ALBUM: Fanny, ‘Fanny Hill’
It seems almost obscene, writing about an all-female rock band in 2015, to focus on the “all-female” half of the phrase before the “rock band” part. Yet for the ’70s Los Angeles-based quartet Fanny, the group’s gender was paramount in how they were perceived by audiences, critics, and the record industry. There had been the occasional “girl band” before them — most notably, the Genya Ravan-led Goldie and the Gingerbreads — but Fanny was the first to release an album on a major label (1970’s Fanny, for Reprise), the first to score a Top 40 hit (1971’s “Charity Ball”), and the first to benefit from a major publicity push.
Despite the group’s organic roots — the self-founded band played their own instruments and wrote their own songs — Fanny was often perceived more as a gimmick than as bona fide rockers. In fact, superproducer Richard Perry had latched onto the idea of promoting an all-female band before he had even heard of the group. Nevertheless, the women of Fanny — June Millington on guitar, her sister Jean Millington on bass, Nickey Barclay on keyboards, and Alice de Buhr on drums — were serious enough musicians to eventually earn the respect of many of their male peers (including George Harrison and David Bowie), even if some just seemed astonished that they could actually play.
Following its reissues of Fanny in 2013 and Charity Ball in 2014, Real Gone Music has re-released the band’s third album, considered by many to be the high point of its career. At the time the group released Fanny Hill in 1972, Fanny had proven itself over the course of two LPs, and was riding the waves of a genuine pop hit with “Charity Ball.” The band moved to London to record at Apple Studios with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick manning the boards.
Apart from the group’s gender, Fanny initially drew attention through daring cover versions, earning FM radio airplay with their takes on Cream’s “Badge” and Buffalo Springfield’s “Special Care.” Fanny Hill continues the trend with two more remakes. The album opens with Fanny paying homage to their Motown-covering early years by tackling Marvin Gaye’s 1965 hit “Ain’t That Peculiar,” adding a driving, Latin-tinged rock beat and an understated slide guitar solo. “Ain’t That Peculiar” was the “hit” from the album (peaking at #85 on the pop charts), but more infamous is their spin on the Beatles “Hey Bulldog,” in which they flesh out the sound of the Yellow Submarine ditty, even writing additional lyrics (with the Fab Four’s approval, naturally).
Fanny wasn’t only good at covers; their original songs could rock just as hard. If there’s one track on the album that exposes how absurd the condescending they-play-good-for-girls attitude was, it’s “Blind Alley,” a rollicking, rambling, epic rocker that could stand up to anything the Who was putting out at the time. Keyboardist Nickey Barclay, who wrote and sings lead on the song, also contributed another album highlight in “Borrowed Time,” a Stonesy rejection of self-indulgent male cockrockers that drives the nail into the coffin by rocking harder than them, too. (The fact that Bobby Keys and Jim Price, members of the Rolling Stones’ horn section, contribute to the track underscores the connection.) For the album’s closing track, “The First Time,” Barclay constructs an anthemic power ballad, with a “Hey Jude”-style extended singalong coda and seemingly every instrument in the studio thrown in for good measure (including mariachi horns).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kpCB9T8sRE
As convincingly tough as Fanny could be on the big rock numbers, the band wasn’t afraid to reveal a more traditionally feminine side on softer ballads. June Millington’s lullaby for single mothers, “You’ve Got a Home,” combines warm, observant lyrics (“I didn’t plan it, but I’m glad that you were born”) with an intimate setting: just guitars and the Millington sisters’ close harmonies. Another June composition, “Think About the Children,” overcomes its inauspicious title with some cooly funky wah-wah guitar and vaguely Indian percussion. “Wonderful Feeling,” Jean Millington’s lone solo songwriting contribution to the album, draws its influence from the soft, romantic pop prevalent in the sisters’ native Philippines, kicking in a rock backbeat on the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlH_cBqr484
The Real Gone reissue of Fanny Hill includes a few hidden gems as bonus tracks: June Millington’s wistful folk ballad “Tomorrow,” Barclay’s wordplay-heavy country-rocker “No Deposit, No Return,” and a Jean Millington-led searing cover of Ike & Tina Turner’s “Young and Dumb” that’s nearly as steamy as the original (quite an impressive feat). Additional tracks include a single version of “Wonderful Feeling,” as well as an alternate vocal and isolated backing tracks for fan favorite “Rock Bottom Blues,” a straightforward boogie rocker enlivened by drummer Alice de Buhr’s appealingly unpolished singing voice.
The band’s original lineup only recorded one more album after Fanny Hill, 1973’s Todd Rundgren-produced Mother’s Pride, before Alice de Buhr and June Millington left the group. Meanwhile, record labels (first Reprise, then Casablanca) pushed the relaxed, jeans-wearing rockers into a glammy, overtly sexual style. The remaining members briefly soldiered on with Patti Quatro (sister of Suzi) taking over as frontwoman for one final album. Ironically, Fanny scored its biggest chart hit, “Butter Boy,” peaking at #29 in 1975, after the group had already broken up.
Fanny was a very good band, easily the equal of any other second-tier rockers in the early-to-mid ’70s. The problem, familiar to countless women in male-dominated professions, is that being good often isn’t good enough — you have to be the best, and even then, male acceptance isn’t guaranteed. This unfair burden ultimately proved impossible for the band to bear. In the 40 years since Fanny broke up, female rock musicians have (hopefully) begun to earn more respect, if not become entirely commonplace. Perhaps the time has come when Fanny Hill can be approached with fresh ears, stripped of hype, backlash, and gendered expectations, and enjoyed as a solid example of pop-friendly hard rock made by four talented women.
To get your copy of Fanny’s Fanny Hill, visit Real Gone Music’s online shop.
