Rita Chao

Rita Chao, best known to her Mandarin-speaking fans as 凌雲 (…Ling Yun or Ling Ying), was born in Singapore, sometime in 1949 or early 1950. She started singing at the age of 8 and was already working as a singer and actress at 14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her parents saw her potential as an artist quite soon, and decided to pull Rita out of school to join the Opera troupe and she was performing Chinese Opera on stage. At the end of 1965 - when she was just 15 - while touring Malaysia with her former group, she joined a band called Super XX. Rita was discovered on the local entertainment scene by Su Yin (舒雲), a.k.a. Henry Foo, a Singaporean singer, songwriter and lyricist, who at the time was also the A&R manager for the Chinese section at Columbia / EMI. 

In 1966 she was signed by the label and released her very first 7" EP. On this record, she was paired with the top guitar band from Singapore, The Quests. The EP sold over 50.000 copies, and for Rita it was instant stardom. During those days Rita met Sakura Teng (櫻花). Sakura was already a star singing at various Cabarets throughout South East Asia. In 1967 Rita and Sakura began performing as a double act and toured Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, building a fan base.

During her heyday Rita Chao recorded many great Mandarin covers of popular English songs and she was part of the pioneers who launched the Rock Movement in Singapore. Along with Sakura, they were both known as 'A Go-Go Queens of the Sixties"; in those days, they used to perform at the now defunct New World Amusement Park and they both lived in Jalan Besar. Rita's career lasted about ten years. In 1975, when her last solo album was released, she declared in an interview that she was about to make a movie in Hong Kong and that she was tired of singing all the time... In 1980-81 she briefly returned releasing two albums with Sakura, just before disappearing completely.

She passed away in July 2014 after suffering from colon cancer.

Alis Lesley

Alis Lesley (born Alice Lesley; April 20, 1938) is an American rockabilly singer, once billed as "the female Elvis Presley." She was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Her family later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she attended Phoenix Junior College. She majored in television and radio, and began singing rockabilly while a student.

 

 

 

 

 

She was discovered by Kathryn Godfrey, a popular Phoenix television personality and the sister of Arthur Godfrey. With Ms. Godfrey's help, Lesley became a local favorite following her appearances on television station KTVK and in local night clubs. Lesley achieved brief national celebrity with the 1957 release of her Era single, "He Will Come Back to Me" b/w "Heartbreak Harry" (Era Records 45-1034).

 

Lesley's stage persona as "The Female Elvis Presley" included a guitar slung around her neck, greased-back hair, and combed-down sideburns.She toured Australia in October 1957 with Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Johnny O'Keefe.

Following appearances in Quebec in 1959, the historical record on Alis Lesley ends. She seems to have granted only one very brief interview since then: excerpts of it appeared in 2002 in the liner notes of Bear Family’s Memphis Belles: The Women of Sun Records.

Dinah Cancer

Dinah Cancer (born August 28, 1960) is the stage name of vocalist Mary Ann Sims, best known for her band 45 Grave, which helped found the deathrock music genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cancer's first band was Castration Squad, an all-female punk band formed by Alice Bag of Bags. While a member of this band, Cancer used the moniker "Mary Bat-Thing". In 1979, 45 Grave was formed. The band also featured guitarist Paul Cutler (formerly of the Consumers), bassist Rob Graves (previously of Bags), drummer Don Bolles (previously of Germs and Nervous Gender) and keyboardist Paul Roessler (previously of the Screamers and Nervous Gender). In 1981, 45 Grave released their first single, "Black Cross", and contributed several songs to the compilation Hell Comes to Your House.  

The band broke up in 1985, the same year that their song "Partytime" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Return of the Living Dead. They reformed in 1988 and released the live album Only the Good Die Young in 1989. Cancer was also a member of the 45 Grave-related band Vox Pop, and sang backup for Nervous Gender.

In 1997, she formed the band Penis Flytrap, who released the mini album Tales of Terror (1998, Bloody Daggre Records) and the album Dismemberment (2001, Black Plague Records). Cancer and drummer Hal Satan left Penis Flytrap to form Dinah Cancer and the Grave Robbers. In 2004, 45 Grave reformed for their 25th anniversary, with  Rikk Agnew and later Frank Agnew, performed the title track to the 2009 horror film Night of the Demons, and released their second studio album, Pick Your Poison, in 2012 on Frontier Records.

Female Species

Female Species was a band formed in Whittier, California, in 1966 by teenage sisters Vicki and Ronni Gossett. The sisters would go on to forge careers in the music business, working on their craft while bouncing around the country and eventually landing as staff songwriters for music publishing companies in Nashville in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members came and went; their base of operations moved to Las Vegas, back to LA, and over to Nashville. Along the way their sound transformed from garage rock to lounge to countrypop, the only constant being an innate mastery of hooks and harmony. Along the way, they crossed paths with The Carpenters, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Judds, and seemingly half of the industry’s power players, rebuffing all untoward advances, focused always on their craft.

In the 1980s they became staff songwriters for music publishing companies in the hit-making business. Relentless pushing landed them a once in a lifetime audition before the court of RCA’s top executives.

The band released a 10" in 1966 and then in 2021, the Chicago based record label Numero Group released the compilation Lp Tale Of My Lost Love.

Bettye Swann

Betty Barton (born Betty Jean Champion, October 24, 1944), better known by the stage name Bettye Swann, is a retired American soul singer. She was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, one of 14 children. She grew up in Arcadia, Louisiana, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1963.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1964, Swann started a solo singing career, changing her name to Bettye Swann at the prompting of local DJ Al Scott, who became her manager. After a minor hit with the self-penned "Don’t Wait Too Long", her big breakthrough came with "Make Me Yours", which topped the Billboard R&B charts in July 1967 and made #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

In 1968, she split with Scott, moved to Georgia, won a new contract with Capitol Records, and had another hit in 1969 with her cover of the Jeannie Seely hit "Don't Touch Me" (#14 R&B, #38 Hot 100). In 1972, Swann transferred to Atlantic Records and had a pair of minor hits with "Victim of a Foolish Heart" (later covered by Joss Stone) and Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again".

After leaving Money Records she lived for a short time in Athens, Georgia. She continued to record until the mid-1970s, but with little commercial success.

Zenda Jacks

Suzie "Sue" McCloskey, better known as Zenda Jacks, is an English singer. She is best known for being one of the members of the Silver Convention and Hard Rain group. She has also worked with artists such as Tina Turner and Ella Fitzgerald.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zenda Jacks trained in ballet from a very young age. As she grew older, she took singing and piano lessons, while also learning how to play the guitar. When she was 17 years old, she was discovered by 2 members of a Birmingham-based band, known as "Muscles". She was later invited to join the band as a singer. In 1974, she released her debut single, Rub My Tummy. She was billed The Goddess of Rock, and seen as the UK's answer to Suzi Quatro. She was invited to perform in TV shows, such as TopPop and Musikladen After leaving the rock scene, she later played and sang in the Wakefield Theater Club. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the fall of 1977, she replaced Penny McLean and became a member of the Silver Convention disco group. Along with Jerry Rix, she recorded a duet "Spend The Night With Me", which became a modest hit in the United States. In 1999, Jacks made a comeback by being one of the singers for Hard Rain. She recorded 2 albums and went on tour with the group.

 

Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. She also fronts the band Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At age 13, she played bass in her first band, known as both the Black Shadows and the Leather Dice as they had never agreed on a name. Grace befriended James Bowman when they met on their first day of freshman year at Naples High School; the two have been close ever since. In 1997, at age 17, Grace dropped out of high school and began writing songs, naming the musical project Against Me!. Moving to Gainesville, Florida, at 18, she began performing as Against Me!, either alone on an acoustic guitar or with friend Kevin Mahon accompanying by drumming on pickle buckets. Her songs drew influence from early acoustic protest music, covering topics such as class struggle. Early Against Me! shows were played at dive bars, laundromats, and anywhere else that would allow Grace to perform, to audiences of a few or even zero. 

In 2000, Grace convinced Bowman to move to Gainesville and began teaching him how to play Against Me! songs on guitar. After some early EP releases, Against Me! developed into a full band consisting of Grace, Bowman, bassist Dustin Fridkin, and drummer Warren Oakes. Their debut album, Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, was released in 2002 through local independent record label No Idea Records. With Fridkin replaced by Andrew Seward, the band signed to DIY indie record label Fat Wreck Chords for 2003's Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy and 2005's Searching for a Former Clarity. In December 2005, Against Me! signed to Sire Records, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. 2007's New Wave, brought the band mainstream success: It debuted at no. 57 on the Billboard 200; featured their first charting single, "Thrash Unreal", which reached no. 11 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart; and was named as Spin's album of the year.

Grace's solo EP, Heart Burns, was released in October 2008. Timed to coincide with that year's United States presidential election, the EP's songs addressed the country's political and economic climate, criticizing presidential candidate John McCain and the trial of environmental activist Eric McDavid. Against Me!'s fifth studio album, White Crosses, was released in 2010 and became their most successful, reaching no. 34 on the Billboard 200. Against Me! left Sire in November 2010. 

Grace came out as a transgender woman in May 2012. On November 15, 2016, her memoir Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi, was published. Much of the book is based on Grace's journals, which she had kept since third grade. In July 2018, it was announced that Grace would release an album in the fall of 2018 under the name Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers on Chicago-based Bloodshot Records. The record, Bought to Rot, was made with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, Angels & Airwaves, The Offspring). Her last solo album, Stay Alive, came out in 2020 on Polyvinyl Record Co.

Karen Carpenter

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer who, along with her elder brother Richard, was part of the duo the Carpenters. She was praised for her three-octave contralto vocal range and drumming abilities.

 

 

 

 

 

Carpenter's first band was Two Plus Two, an all-girl trio formed with friends from Downey High. They split up after she suggested that her brother Richard join the group. In 1965, Karen, Richard, and his college friend Wes Jacobs, a bassist and tuba player, formed the Richard Carpenter Trio. The band rehearsed daily, played jazz in nightclubs, and also appeared on the TV talent show Your All-American College Show. She did not sing at this point; instead, singer Margaret Shanor guested on some numbers. The trio signed a contract with RCA Records and recorded two instrumentals, but they were not released.

A&M Records finally signed the Carpenters to a recording contract in 1969. Karen started out as both the group's drummer and co-lead singer, and she originally sang all of her vocals from behind the drum set. She sang most of the songs on the band's first album, Offering (later retitled Ticket to Ride); her brother wrote ten of the album's thirteen songs and sang on five of them. The opening and concluding tracks were sung by both siblings in unison. As well as drumming, Karen played bass guitar on two songs, "All of My Life" and "Eve", under Osborn's guidance. On "All I Can Do", she played in 5/4 time, while "Your Wonderful Parade" featured multiple snare and bass drum overdubs to emulate the sound of a marching band. The track "Ticket to Ride", a Beatles cover song that later became the album's title track, was released as the Carpenters' first single; it reached No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two hit singles: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". They peaked at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the Hot 100. After the release of Now & Then in 1973, the albums tended to have Carpenter singing more and drumming less, and she did become the focal point of all records and live performances. In 1981, after release of the Made in America album (which turned out to be their last), the Carpenters returned to the stage and went on some promotional tours, including an appearance for the BBC program Nationwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carpenter released her first solo record, "Looking for Love" / "I'll Be Yours", in 1967 on Osborn's Magic Lamp label. Only 500 copies were pressed, and the label folded shortly afterwards.[46] In 1979, while Richard took a year off to treat his addiction, Karen made a solo album with producer Phil Ramone.[47] The sessions produced music that was different from the usual Carpenters material, tending more toward disco and up-tempo numbers, with more mature lyrics and taking full advantage of Karen's upper vocal register. The album met with a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980 and was shelved by A&M Records co-owner Herb Alpert, in spite of attempts by producer Quincy Jones to convince him to release the solo record after a remix.[48] A&M subsequently charged Carpenter $400,000 to cover the cost of recording her unreleased album, to be paid out of the duo's future royalties.[49] A portion of the solo album was commercially released in 1989, when some of its tracks (as remixed by Richard) were included on the album Lovelines, the final album of previously unreleased material from the Carpenters. In 1996, the complete solo album, titled Karen Carpenter, was finally released.

Carpenter suffered from anorexia nervosa, which was little-known at the time. Her death from heart failure on the 4th of February of 1983, at age 32 was related to the illness.

Venus and the Razorblades

Venus and the Razorblades were a short-lived punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, that included guitarist/singer Roni Lee (born Rhonda Lee Ryckman), who had co-written the song "I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are" for the Runaways; guitarist/singer Steven T.; bassist Danielle Faye (formerly of Atomic Kid); drummer Nickey Beat (formerly of The Weirdos and the Germs) (who was soon replaced by Kyle Raven); and singers Dyan Diamond and Vicki Razorblade (born Vicki Arnold). When the band formed, Diamond and Razorblade were only 14 and 17 years old respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band put out a novelty single called "Punk-A-Rama" on Bomp! Records to capitalize on the popularity of the punk rock genre, but then broke up. A compilation album called Songs from the Sunshine Jungle was released in 1978 on Visa Records; it is extremely rare today.

 

 

 

 

 

After Venus and the Razorblades disbanded, Fowley tried to make Dyan Diamond got a deal with MCA Records; her 1978 album, In the Dark was a commercial failure. Roni Lee collaborated and performed with Randy California and Ed Cassidy of Spirit, as well as Mars Bonfire and Jerry Edmonton of Steppenwolf, in 1977-78. In 2013, Lee was granted an endorsement with Paul Reed Smith guitars for her distinctive style of playing as well as her place in punk rock's early history. Lee released the album Heroes of Sunset Blvd. in 2016.

Celia Gollin

Celia Gollin was a London-based singer who was "discovered" in a Chinese restaurant by Dai Davies, where she was (according to Sounds) "singing camp cabaret with former Kilburn and the High Roads pianist Rod Melvin". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davis managed The Stranglers, and he persuaded them to act as her backing band on Mony Mony, where they masqueraded as The Mutations. This was not a well-kept secret: even the adverts admitted everybody knew who The Mutations were. Less obvious, unless you looked at the song-writing credits, was that the B-Side, 'Mean To Me, was a Stranglers song, as it credited to Black/Burnel/Cornwell/Greenfield. Although it got positive reviews, not even the Stranglers connection could propel this excellent single into the charts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Stranglers re-recorded 'Mean To me' themselves in 1978 as part of a free single with their 3rd LP, Black And White. For her second single, You Better Believe Me, JJ was the only Strangler who helped out, although he did co-write the A-Side as well as play bass, aided and abetted by Wilco Johnson (guitar, from Dr Feelgood) and Terry Williams (drums, from Man). Following this, Gollin faded into obscurity.