Wendy & Lisa

Wendy & Lisa (occasionally known as Girl Bros.) are a musical duo consisting of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. Perhaps best known for working with Prince in the 1980s, Melvoin and Coleman began their post-Revolution music career in 1986.

They have released five full-length albums of their own, the most recent release being White Flags of Winter Chimneys, released in December 2008.

They currently score the music for the NBC series' Heroes and Mercy as well as Showtime’s Nurse Jackie. They have also been featured on several released soundtracks and scores, including the soundtrack for the film Toys, which featured one of their bigger hits, "The Closing Of The Year", and the most recent which is the full-length Heroes: Original Score, released in April 2009 and comprised entirely of Wendy & Lisa's full-length compositions for each of the show's characters.

Biography

The two were childhood friends, both from musical families which often performed together; Wendy's father, Mike Melvoin, was an in-demand session musician and was president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in the 1980s, while Lisa's father, Gary L. Coleman (not the actor) was also an in-demand session musician for jazz artists.

Although Wendy & Lisa may be better known for being part of The Revolution, their careers began long before joining the group. As a pre-teen, Lisa joined her sister Cole Ynda, brother David Coleman, and Jonathan Melvoin (Wendy’s brother) to form the band “Waldorf Salad”.^[1] In addition to music, Lisa also ventured into acting appearing in “Sarah T – Portrait of A Teenage Alcoholic” a movie starring Linda Blair and released in 1975.^[1]

Although Wendy mainly plays acoustic and electric guitar, she is also credited with playing bass guitar, harmonica, oud, tamboora, drums, and congas on the "Eroica" album. In addition, Lisa mainly plays piano and keyboard, however, she is credited with also playing the harmonica, drum, acoustic guitar, harmonium, hurdy gurdy on the "Eroica" album.

The Revolution

In 1980, Lisa Coleman replaced Gayle Chapman in Prince's touring band^[2] on keyboards and piano. Lisa was asked to contribute vocals to several tracks over his next few albums. In 1983, guitarist Dez Dickerson left the band over religious conflicts. Lisa suggested Wendy, who had been brought on tour, as a replacement. Prince accepted Wendy into the band as they began to record Purple Rain^[3]. The film and album were a phenomenon, turning Prince and the newly named Revolution into superstars. Prince's personal life also became intertwined with Wendy's when he began dating her twin sister Susannah.

After Purple Rain, Coleman and Melvoin continued to participate in Prince projects, including Parade, the soundtrack to Prince's film Under the Cherry Moon. In interviews, the two reported they felt they were not getting the recognition and credit they deserved despite their growing contributions to his work.^[4] During 1986 Wendy & Lisa became increasingly disillusioned with Prince's decision to expand the Revolution with non-musicians, such as Wally Safford and Greg Brooks, and Prince's increasing machismo that these new members brought with them. Unhappy and vocal about their feelings, they were eventually convinced to remain with the band through the end of the Hit N Run - Parade Tour. However, Prince felt spurned and as a result he had already decided he would dissolve The Revolution once the tour was complete. Hence, by October 1986, Wendy & Lisa (along with Bobby Z.) were dismissed by Prince, disrupting the Dream Factory album that was already completed and effectively dissolving The Revolution^[5].

Contributions

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Wendy & Lisa's influence can be heard on Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade. Their influence is also extremely prominent on a number of unreleased songs recorded together with Prince during 1984, 1985 and 1986, during which they would either co-write material, co-produce and co-compose. Prince would often create the basic tracks and leave it to the female duo to finish, adding their own unique embellishments along the way. Prince's music after their departure became significantly more funk-driven, while their more psychedelic and ethereal style can be heard clearly on their first few albums.

Per Nilson has argued that Wendy & Lisa’s influence on Prince’s music was substantial and drove some of the most creative music in his career. For example, regarding Lisa, Per Nilsen has stated that “The increasing complexity of Prince’s music over the years, can to some extent, be traced to Lisa’s influence” [82]. In addition, Alex Hahn has stated that the “duo’s departure from Prince’s fold took away an element that would ultimately prove irreplaceable” [144]. More specifically, Hahn attributes Coleman’s greatest impact on Prince’s music to “her expressive playing, which added an entirely new dimension to his live sound” [35].

On their own

The next year, the duo released an album simply entitled Wendy & Lisa with Columbia Records. The lead single, "Waterfall" received some airplay, and the music video was played on MTV and VH1. The album was a moderate success, but did not approach the sales figures of The Revolution. The sound was a continuation of the ethereal/dance/R&B fusion that had been the hallmark of their work with Prince; many Prince fans that were more fond of his funkier music did not follow the duo's work. They released a follow up album, Fruit at the Bottom, which although not a commercial success, did receive some critical acclaim.

After a few years, the duo signed with Virgin Records (already their label in Europe) and released Eroica, an album with a more alternative rock feel. They had a minor radio and dance club hit with the single "Strung Out". In 1991, Virgin UK released Re-mix-In-a-Carnation, a selection of club mixes from the first three albums as remixed by producers like The Orb, William Orbit, and Nellee Hooper.

In the mid-1990s, Wendy & Lisa worked on several movie projects with record producer Trevor Horn, including session work with Seal and vocals on the soundtrack for Toys and their first scoring work, for Dangerous Minds. During this period, they worked to record a full length album under Horn's production, however the project (sometimes mistakenly called Friendly Fire by fans and bootleggers) has never been released.

Feeling confined by the "Wendy & Lisa" moniker, the duo enlisted alternative producer Tchad Blake (Soul Coughing, Cibo Matto) and released a CD in 1998 under the name "Girl Bros". Their sound had begun to evolve on Eroica and while Girl Bros was still pop/funk based, it also could be categorized as alternative music.

Wendy & Lisa’s alternative sound (which is a hybrid of funk/jazz/r&b/electronica/classical piano) that was born on Eroica and further developed on “Girl Bros” is more fully developed on their most recent album release, White Flags of Winter Chimneys. White Flags (released in December 2008) marked Wendy & Lisa’s first album in ten years and was described by Wendy as “their best work.”^[1]

Unlike their previous albums, White Flags was released completely independently. While the initial release was solely through their website, the album was subsequently released via retail channels (such as iTunes, Amazon.com and the like). During interviews, Wendy & Lisa have commented on how they felt pressured by record executives to put out music more reminiscent of Prince’s music and cite their first two albums as examples.^[6] Similar to their more recent work (Eroica and Girl Bros), all music, lyrics, and instruments on White Flags of Winter Chimneys are written and performed by Wendy & Lisa.

Other credits

Shortly after the completion of the Parade project, Coleman and Melvoin left the Revolution, and started their own musical duo, Wendy & Lisa (also known as Girl Bros). As of 2009, they are in their third season of scoring Heroes, and are taking on the scoring duties for the upcoming “Virtuality” on Fox and “Nurse Jackie” on Showtime. They received the ASCAP award for "Composers of the Year" for their work on "Dangerous Minds", the theme to HBO’s Carnivale, Crossing Jordan and Heroes.

Other projects

• Melvoin and Coleman have made numerous contributions to film scores and to television themes (for example, they wrote theme music and background scores for TV-shows such as Crossing Jordan, Bionic Woman, Carnivàle and Heroes). Their latest film score was for Something New, released in February 2006.
• As sessionists and producers, they have also appeared, together or separately, on albums by Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, Neil Finn, Joni Mitchell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Michael Penn, Liz Phair, Seal, and Victoria Williams, to name a few. They have been frequent collaborators with k.d. lang, whom they first worked with during Eroica; they have played on all of her subsequent albums. In 2005, Wendy Melvoin produced the first commercial album by The Like.
• Melvoin's brother-in-law Doyle Bramhall II is another frequent collaborator; Wendy & Lisa performed on his first and second albums (producing the first) in addition to performing alongside him on several other artists' sessions. In the summer of 2005, Wendy & Lisa performed live as Pacifico in a supergroup band that also included Bramhall, Susannah Melvoin, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., and hip hop writer/producer Mike Elizondo Jr. (better known for his work with Eminem and 50 Cent). The set of shows at Hollywood's Largo was marked by special guest performances that included Coleman's sister Cole Ynda, singer Nikka Costa, and Eric Clapton.
• Another supergroup, Funksway, is featured in the 2006 music documentary Before the Music Dies. That incarnation replaces Abe Laboriel Jr. with The Roots' Questlove and adds Erykah Badu. In addition to its featured performance in the movie, the group played a live set during the 2006 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas to celebrate the film's world premiere.
• The duo's somewhat erratic relationship with Prince has continued; in 2006, the duo accompanied Prince on-stage during his performance at the 2006 BRIT Awards in London, where they performed a medley which opened with "Te Amo Corazón", segued into "Fury" then into "Purple Rain" then ending in "Let's Go Crazy". It was the first time in 18 years that the three had played together in front of a live audience (Wendy & Lisa joined Prince onstage in Minneapolis for a stop on the 1988 Lovesexy tour, for which Sheila E. was the drummer). Prince's 2007 album Planet Earth features appearances by Wendy & Lisa on the songs "The One U Wanna C" and "Lion of Judah". Melvoin accompanied Prince at the 07/07/07 Target Center concert and the First Avenue aftershow, in Minneapolis where Prince introduced her as "one of my best friends", as well as exclusive appearances at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel that included Prince's first performance of "1999" since he "retired" it in that year.
• Melvoin played guitar on the song "She's Not Me" on Madonna's 2008 album Hard Candy. Pharrell Williams, the song's producer, and Madonna simultaneously sing "Wendeee!" (a shout out to Melvoin) during the song which is reminiscent of Prince's "little girl Wendy's parade" exclaimed by Prince during the song "Kiss".
• Melvoin and Coleman collaborated with Grace Jones for her 2008 album Hurricane.^[7]

Discography

Albums

• Wendy & Lisa (1987), Columbia Records (UK #84)
• Fruit at the Bottom (1989), Columbia Records (UK #45)
• Eroica (1990), Virgin Records (UK #33)
• Girl Bros. (1998), World Domination - Re-released as Wendy & Lisa "Girl Brothers Inc." (1999) (self-released)
• White Flags of Winter Chimneys (2008), W. Melvoin/L. Coleman (self-released)

Soundtracks

• Toys (1992 film) (1992), Geffen Records
• Heroes: Original Score (2009), La-La Land Records

UK singles

• "Waterfall" (1987) (UK #66)
• "Sideshow" (1988) (UK #49)
• "Are You My Baby?" (1989) (UK #70)
• "Lolly Lolly" (1989) (UK #64)
• "Satisfaction" (1989) (UK #27)
• "Satisfaction" (re-mix) (1989)
• "Waterfall" (re-mix) (1989) (UK #69)
• "Strung Out" (1990) (UK #44)
• "Rainbow Lake" (1990) (UK #70)
• "Don't Try To Tell Me" (1990)

Compilations

• Re-Mix-In-A-Carnation (1991)
• Are You My Baby (1996)
• Always In My Dreams (2000)

Contributions to Prince discography

The following songs, which appear on releases by Prince or associates, are registered with ASCAP as partial Wendy & Lisa compositions.

• "17 Days", written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa, Dr. Fink
• "America", written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa, Brown Mark, Dr. Fink, Bobby Z.
• "A Million Miles (I Love You)", written by Prince, Lisa
• "Computer Blue", written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa, Dr. Fink, John L. Nelson
• "Mountains" written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa
• "Power Fantastic", written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa
• "Sometimes It Snows In April", written by Prince, Wendy, Lisa

Trivia

In the "The Perfect Dress" (season 6, episode 11) episode of Gilmore Girls, Rory and Lorelai return from Rory's make-up 21st birthday party. As they are telling Luke all about their adventures, Lorelai mentions the twenty-one numbers the girls collected from random guys. She mentions that, oddly enough, none of the guys questioned the fact that the girls introduced themselves as Wendy and Lisa.

Notes

References

• Hahn, Alex (2003). Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince. NewYork: Billboard Books.
  
• Nilsen, Per (1999). Dancemusicsexromance: Prince – The First Decade. London: Fire Fly Publishing.

External links

• Official website
• Wendy & Lisa on Twitter