The Belle Stars
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The Belle Stars |
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The Belle Stars were an all female British rock band, founded in London in 1980 by former members of the 2 Tone ska revival band, The Bodysnatchers.
After the Bodysnatchers broke up, guitarists Stella Barker and Sarah-Jane Owen, saxophonist Miranda Joyce, keyboardist Penny Leyton, and drummer Judy Parsons decided to form a new band, recruiting bass player Lesley Shone and lead vocalist Jennie McKeown. Their first performance was on Christmas Day, 1980, before they had chosen a name.
Within a short time, the group became well known around London, notably appearing on the front cover of Sounds magazine early in 1981. Shortly thereafter, they were signed by Stiff Records, then highly successful due to its star act, Madness.
The band's debut single, "Haiawatha"/"Big Blonde" was released in the late spring of 1981, produced by Madness producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley. The band promoted the single by playing support for ska acts The Beat and Madness. However, the single failed to chart, despite continuing media attention.
The same production team was responsible for "Slick Trick"/"Take Another Look", the second single. It too failed to chart. Keyboard player Penny Leyton left the band late in the year, to be replaced on saxophone and keyboards by Clare Hirst. Leyton later joined The Deltones.
When the 3rd single, the radio friendly "Another Latin Love Song" again failed to break into the charts, the band tried cover versions instead, with some success. "Iko Iko", a cover of The Dixie Cups' 1965 hit (later featured in the 1988 movie Rain Man), was The Belle Stars' long-hoped-for UK Singles Chart debut, peaking at a modest number 35 in June of 1982. The Belle Stars repeated this with "The Clapping Song", a remake of the 1965 Shirley Ellis hit, and then "Mockingbird", a hit for Inez and Charlie Foxx in 1969 and James Taylor and Carly Simon in 1974.
In January 1983 the Belle Stars released what would be their signature single, "Sign Of The Times", peaking at number three, and a chart success throughout Europe. The song's music video, showing the Belle Stars in tuxedos, was also played frequently by MTV in the United States.
It was followed a month later by the band's eponymous debut
album, which reached number 15 on the UK
Albums Chart. As with the band's singles, it was a mix of original
songs and cover versions, including Bob and Earl's "Harlem
Shuffle" (covered 3 years later by the Rolling
Stones on
However, "Sign Of The Times" proved to be the peak of the band's success. Each follow-up single was less successful than its predecessor: "Sweet Memory", reached number 22 in the charts in April 1983; "Indian Summer" number 52 in August; whilst "The Entertainer" did not chart. It took another year before the band had a minor hit, "80's Romance", which made number 71 in August 1984 before it dropped out after a week. Despite this, the band continued to tour throughout Europe. However, the lack of success took its toll, and McKeown left the band, followed by others, until the band was down to Owen, Joyce, and Shone.
By 1984, Stiff Records was ailing, and it merged with Island
Records; in July 1985 it was liquidated and bought by ZTT, the label owned by
the husband and wife team of producer Trevor
Horn and Jill Sinclair. Under Horn's supervision, the three
remaining members recorded a new Belle Stars album with the
However, in 1989, the Belle Stars finally had a big U.S. chart hit, when "Iko Iko" reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 100 in March, after it was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The song had been a favourite of Hoffman's.
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