Fanny was an American all-female band, active in the early 1970s. They were one of the first notable rock groups to be made up entirely of women, the third to sign with a major label (after Goldie & the Gingerbreads and the Pleasure Seekers), and the first to release an album on a major label (in 1970). They achieved two top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and released five albums. (More from Wikipedia)
In passing, I should note that the Runaways are overtly a hard rock band; they were later identified with the punk rock scene that was unfolding at the same time, but each of the all-female bands that I mentioned last month – Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the Pleasure Seekers, Isis and Fanny – also has a real edge to them.
(November 2013)
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Behind the scenes, Olivia Records started to put the full weight of its philosophy into place on this album: To the extent possible, their work was to be in women’s hands from start to finish. As in most fields during this time period, women were regularly excluded in the music industry from working as backing musicians, producers, arrangers, engineers, etc. Thus, besides performing on guitar, Meg Christian produced The Changer and the Changed; other contributors later released women’s music albums, such as Margie Adam. June Millington, previously in the all-female rock band Fanny, provided backing vocals and also played drums, acoustic and electric guitar, slide guitar, and keyboards; Millington shows up on later Cris Williamson releases also. In all, Allmusic lists 50 people in the credits for The Changer and the Changed, with the vast majority being women.
(January 2014)
