Stacey Q

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Better Than Heaven   US 59 09/27/1986 (15 weeks) Hard machine   US 115 05.03.1988 (11 weeks)

Singles

Two of Hearts   DE 6th 11/10/1986 (15 weeks)   AT 24 December 15, 1986 (6 weeks)   CH 6th 12/14/1986 (9 weeks)   UK 87 04/10/1986 (2 weeks)   US 3 07/12/1986 (22 weeks) We Connect   DE 32 02/09/1987 (8 weeks)   US 35 12/13/1986 (19 weeks) Shy girl   US 89 04/11/1987 (11 weeks) Don't Make a Fool of Yourself   US 66 02/27/1988 (8 weeks)

Stacey Q (born November 30, 1958 in Fullerton , California , real name Stacey Lynn Swain ) is an American pop singer , dancer , actress and voice actress . Her most famous song is Two of Hearts from 1986.

childhood

Stacey Swain is the youngest of three children. Her mother, Joyce Swain, was a dog breeder whose Cardigan Welsh Corgis have appeared in various films and television series. From the beginning, Swain showed a love for music, dance and theater. In an interview in 1989 she announced that she asked for dance lessons when she was three, but her mother put her off until she was five. Swain studied classical ballet and aspired to become a ballerina . In her spare time she listened to records with friends.

During the 1960s, Swain auditioned for roles in a variety of live operas and theatrical productions . Although she impressed friends with her singing talent, her main focus was on dance training. In 1969, at age ten, she became the youngest member of the Dance Theater of Orange County, a local group that performed at charity events in Anaheim , California . Swain studied ballet and flamenco for a total of eleven years .

youth

In 1970, Swain became an entertainer at Disneyland while continuing dance training at the Wilshire Theater of Art in Los Angeles . For three years, Swain attended Fantasy on Parade , an annual Christmas event at the amusement park. She appeared as the Dutch Puppet , which she also used as a pseudonym on her first recordings. In 1972 she attended Loara High School . After graduation, she applied to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus , where she performed as a showgirl in her first year and as an elephant rider in her second year. In 1977 she left Disneyland and the circus for a career in the record industry.

Early adulthood

Swain began to focus more on singing after completing her dance training. Her first official singing project began on the radio in Los Angeles, where she announced programs and mimicked members of the Go-Go's . She also worked in other places in Southern California, such as a hostess or valet parking.

As a teenager and young adult, Swain bought and listened to David Bowie's songs . Her favorite albums were Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . Swain's style of music was influenced by Bowie and other hard rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and Hanoi Rocks , as well as Depeche Mode .

Q

Swain was introduced to the record industry by her then-boyfriend, a local musician. Her singing career began in 1981 when she met producer and future manager Jon St. James . Like Swain, James was a radio announcer in Los Angeles and owned the Casbah Recording Studio in Fullerton, which also hosted Berlin and Social Distortion .

In 1981 Swain and St. James formed the synth pop band Q. Q consisted of St. James on guitar , Dan Van Patten and John Van Tongeren on vocoder and synthesizer, and Swain as production assistant. When the band was recording their first songs for The Q EP, St. James noticed that someone was needed to sing the final piece of sushi . Swain, who previously recorded demos in the studio, was asked to do the vocal part. Swain became the band's singer through this gig, even though she was actually a dancer.

Swain has had the most success of her career through her singing, although she has always seen herself more as a dancer than a singer.

SSQ

Although The Q EP was played almost exclusively on college radio. it was successful enough for St. James and Swain to move on to other projects. In 1982 Q was reorganized with two new members, the drummer Karl Moet and Rich West at the synthesizer. Due to copyright issues with Quincy Jones , St. James had to rename the band. Swain stated in a radio interview in 2006 that the band was renamed SSQ after Jon St. James fished in a lake that was 'no bigger than a hot tub' and joked that the boat was the 'SS Q' in Based on the current band Q. St. James had another reason for the name: SS stood for Stacey Swain, who was the most conspicuous member of the band.

SSQ released their debut album Playback in 1983 on Enigma Records . The album featured three of the band's best-known singles: Synthicide , Big Electronic Beat and Screaming in My Pillow . Synthicide's video first ran on West Coast television, and it brought the band more prominence. In 1984 Swain's popularity eclipsed that of the other members. The band focused on Swain, with Moet, West, Skip Hahn and St. James as background musicians. Hahn replaced John Van Tongeren shortly before Playback was released .

Solo career

Independent

In 1985 Swain signed a contract with On the Spot Records, an independent label. Her first solo single Shy Girl was released that same year, while her first solo album, Stacey Q , was sold as a limited edition cassette. The album contained an earlier version of Two of Hearts . As a solo artist, Swain adopted the name Stacey Q as a reference to her previous Q project.

Shy Girl and other singles sold around 100,000 copies, enough to grab the attention of bigger labels. Swain was signed to Atlantic Records in 1986 as a solo artist, with Jon St. James as manager and the other members of SSQ as background musicians. Better Than Heaven , Swain's debut album on Atlantic Records, was recorded within three weeks. The songs were co-written by Berlin (Better Than Heaven) , Jon Anderson from Yes (He Doesn't Understand) and Willie Wilcox from Utopia (We Connect) , among others .

"Two of Hearts" and Better Than Heaven

Swain's most successful period as a musician began in 1986. Better Than Heaven's first single, Two of Hearts , became a bestseller and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 . But since she was still under contract with both labels, both released the single, so that she was denied number one. The follow -up single We Connect was released in 1987 and became a Top 40 hit.

Two of Hearts was featured extensively on the radio in the second half of 1986, and a promotional video aired on MTV during that time . At the end of the year, Swain appeared on several live talk shows, appeared on the Gong Show as a jury member, and made the first of her three appearances as a participant on The New Hollywood Squares . By the time Better Than Heaven went gold, Swain went from being a mediocre singer to an international star, even a teenage idol.

At the height of Two of Hearts' success , Weird asked Al Yankovic Swain for permission to do a parody called Two Pop-Tarts . The parody was never released.

After the release of Better Than Heaven , Swain embarked on a tour of US and European clubs. One of the millions of fans who saw their concerts turned out to be a writer for NBC television . That fall, Swain was given a role on The Facts of Life series written especially for her.

"Cinnamon" and The Facts of Life

Off-Broadway baby

Swain's first guest appearance on The Facts of Life was on an episode called Off-Broadway Baby , which first aired on November 1, 1986. The episode was set in New York City , where Tootie wanted to apply for the lead role in a Broadway musical with the song Two of Hearts . She is friends with Cinnamon (played by Swain), a talented but a bit stupid-looking singer who argues with her over the same role. When Tootie discovers that Cinnamon also wants to perform Two of Hearts , she tries to talk her out of it, which leads to Cinnamon missing her appointment. At the end of the episode, Tootie allows Cinnamon to apply for her position. Cinnamon then wins the competition. In this episode, Swain sang Two of Hearts .

The episode turned out to be one of the most successful episodes in the entire series. The writers planned to reinstall the character Cinnamon. Some producers went ahead and designed a Cinnamon- Barbie doll and even a spin-off - sitcom called Cinnamon . Swain's record company was against the idea because they believed the singer would produce fewer hits and become a one hit wonder if she focused more on acting.

A Star Is Torn

Swain's last appearance on The Facts of Life was called A Star Is Torn and it aired on January 31, 1987. The episode featured the character George Burnett, played by the young and then unknown George Clooney . At the end of the episode, George and Cinnamon went on a date and George announced his decision to tour with Cinnamon as a roadie. Swain sang the song We Connect in the episode. The ending was written to explain Clooney's departure from the show and to hold a door open for a sitcom with George and Cinnamon. When Swain's managers spoke out against it, NBC dropped all plans for the series.

Although Clooney announced he was fired from NBC's producers, he thought his time at The Facts of Life was a fantastic experience. Swain also has fond memories of that time and made friends with Cloris Leachman and other cast members.

Hard machine

After the success of Better Than Heaven , Swain released her second album Hard Machine in 1988. The singer changed her image, dyed her hair from blonde to red and dressed like punk singers of the time. Hard Machine also had other producers besides Jon St. James, which resulted in more musical symbolism and tributes to Karen Carpenter and Jimi Hendrix . The final track, Another Chance , was written entirely by Swain himself. The song never appeared as a single, but Swain called it one of the best songs she's ever recorded in interviews.

Hard Machine was far less successful than Better Than Heaven , although the single Don't Make a Fool of Yourself reached number 66 on the Hot 100 and a remix version by Shep Pettibone was in the top five of the dance charts. Don't Make a Fool of Yourself was featured on an episode of the Full House series in which Swain made a brief appearance as herself.

Nights Like This

Nights Like This , Swain's last recording on Atlantic, was released in 1989. The singer changed her image again, this time with short, blonde hair and as a kind of underground phenomenon. Her new clothes, a black dress with an arrow pointing down, were first featured in the video for the first single Give You All My Love . The backing singers on the album were the Weather Girls . Timothy B. Schmit from the Eagles sang in the background on the second single from the album Heartbeat . As with Hard Machine , Nights Like This experimented with the instruments, with some songs using Kawai keyboards. After this album, the members of SSQ stopped working with Swain.

Hard Machine and Nights Like This were rated as stronger than their predecessors by critics, but compared to Better Than Heaven this went unheard. After Nights Like This appeared , Swain began touring clubs in the United States again. She continued her acting career in an episode of Mama's Family , where she played a member of a women's band called The Bonecrushers. She also starred in the action film One Man Force , which featured two songs from Hard Machine , The River and Another Chance .

Solo career after 1990

One hit wonder status

In 1990 Swain left Atlantic Records, two years after the other members of her band SSQ. The 1990s also saw a decline in the popularity of synth pop and dance pop . Swain and other artists tried to customize their sound, but at the same time not to alienate long-time fans.

In 1992, Swain and producer Jon St. James began producing Stacey Q's Greatest Hits , a digitally remastered collection of the artist's singles. The following year Swain recorded their first single of the new decade, Two Hot for Love , released on Thump Records. The single was adapted to the dance sound of the early 1990s and contained sexually suggestive lyrics, representative of another change in direction by the singer. She later appeared as a guest on the compilation Rap Rhymes! Mother Goose on the Loose , which was produced in part by Jon St. James.

Stacey Q's Greatest Hits was released in 1995 and received mixed reviews from fans and critics. Many fans agreed that the album would definitely be a compilation of Swain's career as it featured pieces by Q and SSQ that never made it onto CD, including The Model , which was recorded for the soundtrack of the movie Crystal Heart . Most of the tracks were a little remixed or completely reworked, no songs from Hard Machine or Nights Like This were included. The public had forgotten almost all the songs except Two of Hearts and was wondering how they managed to put out a greatest hits album on this career when it was just a one-hit wonder. Because the artist was so associated with Two of Hearts and the dance pop of the 1980s, critics wrote her off as another would-be Madonna of the 1980s.

Convert to Buddhism

Although Swain had found her success as a synth pop and dance pop musician, she grew up listening to rock music and was mainly interested in glam rock and punk rock . She tried to do this musically on her last two Atlantic albums, but couldn't stray too far from the electronic dance genre that made her a bestseller. In the 1990s, Swain had an opportunity to experiment with more styles.

After choosing a different direction for her future publications, Swain traveled to Tibet , where she was initiated into the monastic dance and song of the Far East. For a while she lived in Nepal , where she learned from Buddhist lamas and was taught the ancient art of the Cham dance. (She is one of the few people from the west who trained and is allowed to teach this.) Swain's experience rubbed off on her as a person and resulted in a change in her musical style. After the appearance of Stacey Q's Greatest Hits, she began recording "an inspirational, pop-oriented album" and her first collection in nearly a decade.

boomerang

Swain showed a new, more spiritual side of himself in 1997 on the album Boomerang , released on ENo Records. Boomerang was completely different from previous recordings. It was a reflection of Swain's conversion to Buddhism, as can be seen in the cover version of George Harrison's My Sweet Lord . It was also based more on folk than on dancepop or technopop. Boomerang was never as popular as Swain's albums on Atlantic, and it didn't turn out to be the comeback album some fans had hoped for. Nevertheless, the follow-up single Tenderness , a cover by Janis Ian , reached number five in the Jamaican charts. The album was favorably received by fans and critics who were impressed by Swain's musical maturity.

Career to date

In the years after Boomerang, Swain became lead and background singer for various house musicians in the USA and Europe. In 1998 her voice appeared on the single Delicious by the Dutch trance duo Rudy & Gray . She returned to acting with a role in the gay art film Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence and a special non-sexual role as a Chinese food delivery driver in the porno Playing the Odds . Swain and director Geoffrey Karen Dior began a brief collaboration after the film came out, with Swain singing Two of Hearts at the Gay Erotic Awards . Swain then appeared with Dior on the compilation Porn to Rock in 1999 and on Dior's album S E X in 2001 . She has had an enormous following in the gay scene since then .

Swain provided the vocals for Falling , a single from DJ Auratone , in 1999 . She also recorded an unreleased remix album with new versions of Two of Hearts and various songs from Boomerang . In 2000 she returned to the theater in The Life of Padmasambhava , a musical adaptation of one of Buddhism's most revered characters , produced by the San Francisco-based Namsay Dorje Theater Company . Swain played the lead female role, Yeshe Tsogyal, in a multicultural cast of actors and musicians. As a singer, she was involved in American Dream , a 2001 single by Jakatta . This was a sample from pieces from the soundtrack of the film American Beauty . It became a top 5 hit in the UK .

In 2002, Swain guest- starred in the short-lived VH1 version of Never Mind the Buzzcocks . Two musical works followed: The single I Need by German DJ Oscar and Hear the Feeling with DJ Simply Jeff (as Divine Frequency featuring Stacey Q). The latter appeared on the soundtrack of a documentary about raves. Swain was also one of the singers on the album Taste the Secret by hip hop trio Ugly Duckling . This was done at the behest of Jon St. James, who mixed certain tracks on the album. In 2004 Swain became a voice actress and took over the voice of Karin Kikuhura in the English version of Stratos 4 , a Japanese anime series . Her vocals also appeared on Ugly Duckling's third album, Combo Meal (Taste the Secret + The Leftovers EP) .

Today, Stacey Swain lives in Fullerton, California with her mother and is still active in the music industry. She continues to perform live, mostly at themed concerts from the 1980s. Although best known in the 1980s, her song Two of Hearts has appeared on the soundtracks of three recent films: Little Nicky - Satan Junior (2000), Party Monster (2003), and Hot Rod - Full Throttle Through Hell (2007).

In February 2007 Swain released her last album Queen of the 80s , a compilation of hits from SSQ and the LP Better than Heaven . She was then heard on the debut album by the Echo Junkies , a duo formed in 2004 by Jon St. James and Skip Hahn. In April 2007, Swain announced that she would be working on another album with St. James.

In 2008 she was a guest singer on the debut album Liquid by the Australian-American rock duo Hydra Productions . Other dance pop artists of the 1980s such as Tiffany and Gioia Bruno from Exposé performed on this album .

Discography

Albums

• 1982 The Q EP (as Q)
• 1983 playback (as SSQ)
• 1985 Stacey Q
• 1986 Better Than Heaven
• 1988 Hard Machine
• 1989 Nights Like This
• 1995 Stacey Q's Greatest Hits
• 1997 Boomerang
• 2007 Queen of the 80s
• 2009 Color Me Cinnamon

Singles

• 1982 Playback / Music's Gone (as Q) - The Q EP
• 1983 Synthicide (as SSQ) - playback
• 1983 Big Electronic Beat (as SSQ) - playback
• 1984 Screaming in My Pillow (as SSQ) - Playback
• 1986 Two of Hearts - Better Than Heaven
• 1987 We Connect - Better Than Heaven
• 1987 Insecurity - Better Than Heaven
• 1987 Music out of Bounds - Better Than Heaven
• 1987 Shy Girl - Stacey Q
• 1988 Favorite Things - Hard Machine
• 1988 I Love You - Hard Machine
• 1988 Don't Make a Fool of Yourself - Hard Machine
• 1989 Give You All My Love - Nights Like This
• 1989 Heartbeat - Nights Like This
• 1993 Two Hot for Love - Stacey Q's Greatest Hits
• 1997 Tenderness - Boomerang
• 2009 Trip - Color Me Cinnamon

Filmography

• Stratos 4 (2003)… as Karin Kikuhara (voice, English version)
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2002) ... as herself
• Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence (2000) ... as Stacey
• Playing the Odds (1998)… as a Chinese Food Delivery Woman
• One Man Force (1989)… as Leah Jennings
• Mama's Family (1989)… as Ciji
• Full House (1988) ... as herself
• The Facts of Life (1986; 1987) ... as Cinnamon
• The New Hollywood Squares (1986; 1988–1989) ... as herself
• Cavegirl (1985) ... as Brenda

Web links

• Official website
• MySpace profile
• Stacey Q Online
• Stacey Q in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Stacey Q at Allmusic.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hit balance sheet, Taurus Press
2. ^ Austriancharts.at: Stacey Q in the Austrian charts
3. ^ Hitparade.ch: Stacey Q in the Swiss charts
4. ↑ Stacey Q in the Official UK Charts (English)
5. ^ Billboard.com: Stacey Q on the Billboard Charts
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Stacey Q: Some Things About Her . Archived from the original on January 25, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 31, 2007. 
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Stacey Swain at The Internet Movie Database . Retrieved January 31, 2007.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Discogs Stacey Q Page . Retrieved January 24, 2006.
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p} Stacey Q: You Wrote The Book . Archived from the original on January 25, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 31, 2007. 
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "The AnOnYmOuS Interview" at The Official Stacey Q Fan Club . Archived from the original on February 27, 2003. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 20, 2007. 
11. ↑ ^{a b} "AnOnYmOuS Flashback" at The Official Stacey Q Fan Club . Archived from the original on February 27, 2003. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 20, 2007. 
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Stacey Q at MySpace . Retrieved January 31, 2007.
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e} "The Stacey Q&A" at OldSchool4Life.com . Retrieved January 31, 2007.
14. ↑ ^{a b c d e} "Shareef Does Like It" at Walsh Editorial Services (PDF) Archived from the original on July 5, 2007. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 20, 2007. 
15. ↑ ^{a b c d} Discogs Stacey Swain Page . Retrieved January 24, 2006.
16. ↑ ^{a b} Stacey Q Stacey's Q + A . Archived from the original on January 25, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 31, 2007. 
17. ↑ ^{a b} "Stacey's Q & A" at The Official Stacey Q Fan Club . Archived from the original on October 23, 2002. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 20, 2007.