| Wendy & Lisa | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Girl Bros. |
| Origin | United States |
| Genres | Funk, pop, rock |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Labels | Columbia, SME Records, Virgin, EMI, World Domination |
| Associated acts | Prince |
| Website | www.wendyandlisa.com |
| Members | |
| Wendy Melvoin Lisa Coleman |
|
Wendy & Lisa (briefly known as Girl Bros.) are a music duo consisting of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. They began working with Prince in the early 1980s and were part of his band The Revolution, before branching out on their own and releasing their debut album in 1987. In recent years they have turned their attention to writing music for film and television and have won an Emmy Award.[1]
They have released five full-length albums, the most recent being White Flags of Winter Chimneys, released in December 2008.
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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]
The next year, the duo released an album simply entitled Wendy and Lisa with Columbia Records. They released a follow up album, Fruit at the Bottom in 1989. The albums and singles from them garnered minor chart success (including a Top 30 single in the UK).
In 1990, the duo signed with Virgin Records in the US (which was already their label in Europe) and released Eroica. However, this too met only minor chart success. In 1991, Virgin UK released the remix album 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; they also worked on an album with him as producer, but had a falling out and the project was shelved, leaving the master tapes in Horn's hands and acrimony between the parties involved. They have also done session work with Seal, K.d. lang, Joni Mitchell and Meshell Ndegeocello, and vocals on the soundtrack for Toys and their first scoring work, for Dangerous Minds. They have since raised their profile considerably in that arena, scoring the popular TV series Heroes for NBC and Nurse Jackie for Showtime.
They released a CD in 1998 named "Girl Bros", and White Flags of Winter Chimneys was released in December 2008. The title is taken from a line in the Joni Mitchell song "Hejira". In 2011 they released the "Snapshots (EP)" which is a 6-song collection of songs that were recorded over the last 20 years of their careers but were never released. Wendy & Lisa are not signed to a major label and have independently self-released all these records.
In 2010 they received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for their work on Nurse Jackie.[6] 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.
Melvoin and Coleman have made numerous contributions to television themes. They wrote theme music and background scores for TV-shows such as Crossing Jordan, Bionic Woman, Carnivàle, Heroes and Mercy, as well as Showtime's Nurse Jackie.
In 2001, they worked with Neil Finn on his second solo album, One Nil.[7]
They have also been featured on several film scores and soundtracks, including Something New, Hav Plenty, and Dangerous Minds. The film Toys, featured their song, "The Closing Of The Year", and most recently they have produced the full-length Heroes: Original Score, released in April 2009 and composed entirely of their full-length compositions for each of the show's characters.
Melvoin and Coleman collaborated with Grace Jones for her 2008 album Hurricane.[8]
The following songs, which appear on releases by Prince or associates, are registered with ASCAP as partial Wendy & Lisa compositions.