Fanny

Fanny was an American rock band, active in the early 1970s. The group was founded by guitarist June Millington and her sister, bassist Jean, who had been playing music together since they moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s. In high school they formed a band called the Svelts with June on guitar, Jean on bass, Addie Lee on guitar, and Brie Brandt on drums. When the Svelts disbanded, de Buhr and Lee formed another group called Wild Honey. The Millington sisters later joined this band, which played Motown covers and eventually moved to Los Angeles.

Frustrated by a lack of success or respect in the male-dominated rock scene, Wild Honey decided to disband after one final appearance at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles in 1969. They were spotted at this gig by the secretary of producer Richard Perry, who convinced Warner Bro. Records to sign the band, still known as Wild Honey, to Reprise Records.Prior to recording their first album, the band recruited keyboardist Nickey Barclay. The band was then renamed Fanny and the initial lineup consisted of June Millington on guitar, Jean Millington on bass, de Buhr on drums, Barclay on keyboards, and Brandt on lead vocals and percussion. Perry dismissed Brandt because he wanted the group to be a self-contained four piece band like The Beatles. The Millingtons and Barclay all assumed lead vocal duties on alternating songs, while de Buhr sang lead occasionally on later albums.

 

Perry produced the band's first three albums, beginning with Fanny in 1970. Their cover of Cream's "Badge" from the first album had significant radio airplay. The follow-up album, Charity Ball was released the following year, and its title track reached #40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of Fanny also worked as session musicians, and played on Barbra Streisand's 1971 album Barbra Joan Streisand, after Streisand had wanted to record with a small band. The group continued to pick up well-known fans; David Bowie sent the group a letter admiring their work and invited the band to a post-show party. With young engineer Leslie Ann Jones as their road manager and live sound mixer, Fanny toured worldwide, opening for Slade, Jethro Tull and Humble Pie, gaining widespread popularity in the United Kingdom. The group made several live television appearances during tours, including The Sonny and Cher Show, American Bandstand, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Beat Club.

 

The group's third album, Fanny Hill (1972) featured the Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick in addition to Perry's production. It included a cover of "Hey Bulldog" and Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar", that was released as a single, reaching #85 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Their fourth album, Mother's Pride (1973), was produced by Todd Rundgren. By the time it was released, June Millington was feeling constrained by the group format and she decided to quit the group. De Buhr also left the band, with Brandt returning on drums. Patti Quatro replaced June on guitar. This lineup signed with Casablanca Records and released the final Fanny album, Rock and Roll Survivors, in 1974. The first single, "I've Had It" reached #79 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

 

Brandt left the band shortly after the album's completion and was briefly replaced by Cam Davis. Barclay quit the group at the end of 1974, thinking it was not working without June Millington. The second single, "Butter Boy" was written by Jean Millington about Bowie, and became their biggest hit, reaching #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1975. By the time that was released, the group had split.

Later groups such as The Bangles and The Runaways cited Fanny as a key influence.

Grace Slick

Grace Barnett Wing Slick (born October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, widely known in rock and roll history for her role in San Francisco's burgeoning psychedelic musi scene in the mid-1960s. Her music career spanned four decades. She performed with The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship. She also had a sporadic solo career. 

She  was born October 30, 1939, in Chicago, but her family moved to the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto in the early 1950s. In August 1965, Slick read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the newly formed Jefferson Airplane. Despite being situated in the growing musical center of San Francisco, Slick only half-heartedly considered it for a profession until she watched the band live at The Matrix. As a result, Slick (vocals, guitar), accompanied by husband Jerry Slick (drums), Jerry's brother Darby Slick (lead guitar), and David Miner (bass) formed a group called The Great Society, a play on the social reform program of the same name. On October 15, 1965, the band made its debut performance at a venue known as the Coffee Gallery, and soon after Slick composed the song "White Rabbit". The song, which she is purported to have written in an hour, is a reflection on the hallucinatory effects of psychedelic drugs; when performed live, it featured a speedier tempo and was an instant favorite among the band's followers.

By late 1965, they had become a popular attraction in the Bay Area. Between October and December 1965, The Great Society entered Golden Studios and recorded several tracks. One single emerged from the demos, the Darby Slick-penned "Someone to Love" b/w "Free Advice" on the locally based Autumn Records subsidiary label "North Beach". Grace Slick supplied vocals, guitar, piano, and recorder. That autumn, Jefferson Airplane's singer Signe Toly Anderson left the band and Slick was asked to join. With Slick on board, the Airplane began recording new music, and they turned in a more psychedelic direction from their former folk-rock style. Surrealistic Pillow included new recordings of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", both of which became top 10 singles. Jefferson Airplane became one of the most popular bands in the country and earned Slick a position as one of the most prominent female rock musicians of her time. In an appearance on a 1969 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, she became the first person to say "motherfucker" on television during a performance of "We Can Be Together".

After Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen decided not to return to Jefferson Airplane, Slick formed Jefferson Starship with Kantner and other bandmates, and also began a string of solo albums with Manhole, followed by Dreams, Welcome to the Wrecking Ball!, and Sofware. Manhole also featured keyboardist/bassist Pete Sears, who later joined Jefferson Starship in 1974. Sears and Slick penned several early Jefferson Starship songs together, including "Hyperdrive" and "Play On Love". Dreams was nominated for a Grammy Award.

 

During the 1980s, while Slick was the only former Jefferson Airplane member in Starship. In 1987, Slick co-hosted The Legendary Ladies of Rock & Roll. She left Starship in 1988 and in 1989, with her former Jefferson Airplane band members reformed the group, released a reunion album, and made a successful tour. She retired after this tour.

Isis

Isis was an horn rock band from New York. They took their name from the Egyptian goddess, and were an early example of professional women in rock music in the 1970s. The band was formed in 1972 by Carol MacDonald (vocals/guitar) and Ginger Bianco (née Panabianco; drums), former members of 1960s female rock band Goldie & The Gingerbreads. To fill out the line-up, they recruited Susan Ghezzi (guitar), Stella Bass (vocals/bass), Nydia 'Liberty' Mata (percussion) and a horn-section featuring Jeanie Fineberg (sax/vocals), Lauren Draper (trumpet/vocals) and Lolly Bienenfield (trombone/vocals). 

They built a solid following on the New York club circuit, and in 1973 were signed to a major label, Buddah Records. In the fall of 1974 they released their self-titled debut album. The Isis album was produced by George "Shadow" Morton and drew comparisons to Chicago, Santana, as well as Black Sabbath, Yes and Jethro Tull.  The album cover - a photograph of the bandmembers in nothing but metallic bodypaint - created a sensation, and the LP reached Billboard's Top 100 chart.

Despite receiving positive reviews for the album and live appearances, Isis failed to reach mainstream audiences. One possibility for the resistance encountered by the band may have been singer Carol MacDonald's unwillingness to deny her homosexuality, which she sang about in the song "She Loves Me". As time went on, the group scored support slots with the biggest acts of the day, including KISS, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others. In 1974, Susan Ghezzi (guitar) was replaced by Renata Ferrer and Lauren Draper was replaced by Ellen Seeling. The band also added Edith Dankowitz (sax/vocals) and former Gingerbreads organist, Margo Lewis. 

 

In 1975, this incarnation of Isis recorded the group's follow-up album Ain't No Backin' Up Now, with producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint at his studio in New Orleans. Without commercial success, it was difficult to keep the group together. By 1976, the core line up was Carol MacDonald, Margo Lewis, Jeanie Feinberg, Ellen Seeling and new members Faith Fusillo (vocals/guitar), Barbara Cobb (bass), Vivian Stoll (drums) and Lynx (sax/guitar/vocals). 

In 1977, the band signed with its second label, United Artists, and released their third album Breaking Through. Frustrated by the inability to turn great reviews into commercial success, the LP was a departure from its two previous releases and was geared specifically to the commercial market. However, this LP, like the others, was once again a commercial disappointment. Alumni members Nydia Mata, Ellen Seeling, Lolly Bienenfield, Lauren Draper and Jeanie Fineberg, as well as newcomer Laurie Frink, also appeared on the album. The band (with Frink and other guest members) toured to support the release of the LP throughout the US and the Caribbean. The group opened for chart topping BT Express and Dr. Buzzard's Savannah Band on the west coast swing, and for Blondie on the east coast dates. After the tour the group took up residence for a time at Greenwich Village landmark Trude Heller's on 6th Avenue and 9th Street, where they played nightly. However, the continued lack of commercial success eventually led the group to disband by the end of the 1970s.

Ace of Cups

Ace of Cups is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1967. The members were Mary Gannon (bass), Marla Hunt (organ, piano), Denise Kaufman (guitar, harmonica), Mary Ellen Simpson (lead guitar), and Diane Vitalich (drums).

 Gannon was born in New York and moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s. She played bass for a short while in a band called Daemon Lover. Hunt, who had grown up in Los Angeles, had been playing the piano since she was three. Like Gannon, she also moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s. Hunt was introduced to Gannon through a mutual friend, and Gannon suggested that they form an all-female rock band. Simpson was from Indio, California. She began playing the guitar when she was 12. Like Gannon and Hunt, she moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s. Vitalich, a San Francisco native, was a veteran of several bands. She once played drums with Bill Haley and the Comets. Simpson and Vitalich joined Gannon and Hunt's band around the same time. The last woman to join Ace of Cups was Kaufman. She also had the most colorful background of the group. Kaufman had been arrested during the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley and she was involved with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The band was named Ace of Cups by their manager, astrologer Ambrose Hollingworth, after the Ace of Cups tarot card, which shows a cup with five streams of water.

Ace of Cups made their debut in the early spring of 1967. In late June, Jimi Hendrix invited the band to open for him at a free concert in Golden Gate Par. The band played regularly, headlining at smaller clubs such as The Matrix and performing as the opening act at larger venues such as The Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore. In mid-1968, the band appeared on a local television program, West Pole, along with San Francisco legends Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Several record companies were interested in signing Ace of Cups, but Hollingworth and Polte felt the band was worth more than the record companies were offering.


Several factors led to the break-up of Ace of Cups. Some of the band members were frustrated at the group's lack of commercial success. Others were interested in other pursuits. The band folded in 1972.  In 2003, Ace Records released It's Bad for You But Buy It!, a CD of "rehearsals, demos, TV soundstage recordings, and in-concert tapes". The band's performances on the 1968 television program West Pole were released on DVD in 2008 by Eagle Vision.

The Liverbirds

The Liverbirds were a British beat group, based in Liverpool, active between 1963 and 1968. The quartet consisted of vocalist-guitarist Valerie Gell, guitarist-vocalist Pamela Birch, bassist-vocalist Mary McGlory and drummer Sylvia Saunders and was one of the very few female bands on the Merseybeat scene. 

They achieved more commercial success in Germany than in their native Britain. Early in their career, they followed in the footsteps of fellow Liverpudlians and made their way to Hamburg, Germany where they performed at the Star-Club, following The Beatles own tenure. The Liverbirds became one of the top attractions at the Star-Club and they released two albums and several singles. One of those singles, a cover of Bo Diddlea's "Diddley Daddy" rose as high as #5 on the German charts.

 

The group broke up in 1968, after a tour to Japan. They last played together in 1998

Barbara Lynn

Born Barbara Lynn Ozen in Beaumont, TX, on January 16, 1942, Barbara Lynn is known to us as the “Lefty Queen of R&B” for her being a lefty guitarist and expert R&B composer. She first began playing the piano as a youngster before switching to guitar. Still a teenager, Lynn began performing at local clubs after winning many high school talent shows, and soon was recognized by singer Joe Barry. 

Shortly thereafter, Lynn headed over to New Orleans to cut her first 12 song LP comprising of 10 of her own original songs (unusual for an African-American woman to be composing her own songs at the time), including the most well known of them all, “You’ll Lose A Good Thing.”  

She toured with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Al Green, Carla Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, B.B. King and was covered by the Rolling Stones and Ottis Redding. In the 70s Lynn retired after not being very satisfied with how she was being represented by her label, Atlantic Records. 20 years later she began writing and touring and continues to do so to this day.

France Gall

Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall (9 October 1947 - 7 January 2018), better known by her stage name France Gall, was a French singer. Gall was born in Paris on 9 October 1947, to a highly musical family. In spring 1963, she was encouraged by her father to record songs and send the demos to the music publisher Denis Bourgeois. That July France was subsequently signed to Philips.

The first airplay of France's first single "Ne sois pas si bête", occurred on her 16th birthday. It was released in November and became a hit, selling 200,000 copies. Serge Gainsbourg,  was asked by Bourgeois to write songs for Gall. Gainsbourg's "N'écoute pas les idoles" was Gall's second single; it reached the top of the French charts in March 1964 and stayed there for three weeks. Gall and Gainsbourg's association produced many popular singles, continuing through the summer of 1964 with the hit song "Laisse tomber les filles" followed by "Christiansen" by Datin-Vidalin.

In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest with Gainsbourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son". This ensured that Gall became even more known outside Europe and she recorded the winner song in French, German, Italian and Japanese. That same year, Gall toured France for several months with "Le Grand Cirque de France", a combination of radio show and live circus. Her singles continued to chart successfully, including the Gainsbourg-penned "Attends ou va-t'en" and "Nous ne sommes pas des anges". She also had a hit with the song "L'Amérique" by Eddy Marnay and Guy Magenta.

Gall regularly recorded in Germany from 1966 to 1972, in particular with the composer and orchestrator Werner Müller. She had a successful German career with songs by Horst Buchholz and Giorgio Moroder: "Love, l'amour und Liebe" (1967), "Hippie, hippie" (1968), "Ich liebe dich, so wie du bist" (1969) and "Mein Herz kann man nicht kaufen"(1970). Her other German hits included "Haifischbaby, "Die schönste Musik, die es gibt", "Was will ein Boy" (1967), "Ja, ich sing", "Der Computer Nr. 3" (1968), "I like Mozart" (1969), "Dann schon eher der Piano player" (1970), "Komm mit mir nach Bahia, Miguel" (1972).

At the end of 1968, on reaching the age of 21, Gall separated from Denis Bourgeois and spread her wings upon the expiration of her contract with Philips. The early seventies continued to be a barren period for Gall. Although she was the first artist to be recorded in France for Atlantic Records in 1971, her singles "C'est cela l'amour" (1971) and "Chasse neige" (1971), faltered in the charts. In 1974, "La Déclaration d'amour" was to be the first in a long line of hits which marked a turning point in Gall's career. From that point on Gall only sang songs written by Michel Berger until his death in 1992.

In the late 70s she took part in the musicals "Made in France" and "Starmania" and in the 80s she joined Chanteurs Sans  Frontières and many other humanitarian projects.


 

A long-term breast cancer survivor, Gall died, aged 70, of an infection after a two-year battle with cancer, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 7 January 2018.