Marianne Faithfull (born 29th December 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose career spans more than four decades. She was born in Hampstead, London, to a military officer father, Major Glynn Faithfull, and the Baroness Eva Erisso, a Viennese noblewoman of half Jewish and half noble Austrian descent, coming from the Habsburg dynasty.
Coaxed into a singing career by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964, she had a big hit in both Britain and the U.S. with her debut single, the Jagger/Richards composition "As Tears Go By" (which prefaced the Stones' own version by a full year). Considerably more successful in her native land than the States, she had a series of hits in the mid-'60s that set her high, fragile voice against delicate orchestral pop arrangements: "Summer Night," "This Little Bird," and Jackie De Shannon's "Come and Stay with Me." Not a songwriter at the outset of her career, she owes more of her fame as a '60s icon to her extraordinary beauty and her long-running romance with Mick Jagger, although she offered a taste of things to come with her compelling 1969 single "Sister Morphine," which she co-wrote (and which the Stones released themselves on Sticky Fingers later).
In the '70s, she split up with Jagger, developed a serious drug habit, and recorded rarely, with generally dismal results. This occurred until late 1979, when she pulled off an astonishing comeback with Broken English. Displaying a croaking, cutting voice that had lowered a good octave since the mid-'60s, she had also begun to write much of her own material, and addressed sex and despair with wrenching realism.
Faithfull's recordings in the '80s and '90s were sporadic and erratic, but generally quite interesting; Strange Weather, a Hal Willner-produced 1987 collection of standards and contemporary compositions that spanned several decades for its sources, was her greatest triumph of the decade. In 1994, she published her self-titled autobiography; the biography As Tears Go By by Mark Hodkinson is an objective and thorough account of her life and times.
She returned to recording in 2002 with Kissin' Time, an eclectic collection of songwriting collaborations with Beck, Damon Albarn, Billy Corgan, Jon Brion, and Jarvis Cocker among others. In 2004, Before the Poison was released in the U.K., making its entrance into the U.S. market in early 2005. This album continued in the vein of its predecessor, with songwriting and production contributions from PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Brion, and Albarn, but with far more consistent results.
She has also made a modestly successful foray into an acting career and has given notable performances in the 1967 film I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name alongside Orson Welles, as a leather-clad motorcyclist in the 1968 French film Girl on a Motorcycle opposite Alain Delon, and in the 1969 Kenneth Anger cult film Lucifer Rising. In 1969, she played Ophelia in the Nicol Williamson adaptation of Hamlet. In 1993 she played the role of Pirate Jenny in The Threepenny Opera at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Later she performed The Seven Deadly Sins with the Vienna Radio Symphony. She has made brief guest star appearances in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (as God), in Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy (2001 film), and played Empress Maria-Teresa in Sofia Coppola’s biopic Marie-Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst in the title role. Find out more about this breast cancer survivor at her official website http://www.mariannefaithful.org.uk/
Research info gathered at: www.allmusic.com
Visit my ezine: http://www.concelebratory.blogspot.com/
and personal blog: http://www.copyat5.blogspot.com/
Coaxed into a singing career by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964, she had a big hit in both Britain and the U.S. with her debut single, the Jagger/Richards composition "As Tears Go By" (which prefaced the Stones' own version by a full year). Considerably more successful in her native land than the States, she had a series of hits in the mid-'60s that set her high, fragile voice against delicate orchestral pop arrangements: "Summer Night," "This Little Bird," and Jackie De Shannon's "Come and Stay with Me." Not a songwriter at the outset of her career, she owes more of her fame as a '60s icon to her extraordinary beauty and her long-running romance with Mick Jagger, although she offered a taste of things to come with her compelling 1969 single "Sister Morphine," which she co-wrote (and which the Stones released themselves on Sticky Fingers later).
In the '70s, she split up with Jagger, developed a serious drug habit, and recorded rarely, with generally dismal results. This occurred until late 1979, when she pulled off an astonishing comeback with Broken English. Displaying a croaking, cutting voice that had lowered a good octave since the mid-'60s, she had also begun to write much of her own material, and addressed sex and despair with wrenching realism.
Faithfull's recordings in the '80s and '90s were sporadic and erratic, but generally quite interesting; Strange Weather, a Hal Willner-produced 1987 collection of standards and contemporary compositions that spanned several decades for its sources, was her greatest triumph of the decade. In 1994, she published her self-titled autobiography; the biography As Tears Go By by Mark Hodkinson is an objective and thorough account of her life and times.
She returned to recording in 2002 with Kissin' Time, an eclectic collection of songwriting collaborations with Beck, Damon Albarn, Billy Corgan, Jon Brion, and Jarvis Cocker among others. In 2004, Before the Poison was released in the U.K., making its entrance into the U.S. market in early 2005. This album continued in the vein of its predecessor, with songwriting and production contributions from PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Brion, and Albarn, but with far more consistent results.
She has also made a modestly successful foray into an acting career and has given notable performances in the 1967 film I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name alongside Orson Welles, as a leather-clad motorcyclist in the 1968 French film Girl on a Motorcycle opposite Alain Delon, and in the 1969 Kenneth Anger cult film Lucifer Rising. In 1969, she played Ophelia in the Nicol Williamson adaptation of Hamlet. In 1993 she played the role of Pirate Jenny in The Threepenny Opera at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Later she performed The Seven Deadly Sins with the Vienna Radio Symphony. She has made brief guest star appearances in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (as God), in Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy (2001 film), and played Empress Maria-Teresa in Sofia Coppola’s biopic Marie-Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst in the title role. Find out more about this breast cancer survivor at her official website http://www.mariannefaithful.org.uk/
Research info gathered at: www.allmusic.com
Visit my ezine: http://www.concelebratory.blogspot.com/
and personal blog: http://www.copyat5.blogspot.com/
