Sandy Denny
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{{Infobox Band | band_name = Sandy Denny | image = Image:Listensandydenny.jpg | years_active = 1967–1978 | origin = Wimbledon, London | music_genre = Folk, Folk-rock | record_label = Island Records }} Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (January 6 1947 – April 21 1978) was a British singer and songwriter, born in Wimbledon, London, England. She is best known for her involvement with the British folk-rock movement, including two spells as a member of Fairport Convention.
As a child she studied classical piano. She left school before taking A-levels and started to train as a nurse at Brompton Chest Hospital. In 1965 she enrolled at Kingston School of Art, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. It was there that she met fellow students John Renbourn and Eric Clapton. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of The Strawbs heard her. In 1967 Sandy Denny was invited to join the band and recorded one album in Denmark with them, including the earliest version of her best-known (and widely covered) song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." In 1968 she became lead vocalist for Fairport Convention replacing Judy Dyble. She left them in 1969 just before the release of Liege and Lief, in order to run her own band, Fotheringay, including her boyfriend, Australian born Trevor Lucas. Denny dissolved the group after one album to record solo albums, with several members of Fairport Convention as guests. In 1973 she married Lucas and returned to Fairport for a world tour and another album, Rising for the Moon, containing several of her own compositions.
During her solo period she appeared on Lou Reitzner's version of The Who's rock opera Tommy. Sandy was voted "Female singer of the year" by Melody Maker in 1970 and 1971. Together with contemporaries including Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, she participated in a one-off project called "The Bunch", recording a collection of rock standards. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1978 after falling down a flight of stairs. After her death Trevor Lucas returned to Australia with their daughter Georgia. He died in 1989 of heart failure.
There is a biography, Sandy Denny: No More Sad Refrains, by Clinton Heylin.
Discography
- The Original Sandy Denny (1967)
- Sandy Denny and the Strawbs
- Fairport Convention: What We Did on Our Holidays (January 1969)
- Fairport Convention: Heyday
- Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking (July 1969)
- Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief (December 1969)
- Fotheringay: Fotheringay (June 1970)
- The North Star Grassman and the Ravens (September 1971)
- The Bunch: Rock On
- Sandy (September 1972)
- Like an Old Fashioned Waltz (June 1974)
- Fairport Convention: Rising for the Moon
- Rendezvous (May 1977)
- Gold Dust--Live at the Royalty (May 1998)
- A Boxful of Treasures, a boxed set of rare recordings released in 2004
She also appears on:
- "The Battle of Evermore" on Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album, where she sings a duet with Robert Plant;
- several live Fairport Convention albums;
- several Fairport Convention compilations. Notably, The History of Fairport Convention contains several recordings that were released as solo works or with bands other than Fairport Convention; and
- several compilations and re-releases of her original albums
The song "Remember" on the Groove Armada album Love Box (2003) is composed of Sandy Denny lyrics, sampled from her song "Autopsy" on the Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking album. The London Community Gospel Choir backs up Sandy's vocals.
Sandy was namechecked in the Spice Girls song "The Lady is a Vamp" by accident. When the CD lyric sheet was printed, a line referring to Sandy and Danny (characters from the film Grease) was misprinted as "Sandy Denny, summer love".
Books
- (2005) Colin Harper, Trevor Hodgett, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History. Cherry Red. ISBN 1901447405.
- (2002) Clinton Heylin, No More Sad Refrains : The Life and Times of Sandy Denny. Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 1900924358.
External links
- Sandy Denny memorial page www.sandydenny.co.uk
- Sandy Denny en castellano
- Audio feature on NPR's Fresh Air by Ed Ward, November 14, 2005 (requires audio player)
- 'You had to hold on to the furniture when Sandy sang' (Guardian Unlimited, Arts Friday Review, 6 May 2005).
- "In a Lonely Moment" By Clive James (Let It Rock Magazine, UK, March 1974; Reprinted in Fiddlestix, Issue 38, Spring 1995)
- Sandy Denny's Gravesitede:Sandy Denny