Annie Golden (born October 19, 1951 in New York ) is an American actress and singer. She first came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk band The Shirts from 1975 to 1981 with whom she recorded three albums.
The Shirts had their roots in Brooklyn, where Robert Racioppo and Artie Lamonica had been playing together on and off as early as 1970. Members of the band were gradually added (including lead singer Annie Golden) in the next three years. The band got its name when Racioppo, having just broken up his existing band, asserted his desire to form a new one, and his indifference to its name: "call it anything ... shirts ... pants ... shoes ... The Shirts!" The newly named band, eventually including nine musicians, played covers at small venues in New York until, in 1975, they went to a show at CBGB featuring Patti Smith and were inspired to play there using only their original material. The Shirts auditioned for CBGB owner Hilly Kristal which resulted in the band being hired, first to open for other bands (including Television and the Talking Heads), then to play as the headliner band. As the band honed their skills and developed new songs, they played at such other local venues as Max's Kansas City.
Although little interest was initially shown in the band by American record labels, The Shirts were featured on a double compilation album featuring the major bands of the CBGB scene in the mid-70s, Live at CBGB. However, Nick Mobbs at EMI (who had signed the Sex Pistols to the label) signed the band to EMI's Harvest label in the fall of 1977, and assigned Mike Thorne (who had also worked on Sex Pistols albums) to produce their first album. Largely for corporate purposes, the band was signed by EMI in conjunction with its US subsidiary label, Capitol Records, which had initially passed on signing the band. This formality would eventually have a significant impact on the band’s early history. The first album, The Shirts, was recorded in London (while lead singer Golden commuted back to the US to shoot Miloš Forman’s screen version of Hair) and released in 1978, and became very popular in Europe, the single Tell Me Your Plans charting in the top five in the Netherlands for example. The band went on to tour Europe opening for Peter Gabriel, at his request.
Thorne chose to record the band’s second album, Streetlight Shine (1979), at Mediasound Studio in New York City. The resulting sound was much more eclectic than their debut album, and the album was again a financial and critical success in Europe, the single Laugh and Walk Away again charting high in the Netherlands. However, breakthrough in the US market continued to elude the band. For the third album, Capitol Records made a deal with EMI in which the band would be signed solely to Capitol. Now under Capitol’s management rather than Thorne’s, recording went poorly and the resulting album, Inner Sleeve (1980), was not properly supported by the label, only 10,000 copies being pressed. It was a signal failure for the band, and although they continued playing for another two years, the large band (nine members at its height) had been reduced to four players, and essentially broke up in 1981.
During the early 1990s Golden performed as part of the duo Golden Carillo with Frank Carillo. They released three albums, Fire in Newtown, Toxic Emotion, and Back for More. She returned to The Shirts, but she has also performed solo and with a band. In 1984, her song "Hang Up the Phone" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Sixteen Candles. She performs a revue of songs from her stage career along with originals called Annie Golden's Velvet Prison.
She began her acting career as Mother in the 1977 Broadway revival of Hair; later taking on the role of Jeannie Ryan in the 1979 film version of the musical. Other notable film credits include Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Strictly Business (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), The American Astronaut (2001), It Runs in the Family (2003), Adventures of Power (2008), and I Love You Phillip Morris (2009). Golden is best known for portraying mute Norma Romano in the Netflix comedy-drama web television series Orange Is the New Black from 2013 to 2019.
