HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS
Holly and the Italians were a short-lived American new wave band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Chicago born singer and guitarist Holly Beth Vincent, bassist Mark Sidgwick, and drummer Steve Young. The 1980 release of the single “Tell That Girl to Shut Up” garnered the band a recording contract with Virgin Records. The band recorded their only album, The Right to Be Italian, produced by Richard Gottehrer. The album featured musical backing by several members of what later became “The World’s Most Dangerous Band”: Paul Schaffer, Anton Fig, and Will Lee, later the house band for The Late Show with David Letterman. (More from Wikipedia)
The only album by Tina and the Total Babes, She’s So Tuff came out in 2001 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. This album is basically an homage to – or even a send-up of – the kind of female punk and power-pop that was rampant in Los Angeles 20 years earlier. There are mostly original songs here, but there are a few covers as well, such as Holly and the Italians’ “Tell that Girl to Shut Up”.
(May 2012)
