Sandy Denny
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Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (January 6 1947–April 21 1978) was a British folk-rock vocalist, born in Wimbledon, London, England.
As a child she studied classical piano. She left school before taking A-levels and started to train as a nurse at Brompton Chest Hospital. In 1965 she enrolled at Kingston School of Art, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. It was there that she met fellow students John Renbourn and Eric Clapton. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of The Strawbs heard her. In 1967 Sandy Denny was invited to join the band and recorded one album in Denmark with them, including the earliest version of her best-known song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes". In 1968 she became lead vocalist for Fairport Convention replacing Judy Dyble. She left them in 1969 just before the release of "Liege and Lief", in order to run her own band, Fotheringay, including her boyfriend, Australian born Trevor Lucas. The band broke up after one album and she then recorded solo albums, with several members of Fairport Convention guesting on them. In 1973 she married Trevor, and returned to Fairport for a world tour and another album "Rising for the Moon" containing several of her own compositions.
During her solo period she appeared on Lou Reitzner's version of The Who's rock opera "Tommy". Sandy was voted 'Female singer of the year' by Melody Maker in 1970 and 1971. She recorded a one-off project called "The Bunch", a collection of rock standards. She died of a Cerebral haemorrhage in 1978 after falling down a flight of stairs. After her death Trevor returned to Australia with their daughter Georgia. He died in 1989 of heart failure.
Her song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," has been often covered by other artists.
There is a biography "Sandy Denny: No More Sad Refrains" by Clinton Heylin.
Discography
- The Original Sandy Denny (1967)
- Sandy Denny and the Strawbs
- Fairport Convention: What We Did on Our Holidays
- Fairport Convention: Heyday
- Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief
- Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking
- Fotheringay: Fotheringay
- The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
- The Bunch: Rock On
- Sandy
- Like an Old Fashioned Waltz
- Fairport Convention: Rising for the Moon
- Rendezvous
- Gold Dust--Live at the Royalty
- A Boxful of Treasures, a boxed set of rare recordings released in 2004
She also appears on:
- "The Battle of Evermore" on Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album, where she sings a duet with Robert Plant;
- several live Fairport Convention albums;
- several Fairport Convention compilations. Notably, The History of Fairport Convention contains several recordings that were released as solo works or with bands other than Fairport Convention; and
- several compilations and re-releases of her original albums
External links
- Sandy Denny memorial page (http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/sandy.denny/)
- Sandy Denny en castellano (http://club.telepolis.com/sandydenny/)de:Sandy Denny