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Working Their Way Up That Hill |
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New Jersey, 1971
Photo by Deb Frost |
FANNY’s second offering,
1971’s CHARITY BALL, received a much warmer reception from
the rock press, with the LP even eliciting some predictions
of superstardom. The title track hit the singles charts in
the US, peaking at number 40 on the Billboard singles charts
in November, and FANNY toured extensively to support the
breakthrough. Thousands of punters on several continents
came to laugh at what was expected to be a “freak show” and
came away as true believers. The band was given further
credibility through becoming the favoured support act of a
number of the biggest bands of the era, but at the same time
they became headliners in their own right at large concert
venues. |
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Prior to the arrival of Fanny, no all-female
band in any genre of modern music, playing their own
instruments and writing most all of their own material, had
ever known true success; Fanny was the first. And in the
music business – then as now – success breeds imitation.
Other labels saw a new market niche to exploit and began
promoting all-female bands. If one wishes to point to any
one moment in time when the doors were truly kicked opened
for female rock bands, one need look no further than the
release of FANNY HILL, Fanny’s third LP in 1972.
FANNY HILL, recorded at the Beatles’ Apple Studios in
London, was hailed by the leading rock press of the day as
being their best yet. The album features some of the band’s
finest studio moments and showed the musical maturity of
what was now several years of recording and touring; when
Rhino Records decided to release a FANNY retrospective CD
set in 2002, they tellingly named the collection FIRST TIME
IN A LONG TIME, after one of the most memorable tracks on
FANNY HILL. |
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By now FANNY was a name to conjure with. They were no longer
a laughing stock but were acknowledged and admired as a
serious rock band. They even passed the rock-cred “test of
fire” by having one of their singles, Young and Dumb, banned
by BBC Radio 1 (and by being banned from playing live at the
Albert Hall – for being “too provocative”!). They continued
to tour almost constantly throughout North America and
Europe, stopping only to record yet another album, their
second release in ten months. Todd Rundgren replaced Richard
Perry as producer on FANNY’s fourth album, 1973’s MOTHER’S
PRIDE, which is probably the band’s “hardest” rock LP and
was also the only one of their five albums not to feature a
band photo on the cover. “Working with Todd was far more
soul-satisfying than working with Richard [Perry] ever was,”
Nickey said. “He treated us with much more respect and gave
us our heads more when it came to creative input and
production.”
The women of FANNY were coming to terms with, and learning
to balance, their roles as both women and rock musicians,
but the strain was beginning to take its toll within the
band. Shortly after the release of their fourth album, FANNY
collapsed temporarily as a result of what writer Barbara
O’Dair** called “internal tensions, accumulated strains, and
the ordinary occupational hazards of making it in a man’s
world predicated on sex, drugs and rock and roll.” In the
wake of increasing discord, Alice and June left the group
one by one. June was replaced on lead guitar and vocals by
Patti Quatro, big sister of pop sensation Suzi; Alice was
replaced on drums by former Svelte Brie Brandt. Nickey and
Jean elected to stay on, and it was this line-up which
recorded the final FANNY album, ROCK AND ROLL SURVIVORS.
Having completed their deal with Reprise Records, ROCK AND
ROLL SURVIVORS saw the band move to Casablanca Records –
home of several huge '70s acts including Donna Summer, KISS,
Parliament and the Village People – and take on a new
producer, Vini Poncia.
ROCK AND ROLL SURVIVORS would turn out to be the band's
final effort. It included the single Butter Boy, which
peaked at number 29 on the Billboard singles charts in
February, 1975, but by the time the single became a hit
there was no band left to promote it.
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