continued to develop her craft. She sang in the church choir. At L.A.’s prestigious High School for the Arts, she was a straight A student, and the unofficial mascot for the football team. "Whenever I didn’t sing the National Anthem at one of their games," says Puff, "they’d end up losing, so they sort of adopted me."

In her teens, Puff took on studio session work, singing on the recordings of rapper MC Trouble and Motown act The Good Girls. She also began cultivating her interest in songwriting, and when a writer asked her to sing on a demo he submitted to Famous Music publishers, the company ended up signing Puff as a writer instead.

Soon, word spread on both coasts of a gorgeous young songwriter with a voice that could melt your heart out and an incandescent presence. A lithe young beauty, Puff’s background in dance and choreography adds a whole level of passion and movement to her performances. No less than four major labels came a-courting. When the smoke finally cleared, Puff was a Sony artist.

"At Sony, I felt I could be me," says Puff. "I met with (Columbia Records President) Donnie Ienner and (Sony Music CEO) Tommy Mottola and they took me around and made me feel at home. They allowed me to pursue my interest in songwriting, which was very important to me."

Before recording MIRACLE, Puff cut tracks for the Joyful Christmas holiday compilation, the soundtrack to the hit film Bad Boys, and the music for the critically-lauded television mini-series The Promised Land.

Creating MIRACLE wasn’t all happiness however. Sadly -- during production on the album, Mack Johnson, Puff’s beloved father, passed on to greater glory. Puff makes loving reference to her father in her liner notes for the record. "My father was my biggest fan," Puff reminisces. "No matter how tough things got, he never doubted that I would someday achieve my goals. He did everything he could to help me get here."

Equally impressed was manager/award-winning TV producer ("Lonesome Dove," the Motown TV specials) Suzanne de Passe, legendary for her development of another prodigious act, the Jackson 5. After hearing Puff sing and meeting her, de Passe offered her services. Thus, Johnson co-manages Puff in association with de Passe’s Creative Partners firm.

de Passe’s intuitive grasp of potential stardom was verified almost immediately, when Puff Johnson became a star during Sony’s Roadshow presentation, an early 1996 live-performance promotional tour of some of the label’s promising new acts. Puff wowed the normally smug industry audience of retailers and press with both her vocal and stage prowess, not to mention her seductive, if not somewhat controversial -- style of dress (see CD cover!), which has quietly become a trademark. "I want to bring back femininity in dressing," she says. "I enjoy looking like a lady." As for the CD cover, says Puff, "My father approved, my mother approves and so does my pastor. That’s good enough for me."

But Puff herself -- the singer, the writer, the performer, the lady -- is a whole lot better than merely "good enough." She is an incredible talent with the promise of a long, versatile and brilliant career ahead of her. In a business filled with short-sighted wanna-bes and posers, that’s nothing short of a MIRACLE.

"Over and Over"

Quicktime (3.5MB)

"All Over Your Face"

Quicktime (3.2MB)

"Forever More"

Quicktime (3.5MB)