Monday, November 03, 2014

My Music Monday

This week I'm going with Rachel Sweet.

People in the U.S. know her for very few reason:

1. She had a modest hit in 1981 with Rex Smith with "Everlasting Love".

2. She - for whatever reason - was one of the first hosts on Comedy Central.

3. She wrote and sang the theme song for the John Waters film, Hairspray. Not the film adaptation of the play, which was the adaptation of the original film.

That last one is the one I'm going here with, just because I'm "guessing" you might not appreciate some of her earlier music - Rex Smith non-withstanding, of course.

I knew Rachel Sweet as a 15-16 year old from Akron, OH who was recording on Stiff Records, and touring with the likes of Lena Lovich, Elvis Costello, Brinsley Schwarz and Ian Dury and the Blockheads back in 1978.

She put out her last full length album in 1982, hut released a few songs for John Waters - with the title song from Hairspray and a pair of songs for Cry-Baby.

Sweet did a few acting gigs, one being George's cousins on Seinfeld.

Still, I thought I'd do the Hairspray song because it's a great movie and a decent song, though she looks 37 in the video and not 27. And while she didn't have the greatest voice, it was real and extremely strong for her work as a 16 year old singer.

....and it's always fun to have Debbie Harry doing some backing vocals, no?




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