Marianne Faithfull

• Genre: Cabaret
• Hometown: London, England
• Marianne Faithfull Website

About

Forever burned into the collective conscious as the frightened, beautiful girl singing "As Tears Go By," Marianne Faithfull dealt with enough backlash to border on the criminal. More of a pop icon by association rather than because of her music, she played the golden-haired Josephine to Mick Jagger's Napoleon throughout the 1960s. Faring much better in her homeland with her starry-eyed chanteuse act, she was finally given credit as an artist upon penning the narcotic dirge "Sister Morphine" in 1971. After supposedly being on the receiving end of the fake "Mars Bar" scandal in the late '60s, she found herself basically blacklisted and reeled off into a drug-induced whirlpool. It wasn't until the release of Broken English in 1979 that she reemerged as an artist. Timed perfectly with the onset of Punk and New Wave, her once-wispy voice turned into a cracked, raspy moan that seems more honest and real than anything she'd done before. She has since taken on writing, singing cabaret numbers and justly living the life of an artist.

- Jon Pruett