Rachel Sweet

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Rachel Sweet (born July 28, 1962 in Akron , Ohio ) is an American singer , actress , writer and television producer .

biography

The child star

Rachel Sweet began her singing career at the age of three - and won competitions in and around Akron. In New York she was a child model at the age of five and was hired for commercials and jingles , later she sang in the opening act for Mickey Rooney . Already at the age of twelve she performed in Las Vegas - with orchestra, as an opener for Bill Cosby . She took part in a casting for the leading role in the film The Exorcist , but asked - without the knowledge of her parents - not to be considered; she did not want to appear in a film “with this inappropriate language”. It was around this time that she recorded her first single . At the age of 14, the second, the country single We Live in Two Different Worlds, followed in Nashville , which at least briefly made it into the top 100 of the US country charts . The following year she met music producer Liam Sternberg .

The "stiff" time

Sternberg had put together an LP with New Wave music from Akron, The Akron Compilation , for the young, up-and-coming London independent label Stiff Records . He had produced two of the titles on it with Rachel Sweet. The people in charge of Stiff liked the sound of Rachel's songs and she got a contract.

Fool around

Sternberg, who was now her manager , also recorded Rachel's first LP in 1978, Fool Around. The sound was a mixture of country , folk and rock 'n' roll , but was sold as " wave " - like everything that appeared in the early days with Stiff. This was probably also due to the fact that some musicians from Ian Dury's Blockheads played along. For some of the songs, Stiff brought Brinsley Schwarz and Andrew Bodnar from The Rumor into the studio, including the single BABY, a cover version of the 1960s hit by Carla Thomas . The now 16-year-old went with the "Be Stiff" - promotion - tour also attended by Lene Lovich , Wreckless Eric , Mickey Jupp and Jona Lewie participated. Rachel's band on the tour were The Records . Success of the tour: Rachel became known, the LP was praised, and the single was even bought - eight weeks in the British charts with a highest listing at number 35. Some excitement in Puritan Britain had to the alleged Lolita - Image , with the Stiff marketed the only 16-year-old.

Protect the Innocent

With her second album, Protect the Innocent, Stiff Rachel wanted to push Rachel even further into the new wave corner. Songs from The Damned , Graham Parker , Velvet Underground , Moon Martin (and new producers, Martin Rushent and Alan Winstanley ) should make sure of that; the musicians in the recording studio were a Scottish pub band from Aberdeen called the Bus Company. “She looked like Ronnie Spector now and occasionally sang like Bruce Springsteen, ” writes Bert Muirhead. Although Stiff tried to launch the LP with a tour by Rachel (this time with the band Fingerprintz in the back), the commercial success didn't quite work out. In Germany, three appearances in the music store didn't help either. At the end of 1980 Rachel Sweet went back home.

Back in the USA

In the United States, after all, she was so well known through her time at Stiff that she got a contract with CBS Records in 1981 . She recorded the LP ... And Then He Kissed Me , which also featured a cover of the Robert Knight classic Everlasting Love . The duo with Rex Smith climbed into the top 40 of the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic . Rachel's most successful song in Germany also comes from the album, with the cover song (also released as a single) Then He Kissed Me / Be My Baby , she stayed in the charts for 17 weeks and made it to number 24 also three appearances on German television, namely an appearance in the music store on ARD , in the record kitchen on WDR and in the disco on ZDF .

In 1982 she brought out another album, Blame It on Love, which she also produced herself. Then she temporarily withdrew from the music business - at just 20 years of age, her first career was over. She first went back to college and then graduated from Columbia University in New York .

The second career

Rachel Sweet then moved to acting, scriptwriting, and producing films and television shows . She appeared in sitcoms like Harry's Wondrous Criminal Court, Seinfeld or the Silver Girls and had her own show, The Sweet Life , on a comedy channel in 1989/90 . Occasionally she sang again - such as the theme songs of the films Hairspray and Cry Baby. In 1990 she even recorded an entire LP - but her name was withheld: she lent her voice to Barbie for the soundtrack to a cartoon series .

In 1993 she worked as a writer on the series The Nanny ; since 1995 she has written scripts for the TV series George Lopez, among others , and since 1997 she has also worked as a producer of television films and series. She has also been married to Tom Palmer since 1997; the two have two children.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
US US
1978 Fool around US97 (9 weeks)
US
First published: October 1978
1980 Protect the Innocent US123 (11 weeks)
US
First published: February 1980
1981 ... And Then He Kissed Me US124 (7 weeks)
US
First published: September 1981

more publishments

  • 1978: BABY - The Best of
  • 1982: Blame it on Love
  • 1992: Fool Around: The Best of
  • 2014: Baby: Complete Stiff Recordings 1978-1980

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE CH CH UK UK US US
1978 BABY
Fool Around 		- - UK35 (8 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: October 1978
1981 Everlasting Love
... And Then He Kissed Me / Everlasting Love 		- CH9 (5 weeks)
CH 		UK35 (7 weeks)
UK 		US32 (13 weeks)
US
First published: June 1981
(with Rex Smith )
Then He Kissed Me (Be My Baby)
... And Then He Kissed Me 		DE24 (17 weeks)
DE 		- - -
First published: October 1981
1982 Party Girl
... And Then He Kissed Me 		DE73 (1 week)
DE 		- - -
First published: March 1982
1983 Voo Doo
Blame it on Love 		- - - US72 (5 weeks)
US
First published: January 1983

More singles

  • 1974: Faded Rose
  • 1976: We Live in Two Different Worlds
  • 1976: The Ballad of Mabel Ruth Miller and John Wesley Pritchett
  • 1976: I Believe What I Believe
  • 1977: Overnight Success
  • 1978: Any Port in a Storm
  • 1979: I Go to Pieces
  • 1979: Baby Let's Play House
  • 1980: Fool's Gold
  • 1980: Spellbound
  • 1981: Shadows of the Night
  • 1988: Hairspray
  • 1990: Cry Baby

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bert Muirhead: Stiff - The Story of a Record Label , Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset, 1983, ISBN 0-7137-1314-3
  2. ↑ Chartsurfer.de: Rachel Sweet. In: www.chartsurfer.de. Retrieved January 5, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE CH UK US
personal data
SURNAME Sweet, Rachel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer, actress, writer, and television producer
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Akron , Ohio