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Format: CD Cat. No.: METRCD048 Barcode: 698458104823 Playing Time: 62.27

Rachel Sweet's unique combination of Country & Western sass and New Wave front went down big with discerning listeners in the late '70s and early '80s. She had voice that could stand comparison with both Brenda Lee and label-mate Lene Lovich. But the American teenager never seemed to get the breaks she deserved. Now, drawing from both her albums for Stiff, this CD gives you the chance to re-evaluate one of the great lost talents of the era.

1. B-A-B-Y 2. NEW ROSE 3. WHO DOES LISA LIKE? 4. BABY LET'S PLAY HOUSE 5. I GO TO PIECES 6. SPELLBOUND 7. STRANGER IN THE HOUSE 8. FOUL PLAY 9. SUSPENDED ANIMATION 10. FOOL'S GOLD     11. LOVER'S LANE 12. PIN A MEDAL ON MARY 13. SAD SONG 14. TAKE GOOD CARE OF ME 15. WILDWOOD SALOON 16. STAY AWHILE 17. CUCKOO CLOCK 18. NEW AGE 19. TONIGHT RICKY 20. BE STIFF         Sleevenotes   Barely sixteen when she signed for Stiff, Rachel Sweet was already a music biz veteran of over ten years! She had worked with Mickey Rooney and Bill Cosby as a child and recorded a couple of singles in Nashville which dented Billboard's country charts. Would-be svengali Liam Sternberg -who went on to write Walk Like An Egyptian for The Bangles - heard Sweet's versatile voice and snapped her up. Here was a young girl who could express both the thrill of innocence and the weight of experience, often in the same song. The two tracks Rachel contributed to Sternberg's Akron Compilation LP were not particularly exciting, but, across the Atlantic, Stiff also smelt the potential. The label's slavering efforts to market Sweet as 'jail-bait' are not to be applauded. However, her excellent, Sternberg-produced debut, Fool Around, helped dispel the feeling that she was hired simply for her image. The Rumour - regularly used as the company's house band - were co-opted for some of the tracks. According to 'a Stiff spokesperson' these 'non-Sternberg songs' were hurriedly added after Stiff management felt that 'Liam had made a Joni Mitchell-type album with no noticeable songs on it...[and became] the stand-out tracks.' This is a mite unfair -the whole set is brimful of goodies. Despite favourable press, the album didn't sell - though B-A-B-Y went Top 40. Around this time - autumn '78 - Sweet joined the Be Stiff tour. In keeping with the label's reputation for wacky promotions the acts on this jaunt were transported around Britain by train - cold, uncomfortable train. For a young American teenager a long way from home it was hard work. Many reports suggest that it was the professionalism of her backing band, The Records, which kept her afloat onstage. After successful gigs in the U.S. and less well-received singles in the UK Rachel underwent an image change. The ornery school-girl look was ditched for the bitchin', leather-clad wannabe featured on the sleeve of her second album, Protect The Innocent, released in Feb 1980. Sternberg was no longer in the producer's chair. In came Alan Winstanley - fresh from working on stable-mates Madness's One Step Beyond - and Martin Rushent. Aberdeen band Bus Company provided the competent musical backdrops and Sweet herself contributed several well-written numbers.Even so the LP was her swansong for Stiff... She soon joined the company's American distributor Columbia, recording two albums, and charting again with a cover of Everlasting Love. Since then she enjoyed a varied career in acting, writing and comedy. Highlights include Seinfeld, The Single Guy and The Sweet Life. Sadly her performances as a songstress have been infrequent, yet encompass the title tracks for John Waters' films Hairspray and Cry Baby and the singing voice of Barbie for a cartoon series! She is sorely missed. Give her the right musicians and some good material and she'd show the youngsters a thing or two. Listen for a couple of songs and remember that when she recorded them she was roughly the same age as Britney is now...There is simply no contest.