Liz Damon's Orient Express was a 1970s band from Hawaii, featuring lead singer Liz Damon, two female backup singers and a rotating backup band. The name apparently derived from the original backup band being entirely Asian. Their only song to make the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 was "1900 Yesterday", which made it to #33 on the U.S. and #16 on the Canadian charts in early 1971. Most impressively, it peaked at #4 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey.
The band was the house band at the Hilton Hawaiian Village's Garden Bar for 18 months and recorded its first album, At the Garden Bar, Hilton Hawaiian Village in 1970. Originally released on Makaha Records, it was then picked up by White Whale Records, who released it as an eponymous album and also released "1900 Yesterday" as a single.
Damon's backup singers on this album were her sister Edda Damon and Sydette Sakauye. In the early 1970s, Sakauye left and was replaced by Meri McPherson. While the Damon sisters and McPherson appeared to be constants, their backup band appeared to undergo numerous personnel changes.
Liz Damon's Orient Express released Burt Bacharach's "Loneliness Remembers (What Happiness Forgets)" for the Anthem label in late 1971, and it became their second and last US chart single, and the only charted version of that song, which was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick.
The group released three more albums during the 1970s consisting mostly of covers. In 1979, the group released a comedy album. During the late 1970s, the band moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where they performed until their breakup in the mid 1980s.
Only Liz Damon's Orient Express is available in print today, although "1900 Yesterday" appears on some compilations of 1970s mellow music.
Discography
Albums
- Liz Damon's Orient Express (1970) (also At the Garden Bar, Hilton Hawaiian Village)
- Try a Little Tenderness (1970)
- Me Japanese Boy (I Love You) (1973)
- Heaven in My Heart (1978)
- Warning: This Album Could be Hazardous to Your Ego! (1979)
Singles
- "1900 Yesterday" (1971) from Liz Damon's Orient Express
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