Evie Sands
Encyclopedia
Evie Sands is a Brooklyn
-born singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose career began as a young teenager in the mid-1960s. After several close calls throughout the rest of the decade, and a thoroughly hard time at the hands of the record industry, she eventually saw chart action in 1969, before mostly forgoing live performance in 1979 to concentrate on writing and production. She experienced a fashionable, Brit-led surge in cult popularity beginning in the 1990s and returned to live performance in mid-1998. Sands is still actively recording and performing today.
, New York, to music-loving parents, and fulfilled sooner than expected her mother's intuition that "this baby will come out singing", cutting her first singles by her mid-teens: "The Roll / My Dog" (ABC 10458/1963), "Danny Boy" "I Love You So" /"I Was Moved". (Gold 215/ 1964). In 1965 Sands signed to the Blue Cat label of legendary Red Bird Records
; she toured with Red Bird star act the Shangri-Las
and began a lasting collaboration with the producer/composers Chip Taylor
and Al Gorgoni with the release of the single "Take Me For a Little While" (written by Trade Martin
). Prior to its release, a test pressing of Sands' recording was stolen by a Chicago-based producer, who shopped it to established Chess Records
recording artist Jackie Ross, who was coming off the major pop/soul hit "Selfish One". Ross — who was unaware of the duplicity involved, and who left Chess shortly afterwards — and her producers loved the song, and recorded, pressed and released the record within 48 hours, beating Sands' version to the street by a week. Backed by the marketing and promotional muscle of Chess Records, and with Ross' name attached, this version unsurprisingly received the lion's share of airplay. The subsequent legal struggle set back Sands' young career before it had had a chance to get started. By the time Chess withdrew the Ross single from the marketplace, Sands' version would only break through in the few cities (like Los Angeles) that had thus far stayed 'on the fence', waiting to see which version to play.
Sands' follow-up single, "I Can't Let Go
", was lost amidst the post "Take Me" chaos, leaving Brit invaders The Hollies
clear to score a hit cover in the spring of 1966. That same year, Sands debuted on Cameo-Parkway Records
and would continue the pattern of songs introduced by Sands becoming successful for other artists, when in 1967, Sands' latest single, the Chip Taylor-penned "Angel of the Morning
", got caught up in label's business problems. Despite the single being one of the most-requested radio songs wherever played, and the initial 10,000 copies selling out, the label's pending bankruptcy aborted the record's potential success; a few months later, the unknown Merrilee Rush
would score a Top Ten single with the song. Sands' last single release on Cameo-Parkway was "Billy Sunshine" in January 1968, the tracking reaching Billboards Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
chart before Cameo's demise.
In 1969 Sands scored with the A&M
single "Any Way That You Want Me", a Chip Taylor composition previously recorded by both the American Breed and the Troggs
in 1966. A No. 1 hit in Birmingham, Alabama, Sands' "Anyway That You Want Me" also reached the Top Ten or better in Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Texas, San Diego, California, and a number of other cities; it reached No. 53 Billboard Hot 100
, tying Don Ho
's "Tiny Bubbles" for longevity among 1960s singles failing to reach that chart's top 50 (at 17 weeks), and eventual sales are estimated at 500,000 units. Sands' debut album, also named Any Way That You Want Me, was released on A&M in 1970, several months after the single had peaked. Evie made her recorded debut as a songwriter on the album with "It's This I Am" - covered years later by Beck and Beth Orton, respectively.
A Sands album to be produced by Val Garay
for Buddah Records
was announced in March 1971 but did not come to fruition: rather the 1975 release Estate of Mind on the Capitol Records
Haven label ended Sands' five-year absence from recording. Produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the album marked Sands' continuing as a songwriter, also collaborating with Richard Germinaro and veteran songwriter Ben Weisman. Two tracks from the album, Lambert and Potter's "You Brought The Woman Out Of Me" and the Sands-Weisman-Germinaro collaboration "I Love Makin' Love To You", both approached major hit status. They wound up peaking at No. 50, with Sands would see the latter included on the ButterFly
album by Barbra Streisand
. Several other Sands songs from the "Estate of Mind" album were also covered by a number of artists, including Dionne Warwick, Dobie Gray, Dusty Springfield, Frankie Valli, Gladys Knight, Arthur Prysock, The Manhattans, Cher/Greg Allman, Jose Feliciano and Phyllis Hyman.
After a final 1976 single release on Haven: a remake of "The Way You Do the Things You Do
", Sands next release was on RCA
who issued the album Suspended Animation - produced by Sands and Michael Stewart - in the spring of 1979; Sands had actually begun working with co-producer Michael Stewart
in May 1977. The album's musicians included Toto
members David Hungate
, Steve Lukather
and Greg Phillinganes
and also Lee Ritenour
and Buzz Feiten
and the vocalists backing Sands included Toto frontman Bobby Kimball
, Bill Champlin
of Chicago
and - on the track "Lady of the Night" - Dusty Springfield
. Despite its prestigious personnel Suspended Animation didn't make a real chart impact for its single releases and Sands focused mostly on writing and production in the music business for almost twenty years. As with her previous album, a few of the songs were covered by several artists, including Helen Reddy, Linda Clfford, June Pointer, The Weather Girls and Shirley Bassey. Karen Carpenter recorded two songs for her solo album, but they remained unreleased.
In late 1996, Sands went to see Chip Taylor perform at a club gig and he invited her onstage to perform with him. Despite not having kept actively in touch through the previous years, the experience was so successful that the two re-ignited their collaboration - along with Al Gorgoni, resulting in the critically acclaimed Women In Prison LP, which was released in 1999 (and again in 2000) on Taylor's Train Wreck records. A more rootsy project than the blue-eyed soul of her late 1960s-70s output, the album consisted of various Sands-Taylor-Gorgoni originals, including a duet with Lucinda Williams
on the track "Cool Blues Story". Several tracks fared well on UK/Euro indie charts. After the reconnection with Taylor, Sands returned to performing in 1998. Sands and Taylor did some shows in the UK and Europe when the album was released, including London, Glasgow, Brussels and several dates in Holland.
Evie's earlier albums have recently been made available on CD. Suspended Animation, Any Way That You Want Me, and Estate of Mind were first reissued in Japan in 2001 and 2003. Any Way... and Estate... were reissued again in September 2005 and June 2006 respectively, on the Cherry Red
sublabel Rev-Ola in the United Kingdom. Evie can currently be found performing her own solo material as well as performing as the lead guitar player in eclectic Los Angeles based group, Adam Marsland's Chaos Band. Her most recent recorded appearance is on that band's 2007 live CD Long Promised Road: Songs of Dennis and Carl Wilson, on which she sings several lead vocals, including the first-ever released recording of Dennis Wilson's "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again." She also did extensive vocal and guitar work on Marsland's 2009 double CD Go West, including lead vocals on one track.
, Gladys Knight
, Karen Carpenter
, Arthur Prysock
, Juice Newton
, Linda Ronstadt
, and Dusty Springfield
, who went on record citing Sands as "my favourite female singer" and in fact recorded backing vocals on "Lady of the Night", a cut from Sands' Suspended Animation LP. She also has a popular following, and huge respect, amongst Northern Soul
fans. Similarly to Springfield, who underwent a British-led return to popularity in the late-1980s, Sands saw a burgeoning cult following build around her when a new wave of pre-grunge British indie bands sang her praises and recorded her songs. Amongst these were Teenage Fanclub
, BMX Bandits
, and Spiritualized
, whose first single was a version of "Any Way That You Want Me". Later on, Belle and Sebastian also declared themselves fans, performing with Evie on her first trip to Europe, whilst she was promoting the Women In Prison album.
Some of Sands' songs have become hit singles in their cover versions, most notably "I Can't Let Go" (The Hollies
in 1966 and Linda Ronstadt
in 1980) and "Angel of the Morning" (Merrilee Rush in 1968 and Juice Newton
in 1981).
Karen Carpenter recorded a version of "I Love Makin' Love to You" in 1980 with producer Phil Ramone
intended for her solo debut album; however, the song did not make the final cut for the album (perhaps due to the song's suggestive lyrics), and the album was not released until well after Carpenter's death. In the Karen Carpenter biography Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt, Evie Sands is quoted as saying she liked Carpenter's version: "When I heard Karen was going to cover it, I imagined her take on it would be similar to mine or closer to the mellow Barbra Streisand version. It turned out to be a perfect blend of both." (Little Girl Blue, p. 203) The track has since surfaced on the Internet and can be downloaded on YouTube
, though it still has yet to be released on an album.
In more recent years, Peter Kember
, aka Sonic Boom, from the band Spacemen 3
, from whose ashes rose Jason Pierce's Spiritualized, also included Sands' original of "I Can't Let Go" on the Spacelines album, which compiled a varied selection of his favourite songs and influences. He even admits to lifting the middle eight of the song for his own "How You Satisfy Me" for his Spectrum project. Both Beck
and Beth Orton
have covered Sands' "It's This I Am I Find".
Gold 215 - Danny Boy, I Love You So/I Was Moved – 1964
Blue Cat 118 - Take Me For A Little While/Run Home To Your Mama - 1965
Blue Cat 122 - I Can't Let Go / Uptight – 1965
Cameo 413 - Picture Me Gone/It Makes Me Laugh - 1966
Cameo 436 - Love Of A Boy / We Know Better – 1966
Cameo 475 - Angel Of The Morning / Dear John – 1967
Cameo 2002 - Billy Sunshine / Don't Make Me Laugh - 1967
A&M 0980 - Until It's Time For You To Go / Shadow Of The Evening – 1968
A&M 1026 - One Fine Summer Morning / I'll Hold Out My Hand – 1969
A&M 1090 - Anyway That You Want Me / I'll Never Be Alone Again – 1969 - Billboard Hot 100
#53 (Aug.)
A&M 1157 - Maybe Tomorrow / Crazy Annie – 1969
A&M 1175 - But You Know I Love You / Maybe Tomorrow – 1970 - Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 #110, Billboard AC
#30 (March)
A&M 1192 - It's This I Am, I Find / Take Me For A Little While – 1970
Haven 7010 - You Brought The Woman Out Of Me/Early Morning Sunshine - 1974 - Billboard Hot 100 #50 (March 1975)
Haven 7013 - I Love Makin' Love To You/One Thing On Your Mind - 1974 - Billboard Hot 100 #50 (Aug. 1975)
Haven 7020 - Yesterday Can't Hurt Me/(Am I) Crazy Cause I Believe - 1975 - Billboard AC #36 (Dec.)
Haven 806 - The Way You Do The Things You Do/Love In The Afternoon - 1976
RCA 11549 - Keep My Love Light Burnin' / I Can't Wait For You - 1979
RCA 11653 - You Sho' Look Good To Me / Brain Damage – 1979
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
-born singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose career began as a young teenager in the mid-1960s. After several close calls throughout the rest of the decade, and a thoroughly hard time at the hands of the record industry, she eventually saw chart action in 1969, before mostly forgoing live performance in 1979 to concentrate on writing and production. She experienced a fashionable, Brit-led surge in cult popularity beginning in the 1990s and returned to live performance in mid-1998. Sands is still actively recording and performing today.
Biography
Evie Sands was born Evelyn Lourette Sands in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, to music-loving parents, and fulfilled sooner than expected her mother's intuition that "this baby will come out singing", cutting her first singles by her mid-teens: "The Roll / My Dog" (ABC 10458/1963), "Danny Boy" "I Love You So" /"I Was Moved". (Gold 215/ 1964). In 1965 Sands signed to the Blue Cat label of legendary Red Bird Records
Red Bird Records
Red Bird Records was a record label started by American pop music songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1964. Though often thought of as a "girl-group" label, female-led acts made up only 40% of the artist roster on Red Bird and its associated labels...
; she toured with Red Bird star act the Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain best known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
and began a lasting collaboration with the producer/composers Chip Taylor
Chip Taylor
James Wesley Voight , better known by his stage name as Chip Taylor, is an American songwriter, who is noted for writing the songs "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing." He is the brother of actor Jon Voight and geologist Barry Voight...
and Al Gorgoni with the release of the single "Take Me For a Little While" (written by Trade Martin
Trade Martin
Trade Martin is an American musician, songwriter, and producer.Martin worked with Johnny Power in the late 1950s, recording as Johnny & the Jokers and together launching the label Rome Records, active from 1960 to 1962. The label signed the groups The Earls, Del & the Escorts, and The Glens...
). Prior to its release, a test pressing of Sands' recording was stolen by a Chicago-based producer, who shopped it to established Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
recording artist Jackie Ross, who was coming off the major pop/soul hit "Selfish One". Ross — who was unaware of the duplicity involved, and who left Chess shortly afterwards — and her producers loved the song, and recorded, pressed and released the record within 48 hours, beating Sands' version to the street by a week. Backed by the marketing and promotional muscle of Chess Records, and with Ross' name attached, this version unsurprisingly received the lion's share of airplay. The subsequent legal struggle set back Sands' young career before it had had a chance to get started. By the time Chess withdrew the Ross single from the marketplace, Sands' version would only break through in the few cities (like Los Angeles) that had thus far stayed 'on the fence', waiting to see which version to play.
Sands' follow-up single, "I Can't Let Go
I Can't Let Go
"I Can't Let Go" is The Hollies' first 1966 single, and the final single to feature the band's original bassist Eric Haydock. It went to #2 in the UK but only #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The song was co-written by Chip Taylor, who also wrote "Wild Thing" and is actor Jon Voight's brother...
", was lost amidst the post "Take Me" chaos, leaving Brit invaders The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
clear to score a hit cover in the spring of 1966. That same year, Sands debuted on Cameo-Parkway Records
Cameo-Parkway Records
Cameo-Parkway Records was the parent company of Cameo Records and Parkway Records, which were major American Philadelphia-based record labels from 1956 and 1958 to 1967...
and would continue the pattern of songs introduced by Sands becoming successful for other artists, when in 1967, Sands' latest single, the Chip Taylor-penned "Angel of the Morning
Angel of the Morning
"Angel of the Morning" is a popular song that has been recorded numerous times, and has been a charting hit single for several artists including Juice Newton, Merrilee Rush, Nina Simone, P.P...
", got caught up in label's business problems. Despite the single being one of the most-requested radio songs wherever played, and the initial 10,000 copies selling out, the label's pending bankruptcy aborted the record's potential success; a few months later, the unknown Merrilee Rush
Merrilee Rush
-Career:As a girl, Merrilee studied classical piano for 10 years. In 1960, Rush auditioned for a band, directed by her first husband, that played sock hops. Next, she was part of Merrilee and Her Men, doing covers of male pop hits. Then she joined a Seattle rhythm and blues group called Tiny Tony...
would score a Top Ten single with the song. Sands' last single release on Cameo-Parkway was "Billy Sunshine" in January 1968, the tracking reaching Billboards Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...
chart before Cameo's demise.
In 1969 Sands scored with the A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
single "Any Way That You Want Me", a Chip Taylor composition previously recorded by both the American Breed and the Troggs
The Troggs
The Troggs are an English rock band from the 1960s that had a number of hits in UK and the US. Their most famous songs include, "Wild Thing", "With a Girl Like You", and "Love Is All Around"...
in 1966. A No. 1 hit in Birmingham, Alabama, Sands' "Anyway That You Want Me" also reached the Top Ten or better in Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Texas, San Diego, California, and a number of other cities; it reached No. 53 Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, tying Don Ho
Don Ho
Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...
's "Tiny Bubbles" for longevity among 1960s singles failing to reach that chart's top 50 (at 17 weeks), and eventual sales are estimated at 500,000 units. Sands' debut album, also named Any Way That You Want Me, was released on A&M in 1970, several months after the single had peaked. Evie made her recorded debut as a songwriter on the album with "It's This I Am" - covered years later by Beck and Beth Orton, respectively.
A Sands album to be produced by Val Garay
Val Garay
Val Garay is a record producer and engineer who has worked with Kim Carnes, The Motels, Marty Balin, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Armatrading, Dolly Parton, Pablo Cruise, James Taylor, Queensrÿche, Cock Robin, Dramarama, EZO, Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Sarah Brightman, Nicolette Larson, and Reel Big Fish,...
for Buddah Records
Buddah Records
Buddah Records was founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's founding...
was announced in March 1971 but did not come to fruition: rather the 1975 release Estate of Mind on the Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
Haven label ended Sands' five-year absence from recording. Produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the album marked Sands' continuing as a songwriter, also collaborating with Richard Germinaro and veteran songwriter Ben Weisman. Two tracks from the album, Lambert and Potter's "You Brought The Woman Out Of Me" and the Sands-Weisman-Germinaro collaboration "I Love Makin' Love To You", both approached major hit status. They wound up peaking at No. 50, with Sands would see the latter included on the ButterFly
ButterFly (Barbra Streisand album)
ButterFly is a studio album by Barbra Streisand, recorded and released in 1974. The credited producer is Streisand's then-boyfriend Jon Peters, with arrangements by Tom Scott. The album contains contemporary material from a diverse selection of writers, as well as interpretations of standards...
album by Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
. Several other Sands songs from the "Estate of Mind" album were also covered by a number of artists, including Dionne Warwick, Dobie Gray, Dusty Springfield, Frankie Valli, Gladys Knight, Arthur Prysock, The Manhattans, Cher/Greg Allman, Jose Feliciano and Phyllis Hyman.
After a final 1976 single release on Haven: a remake of "The Way You Do the Things You Do
The Way You Do the Things You Do
"The Way You Do the Things You Do" was covered in 1989 by the band UB40. It was the sixth single from their 1989 album Labour of Love II. The song was released in 1989 in the major of the European countries .-Track listings:7"-Single...
", Sands next release was on RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
who issued the album Suspended Animation - produced by Sands and Michael Stewart - in the spring of 1979; Sands had actually begun working with co-producer Michael Stewart
Michael Stewart (musician)
Michael “Mike” Stewart was the guitarist for We Five. He was also the brother of John Stewart , a one-time member of The Kingston Trio and later a very successful singer/songwriter, and the father of Jamie Stewart, frontman of popular avant-garde group Xiu Xiu...
in May 1977. The album's musicians included Toto
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
members David Hungate
David Hungate
David Hungate is a bass player noted as a member of Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1977-1982. Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees album of 1976 included Hungate and several other future members of Toto...
, Steve Lukather
Steve Lukather
Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...
and Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes is an active session keyboardist in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan....
and also Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
and Buzz Feiten
Buzz Feiten
Howard "Buzz" Feiten is a North American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and session musician.He is best known as a lead and rhythm electric guitarist, and for having patented a unique, scientifically designed tuning system which re-configures its stringboard / neck for more accurate tonality...
and the vocalists backing Sands included Toto frontman Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball
Robert Troy "Bobby" Kimball is an American singer, best known as the longtime frontman of the rock band Toto.- Early life:...
, Bill Champlin
Bill Champlin
William Bradford "Bill" Champlin is an American singer, guitarist, keyboard player, arranger, producer, and songwriter. His performance work is principally associated with the bands Chicago and the Sons of Champlin...
of Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
and - on the track "Lady of the Night" - Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
. Despite its prestigious personnel Suspended Animation didn't make a real chart impact for its single releases and Sands focused mostly on writing and production in the music business for almost twenty years. As with her previous album, a few of the songs were covered by several artists, including Helen Reddy, Linda Clfford, June Pointer, The Weather Girls and Shirley Bassey. Karen Carpenter recorded two songs for her solo album, but they remained unreleased.
In late 1996, Sands went to see Chip Taylor perform at a club gig and he invited her onstage to perform with him. Despite not having kept actively in touch through the previous years, the experience was so successful that the two re-ignited their collaboration - along with Al Gorgoni, resulting in the critically acclaimed Women In Prison LP, which was released in 1999 (and again in 2000) on Taylor's Train Wreck records. A more rootsy project than the blue-eyed soul of her late 1960s-70s output, the album consisted of various Sands-Taylor-Gorgoni originals, including a duet with Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
on the track "Cool Blues Story". Several tracks fared well on UK/Euro indie charts. After the reconnection with Taylor, Sands returned to performing in 1998. Sands and Taylor did some shows in the UK and Europe when the album was released, including London, Glasgow, Brussels and several dates in Holland.
Evie's earlier albums have recently been made available on CD. Suspended Animation, Any Way That You Want Me, and Estate of Mind were first reissued in Japan in 2001 and 2003. Any Way... and Estate... were reissued again in September 2005 and June 2006 respectively, on the Cherry Red
Cherry Red
Cherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...
sublabel Rev-Ola in the United Kingdom. Evie can currently be found performing her own solo material as well as performing as the lead guitar player in eclectic Los Angeles based group, Adam Marsland's Chaos Band. Her most recent recorded appearance is on that band's 2007 live CD Long Promised Road: Songs of Dennis and Carl Wilson, on which she sings several lead vocals, including the first-ever released recording of Dennis Wilson's "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again." She also did extensive vocal and guitar work on Marsland's 2009 double CD Go West, including lead vocals on one track.
Legacy
Artists who have recorded versions of Evie Sands' songs include Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
, Karen Carpenter
Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love...
, Arthur Prysock
Arthur Prysock
Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine....
, Juice Newton
Juice Newton
Judith Kay "Juice" Newton is an American Pop music and Country singer, songwriter and guitarist...
, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, and Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, who went on record citing Sands as "my favourite female singer" and in fact recorded backing vocals on "Lady of the Night", a cut from Sands' Suspended Animation LP. She also has a popular following, and huge respect, amongst Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
fans. Similarly to Springfield, who underwent a British-led return to popularity in the late-1980s, Sands saw a burgeoning cult following build around her when a new wave of pre-grunge British indie bands sang her praises and recorded her songs. Amongst these were Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
, BMX Bandits
BMX Bandits (band)
BMX Bandits are a Scottish 1960s-influenced guitar pop band who have been making music from 1986 to the present day. They have shared members with other Bellshill bands Teenage Fanclub and The Soup Dragons....
, and Spiritualized
Spiritualized
Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3...
, whose first single was a version of "Any Way That You Want Me". Later on, Belle and Sebastian also declared themselves fans, performing with Evie on her first trip to Europe, whilst she was promoting the Women In Prison album.
Some of Sands' songs have become hit singles in their cover versions, most notably "I Can't Let Go" (The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
in 1966 and Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
in 1980) and "Angel of the Morning" (Merrilee Rush in 1968 and Juice Newton
Juice Newton
Judith Kay "Juice" Newton is an American Pop music and Country singer, songwriter and guitarist...
in 1981).
Karen Carpenter recorded a version of "I Love Makin' Love to You" in 1980 with producer Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
intended for her solo debut album; however, the song did not make the final cut for the album (perhaps due to the song's suggestive lyrics), and the album was not released until well after Carpenter's death. In the Karen Carpenter biography Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt, Evie Sands is quoted as saying she liked Carpenter's version: "When I heard Karen was going to cover it, I imagined her take on it would be similar to mine or closer to the mellow Barbra Streisand version. It turned out to be a perfect blend of both." (Little Girl Blue, p. 203) The track has since surfaced on the Internet and can be downloaded on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, though it still has yet to be released on an album.
In more recent years, Peter Kember
Peter Kember
Peter Kember is a British musician and producer, more usually known as Sonic Boom, and was a founding member of alternative rock band Spacemen 3....
, aka Sonic Boom, from the band Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...
, from whose ashes rose Jason Pierce's Spiritualized, also included Sands' original of "I Can't Let Go" on the Spacelines album, which compiled a varied selection of his favourite songs and influences. He even admits to lifting the middle eight of the song for his own "How You Satisfy Me" for his Spectrum project. Both Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
and Beth Orton
Beth Orton
Beth Orton is a BRIT Award–winning English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers in the mid 1990s. However, these were not Orton's first...
have covered Sands' "It's This I Am I Find".
Singles
ABC 10458 - The Roll/My Dog – 1963Gold 215 - Danny Boy, I Love You So/I Was Moved – 1964
Blue Cat 118 - Take Me For A Little While/Run Home To Your Mama - 1965
Blue Cat 122 - I Can't Let Go / Uptight – 1965
Cameo 413 - Picture Me Gone/It Makes Me Laugh - 1966
Cameo 436 - Love Of A Boy / We Know Better – 1966
Cameo 475 - Angel Of The Morning / Dear John – 1967
Cameo 2002 - Billy Sunshine / Don't Make Me Laugh - 1967
A&M 0980 - Until It's Time For You To Go / Shadow Of The Evening – 1968
A&M 1026 - One Fine Summer Morning / I'll Hold Out My Hand – 1969
A&M 1090 - Anyway That You Want Me / I'll Never Be Alone Again – 1969 - Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
#53 (Aug.)
A&M 1157 - Maybe Tomorrow / Crazy Annie – 1969
A&M 1175 - But You Know I Love You / Maybe Tomorrow – 1970 - Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 #110, Billboard AC
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
#30 (March)
A&M 1192 - It's This I Am, I Find / Take Me For A Little While – 1970
Haven 7010 - You Brought The Woman Out Of Me/Early Morning Sunshine - 1974 - Billboard Hot 100 #50 (March 1975)
Haven 7013 - I Love Makin' Love To You/One Thing On Your Mind - 1974 - Billboard Hot 100 #50 (Aug. 1975)
Haven 7020 - Yesterday Can't Hurt Me/(Am I) Crazy Cause I Believe - 1975 - Billboard AC #36 (Dec.)
Haven 806 - The Way You Do The Things You Do/Love In The Afternoon - 1976
RCA 11549 - Keep My Love Light Burnin' / I Can't Wait For You - 1979
RCA 11653 - You Sho' Look Good To Me / Brain Damage – 1979