Kay Hanley

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Kay Hanley (born in Dorchester, Massachusetts on September 11, 1968) is an alternative rock musician. She is best known as the vocalist for the band Letters To Cleo.

Hanley was a member of Letters To Cleo from 1990 to 2000 (the length of the band's existence). She was not only the lead vocalist for the group, but also came up with the band's name (she had a pen pal named Cleo when she was younger). In 1997, she started to work on other projects than the band, starting with a role in the Boston Rock Opera's performance of Jesus Christ Superstar as Mary Magdalene.

In 1999, Hanley made a cameo as herself in the film 10 Things I Hate about You, singing a cover version of Nick Lowe's "Cruel to be Kind" at the movie characters' high school prom.

Towards the end of Letters to Cleo's career, she began performing with her husband and fellow Letters To Cleo member Michael Eisenstein outside of the band. Around the same time, she gave birth to their daughter, Zoe.

Starting her own solo career, Hanley started doing music for the cartoon Generation O. She also provided the singing voice for Rachael Leigh Cook's character Josie in the movie Josie and the Pussycats. In 2002, she released her first solo album, Cherry Marmalade. That same year, the appeared on the Dropkick Murphys/Face to Face split cd, providing guest vocals on the original version of the Dropkick Murphys song "The Dirty Glass". She also performed the song "Follow Me" for the video game Sonic Heroes in 2003. In 2004 she released a follow up to Cherry Marmalade, The Babydoll EP. She is very involved with the Boston based charity "Hot Stove, Cool Music." She is currently in the Los Angeles-based girl band, the Dilettantes, with New York native Michelle Lewis. In 2004, she and her husband Michael Eisenstein had their second child, Henry Aaron, the name given in honor of baseball player Hank Aaron and their love for baseball.

In August 2005, Hanley announced on her website's message board that she would be recording a cover of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" for the soundtrack of the Reese Witherspoon film Just Like Heaven In September 2005, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as part of a pretaped man-on-the-street segment, singing a song about falling in love at Starbucks.

Hanley is said to release her second solo LP sometime in 2006. The album, called Bundles Of Justice, will contain highlights from the BabyDoll EP and two songs that can currently be heard in demo form on her MySpace page ("It Hurts" and "Video").

[edit] Discography

Year	Title	Label
2001	Josie and the Pussycats (soundtrack)	Sony
2002	Cherry Marmalade	Zoe Records
2003	The Paradise - Boston, MA 5/30/03 (LIVE)	Instant Live Rec.
2004	The Babydoll EP	Phantom
2004	The Paradise - Boston, MA 8/26/04 (LIVE)	Instant Live Rec.
2005	Just Like Heaven (soundtrack)	Sony
2006	Kay Hanley / Scamper split single CD	De Guerre/Scamper