Lisa Stansfield

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Lisa Stansfield
Lisa Stansfield on the cover of her debut album Affection
Lisa Stansfield on the cover of her debut album Affection
Background information
Birth name Lisa Jane Stansfield
Born April 11, 1966 (age 40)
Origin Heywood, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Genre(s) Pop
Dance
Contemporary R&B
House
Soul
Occupation(s) Singer
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1989–present

Lisa Stansfield (born Lisa Jane Stansfield, 11 April 1966, in Heywood, Greater Manchester) is an English R&B/soul/house singer from Rochdale, Lancashire.

Contents

[edit] Early career and top ten success

After releasing several unsuccessful singles in her mid-teens (she also co-hosted a Children's TV pop show at this time, Razzmatazz with Alistair Pirrie), she became a major international star. Though her UK band Blue Zone saw modest success with the single "Jackie", she really came onto the radar with her guest vocal stint on Coldcut's record "People Hold On." She is probably best known for her first UK number one single, "All Around the World" (1989), which also peaked at #3 in the United States the following year. Other worldwide hits from her solo debut album Affection include "This is the Right Time" (featuring a house music-styled production by Coldcut with Mark Saunders), "Live Together", "What Did I Do To You" and "You Can't Deny It". Both "All Around the World" and "You Can't Deny It" hit No. 1 on Billboard's R&B chart. Affection went platinum in the U.S., and sold a total of five million copies worldwide.

In 1990, Stansfield was among a handful of high-profile artists to participate in the Red Hot + Blue charity disc (which honored Cole Porter's songwriting, and benefitted AIDS research, at a time when funding from government agencies was insufficient to those in need). She got to show her swing and jazz chops on the song "Down In the Depths", which was one of few traditional renditions to appear on the album. Thus began an illustrious and respected tradition of Stansfield offering jazz and torch songs to outside projects (most recently she sang "I've Got the World On a String" for the Mona Lisa Smile soundtrack). This is likely what got her noticed for consideration as the female lead in the independent film Swing (1999), where she was to sing the majority of the film's songs as well as act.

In 1992, Stansfield won a BRIT Award as best British female solo artist. Her second album Real Love did not quite live up to the success of Affection, despite selling very well. However, it did spawn four Top 40 singles on the European charts: "Change", "All Woman", "Time to Make You Mine" and "Set Your Loving Free". "Change" has since become one of her classic singles: it can be heard on radio and in supermarket playlists to this day. "All Woman" became Stansfield's third No. 1 single on Billboard's R&B chart, and due to the success of that song, the album went gold in the U.S. "All Woman" is "kitchen sink soul", full of pathos and emotion from a domestic female point of view.

[edit] European stardom

She continued recording disco-influenced soul throughout the 1990s. Her third album So Natural (1993) spawned three Top 40 European singles including the title track, "In All the Right Places," and "Little Bit of Heaven," but the album was never released in the U.S. She had continued success throughout Europe, but her popularity in America had diminished. Her self-titled fourth album Lisa Stansfield (1997) was a hit in Europe with two Top Ten singles - "People Hold On" (re-released as a dance mix by the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and "The Real Thing," and the Top 40 track "Never Never Gonna Give You Up" (a remake of Barry White's 1973 hit); upon being released in the U.S. the album did not receive much attention outside dance clubs where remixes were very successful. It charted modestly peaking at #30 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "Never Never Gonna Give You Up" was an eye-catcher featuring a nude Stansfield strolling a city street, acquiring a few items of clothing along the way. VH1 featured the clip and even gave it the "Pop-Up Video" treatment. Her 2001 album Face Up was less successful, barely charting and with a lack of publicity but featured the singles "Let's Just Call It Love" and "8-3-1" and found her experimenting with newer styles of R&B such as 2-step while continuing with her established sound. Stansfield's husband, Ian Devaney, delivered an arrangement for the ballad "How Could You", which displayed his love of Burt Bacharach's legacy. Only one single was officially released in the UK.

[edit] Changing labels

Following the release of Face Up, a greatest hits collection called Biography was released and sold well in the UK and Europe. Stansfield then parted ways with Arista/BMG (ending an eighteen year association with the label). Stansfield signed with ZTT Records for the United Kingdom, and her 2004 release The Moment was produced by Trevor Horn, well-known for his work with Seal, Grace Jones, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood among others. The album would be distributed in Europe by Edel. Featuring the singles "Treat Me Like A Woman" (released as a "double A side" with "Easier") and "If I Hadn't Got You" a song written by Chris Braide with ex-Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford. The album found her exploring more pop-oriented material, and focusing on lush ballads. Standfield's voice had matured in her time away, and she exhibited a previously unheard singing technique on a few of the tracks, while honouring songs from outside writers for the majority of the album's content.[citation needed]

Despite this, as with her previous release, the album was not a success. At the time of the project's release, ZTT was gearing large amounts of its resources into re-marketing its back catalogue, and producing the Trevor Horn concert for The Prince's Trust and its accompanying double CD, Produced By Trevor Horn. The release of "Treat Me Like a Woman" was delayed twice. The label eventually paired it with "Easier". While ZTT did erect a billboard to advertise the album in Stansfiled's home area of Greater Manchester, print advertising and "in store" displays were reportedly absent.[citation needed] With that, Stansfield's fanbase immediately took aim at ZTT for "shoddy promotion"(1), even before the album had noticeably failed to perform. Later that year ZTT dropped her from their label.

To the delight of fans, a DVD of Stansfield's Ronnie Scott's performance in 2003 was released in 2005.

(1) see forums and entry dates at Lisastansfield.info to support this.

[edit] Personal

  • In July 1998 she married trumpeteer Ian Devaney, whom she knew since her school days, and with whom she also collaborates (he is also a composer, arranger and producer).
  • Stansfield also has a dramatic career: she starred in the 1999 film Swing with actor Hugo Speer, recording covers of swing classics and a few original songs written in/inspired by the style for the soundtrack. She later appeared on a London stage in The Vagina Monologues.
  • Despite having the same name and coming from Rochdale, Lisa Stansfield is not closely related to the famous singer of the 1930s and 1940s, Gracie Fields (whose real name was Grace Stansfield). However, she does own a recording studio called 'Gracielands'.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • Affection (1989) U.S sales - Platinum, Worldwide sales - 5 million UK #2, US BBHot100 #9
  • Real Love (1991) U.S sales - Gold, Worldwide sales - 4 million UK #3, US BBHot100 #43
  • In Session (1992) Not an original studio album, but a collection of mostly "demo" material from Stansfield's early days (pre-Blue Zone). Thought to be assembled without her co-operation.
  • So Natural (1993) Worldwide sales - 2 million UK #6
  • Lisa Stansfield (1997) U.S sales - 250,000 - Gold, Worldwide sales - 3 million UK #2, US BBHot100 #55
  • The Remix Album (1998) ep/remix album
  • Swing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1999) U.S. Top Jazz Albums: #6
  • Face Up (2001) Worldwide sales - 300,000 UK #38
  • Biography (2003) Worldwide sales - 1 million UK #3
  • The Complete Collection (2003) Limited edition box set collects all five of Lisa's albums, remastered in digipaks
  • The Moment (2004) Worldwide sales - 50,000 European Top 100 Albums: # N/A
  • The Moment - Gold Edition (2006)

[edit] Singles

  • "People Hold On" (with Coldcut) (1989) UK #11
  • "This Is The Right Time" (1989) UK #13, U.S. #21, U.S. Dance #1
  • "All Around the World" (1989) UK #1, U.S. #3
  • "Do They Know It's Christmas" as part of Band Aid II (1989) UK #1
  • "Live Together" (1990) UK #10
  • "What Did I Do To You" (1990) UK #25
  • "You Can't Deny It" (1990) U.S. #14
  • "Change" (1991) UK #10, US #27, U.S. Dance #1
  • "All Woman" (1991) UK #20, U.S. #56, U.S. R&B #1
  • "Time To Make You Mine" (1992) UK #14
  • "Set Your Loving Free" (1992) UK #28
  • "Someday (I'm Coming Back)" (1992) UK #10
  • "Five Live EP" (with Queen and George Michael) (1993) UK #1
  • "In All the Right Places" (1993) UK #8
  • "So Natural" (1993) UK #15
  • "Little Bit of Heaven" (1993) UK #32
  • "Make It Right" (1994)
  • "People Hold On (Bootleg Mixes)" (with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) (1997) UK #4
  • "The Real Thing" (1997) UK #9, U.S. Dance #1
  • "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" (1997) UK #25, U.S. #74, U.S. Dance #1
  • "The Line" (1997) UK #64
  • "Let's Just Call It Love" (2001) UK #48
  • "8-3-1" (2001) UK # N/A
  • "Treat Me Like A Woman" / " Easier" (issued by ZTT as a "double A-side single") (2005) UK # N/A, U.S. # N/A
  • "If I Hadn't Got You" (2005)

[edit] Trivia

  • As well as Razzmatazz, Stansfield can be seen in 1983 children's television show "The Krankies Klub" alongside Jimmy Cricket and Rocky Sharpe and The Replays.
  • During the promotion for the "Never Never Gonna' Give You Up" single, Stansfield appeared on the RuPaul Show, but inexplicably, did not sing the song (or any others, for that matter).
  • In reference to her thick Rochdale accent and working-class background (and likely in tribute to all she had managed to accomplish) Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays) once said that Stansfield's family "makes mine look posh".

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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