MARCELLA DETROIT
Marcella Detroit (born Marcella Levy; June 21, 1952) is an American soprano vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit “Lay Down Sally” and released her debut album Marcella in 1982. She joined Shakespear’s Sister in 1988 with ex-Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. Their first two albums, Sacred Heart (1989), and Hormonally Yours (1992), both reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Detroit sang the lead vocals on their biggest hit, “Stay”, which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1992. Detroit left the band in 1993 and had a UK top 20 hit with “I Believe” in 1994. She formed the Marcy Levy Band in 2002, and finished third in the 2010 ITV series Popstar to Operastar. (More from Wikipedia)
Shakespear’s Sister, Hormonally Yours – Shakespear’s Sister (note the missing “e”) is composed of Siobhan Fahey, a former member of Bananarama, and Marcella Detroit, who was the backing vocalist for Eric Clapton in the late 1970’s. When I was living in New York, there was a channel on our local cable TV network called Video Jukebox. There was a number that you could call and order your video, for which you were charged a dollar or so. While you punched in the numbers on your telephone to order the video, those numbers would show up on the TV screen if you had that channel on, and that sure was cool. Video Jukebox showed a lot of videos not available on MTV or VH1; after awhile, it was mostly rap and hip hop videos, but there were a lot of rock numbers early on. That channel is where I frequently saw the video of their hit song “Stay”, a Top 5 hit on both sides of the Atlantic; the first half features tender singing from Marcella Detroit followed by unexpectedly menacing vocals by Siobhan Fahey. This, their second album (from 1991) includes that song and numerous other engaging performances.
(December 2015)
