This one's an outtake I'd never heard from the debut Shakespears Sister album, "Sacred Heart." (It appeared on the recent "Our History" compilation as well as the expanded edition of "Sacred Heart.") I may need to start a list because this is yet another track that didn't make an album that is better than several of the songs that made the final cut. (See also: Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs.")
P.S. The "Run Silent, Run Deep" b-side "Mr. Wrong" is another (better) one from the same Shakespears Sister album!
From my youthful obsession with British music and its charts, I've learned that having a Christmas Number One is pretty much the biggest thing that could ever happen to an artist. (A recent interview with the Human League saw them still freaking out about "Don't You Want Me" claiming the honor some 40 years ago, although in retrospect it may just have been Susan and Joanne’s working-class dialect.) This might be why Shakespears (Half) Sister -- who was part of 1984's (and 1989's) No. 1, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" -- was inspired to write this song.
See a list of every one of them HERE -- and sample below!
If had been asked for a dream collaborator for Shakespears Sister, I very well might have said Richard Hawley, whose "Tonight the Streets Are Ours" is one of my favorite songs of the past 20 years. The result here does not disappoint.
My only complaint is that Siobhan and Marcy are only putting out an EP ("Ride Again") instead of a full-length album. ("Time to Say Goodbye" and "Dangerous Game" are still to come.)
Fans might recognize the tune here -- it's an early, more acoustic take of what later became the club opus "It's a Trip." This version is so moving, however, I'd be hard-pressed to say which one is better. I often lament the dissolution of her partnership Marcella Detroit -- which is gleefully back on. But now that they have a "singles" collection out, I have to admit the post-Marcy years were some of Siobhan's most creative.
Second new song from the reunited Sisters of Shakespear. This Motown-flavored number is pure joy and has me very excited for what's coming next. Great interview in which they discuss trying to figure out the music business in the age of streaming HERE.
I'm not sure there's ever been a more seamless return from a band that hasn't recorded in nearly three decades than this. Not only is the song vintage Sister, director Sophie Muller deftly incorporates the dysfunctional duo's checkered past into the video that brilliantly encapsulates what Siobhan Fahey calls "how ridiculous" they were for "not talking for 26 years!"
BTW: For casual fans who don't know the backstory, get a load of this. Shakespears Sister was Siobhan's post-Bananarama solo project. But it eventually evolved into a duo with Marcella Detroit -- albeit more of a 70-30 arrangement. But after a moderately successful first album, it was the second single from their sophomore LP -- a song called "Stay" -- that made them internationally successful. Fahey, who was already a past winner of a Zelda Fitzgerald Emotional Maturity Award, was clearly unhappy that the one song Marcella sang "lead" on became a chart-topper and the duo's "signature song." That both women had babies around this time -- the album was called "Hormonally Yours," after all -- and Siobhan was rumored to have had a heroin problem at one point only fueled the divide. So what did my top banana do? When the band was nominated (and won) a bunch of honors at the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards, Siobhan stayed home (to pout), opting to send her publisher to read an acceptance speech when the band won "best contemporary collection of songs." The statement contained a note to Marcella, wishing her "all the best for the future -- all's well that ends well" -- which Marcella heard for the first time, sitting in the ballroom in front of a room full of her peers. (To her credit, Siobhan checked herself into a psychiatric hospital shortly after the incident, which I believe was also around the same time as her divorce from Dave Stewart and the loss of custody of her kids for a while.)
I for one would think that no amount of time or discussion could repair a vindictive and humiliating move like that. But based on THIS INTERVIEW, it sounds like it took two to tango, and they're both happy to be working together again!
Video's best moment: When Siobhan rolls her eyes when Marcella steals the scene -- just as she did in "Stay"! It's a testament to Marcella's ability to forgive and Siobhan's ability to be self-effacing that they're where they are now.
P.S. Has anyone else noticed that the other new song on the "Singles Party" album is called "C U Next Tuesday." Is it possible this is a cover of a Keisha song that was included as a bonus track on her 2010 "Animal" LP?
P.S.
I noticed this "Run Silent, Run Deep" b-side -- a complete homage to Phil Spector -- is included on the upcoming compilation album. Forgot that it's better than some of the songs on "Sacred Heart"!
In a move that make the infamous Eagles reunion seem rudimentary, the Sun is reporting that Shakespears Sister will reunite, nearly three decades after topping the U.K. charts with "Stay"! Although the source isn't the most reliable, this photo on the official Shakespears Sister Instagram account suggests it's really true.
Whatever mood stabilizers Siobhan Fahey has been taking are making my inner child burst with joy -- first re-teaming with Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward for a Bananarama tour and now mending fences with Marcella Detroit, whom my former top Banana fired unceremoniously during a 1993 awards ceremony. Long live the queens!
While I'll admit I heard Shakespears Sister's cover of this T. Rex classic before I heard the original, at least I didn't ask the cashier at The Commons Chelsea who the woman was covering Maxwell's "This Woman Work." (True story!)
The 1971 original was from the same album that contained "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" ...
"Cosmic Dancer" was the title track from Shakespears Sister's fifth studio album.
Fun to hear the pre and post-Marcella Detroit lineup of Shakespears Sister handle the band's biggest hit by herself. That's a current photo of the lovely Siobhan Fahey, who is heading back home to Los Angeles for a while before returning to the U.K. to prepare for the big Bananarama reunion tour. (Please add U.S. dates, ladies!)
Since it's widely believed Siobhan Fahey sacked Marcella Detroit for from Shakespears Sister for getting too much attention on duo's international smash, "Stay," it's nice to hear the former -- and funnest -- Bananarama gal do it on her own. I may be biased, but I think Shuv is the most underrated artist of the '80s New Wave scene.
There's no topping the original, but Siobhan Fahey had fun reworking this one, in versions that were available on her website and eventually on the "Red Room Sessions" EP.
Twenty years ago this summer, "Stay" by Shakespears Sister topped the British charts for eight weeks, as well as reaching No. 4 in the U.S. It was a bittersweet moment for Siobhan Fahey's post-Bananarama career. She had originally brought Marcella Detroit in to do backing vocals, but then the one song Marcie sang lead on wound up becoming an international sensation, leaving the already-wounded songbird unable to cope. In a decidedly classless move, Siobhan let Marcella find out she was history at the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards via a prepared statement, where Marcie was in attendance but Fahey was not. Siobhan has since recorded a lot of great music under the Shakespears Sister moniker. But the real-life tension between the women clearly fueled "Stay," the most melodramatic pop song since Bonnie Tyler topped the charts around the world with "A Total Eclipse of the Heart" back in 1983!
This song has been around for a few years, but finally turned up on the fourth Shakespears Sister album, "Songs From the Red Room" (read my review HERE). The video, however, is brand new -- and tells us something valuable about former 'Rama girl Siobhan Fahey: she's either aging better than anyone else in the business, or Madonna and Belinda Carlisle should really beg this former heroin addict for her plastic surgeon's name and number. (Kudos to Paul Boyd, the video's director, for a job well done!)
The just-released Shakespears Sister album, "Songs From the Red Room," is in heavy rotation at my place (I had most of the songs already, but many are reworked and rerecorded making the disc a must-have) and I'm dying to score an interview with the sister who's doing it for herself, Siobhan Fahey. The Times of London caught up with my favorite 'Rama recently, and we learn she doesn't live with her boyfriend of eight years (sound familiar?), spends three months of the year in L.A. to be close to her kids, and must rent out her home in London because she can't afford to live off her back catalogue (really?). More importantly, though, we learn that she has overcome the depression that nearly derailed her life a few years ago. Read the complete article HERE and get your copy of "Songs From the Red Room" HERE. If you're reading, Shuv, PLEASE come play for us in the (212)!!!
How I love me Shuv? Let me count the ways. Whether as one-third of Bananarama, one-half of Shakespears Sister or a simply the frontwoman of her own rocking band (and/or calling herself Shakespears Sister again), I've always had a serious thing for Siobhan Fahey. Even during the Ramas' most syrupy pop days, it was obvious she was the most talented member, and the one with the wild side, and the dark side. After exploring just how dark she could get in the City of Angels, she wound up in a mental institution, divorced and without custody of her two boys with Dave Stewart. (She also unceremoniously "divorced" her bandmate Marcella Detroit onstage during an awards ceremony -- ouch!) That seems like a million years ago now (the boys are now 18 and 22 -- ouch!) and after releasing an impressive amount of music via her Web site over the last 10 years, she's finally decided to put out something proper, the just-out "Songs From the Red Room."
Although many of the songs have been around in various forms for some time, the overall result is a stunner that showcases Fahey's unique songwriting style that mixes glam rock and electronica while never forgetting her pop roots. Not sure what to think? Download the rousing "It's a Trip" to get the party started. (She'll be your heroine.) My personal favorite wound up an iTunes bonus track, "Someone Else's Girl."
Siobhan appeared on "Loose Women" this week (it's like "The View" but the women aren't nearly as annoying) and looked ageless, blond again in a Vivienne Westwood top. (Is heroin her secret?) On Friday she's returning the stage for her first performance in a number of years and I praying one of you kind readers in the U.K. has a full report and photos for me. And how about some New York gigs, Shuv?
It's no secret that I'm hopelessly stuck in the '80s, so I know exactly who Shakespears Sister is. And I know who Jules Shear is. But after flipping through Rolling Stone last night somehow I feel like I should know who Scissor Sisters and Jake Shears are. Right?
(Covered what? Well, at least I know who Bowie is ...)
You probably know her as one-third of Bananarama or one-half of Shakespear's Sister, but Siobhan Fahey is a very busy solo artist these days, and she makes some of the most interesting glammish pop music you've ever heard.
This week's rag 'n' mag roundup features Alex Espenshade, Belmont Cameli, Darren Criss, Lucas Oakley, Matt Damon, Fabien Frank...
Fake Jan Alert
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Little Kenny
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
Back to the Old House
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Oceans 11
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
1983
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
A Death in the Family
Little Larry left us too soon.
Once I Had a Love
With Debbie Harry
'Jungle' Fever
With Robert Buckley
Roger & Me
With Roger Federer
Step Brother McMullen
With Ed Burns
Headline News
With Thomas Roberts
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