Shakespears Sister

Band Name: Shakespears Sister

Song Title: Stay (2022 HD Remaster)

Shakespears Sister were an alternative[1] pop and rock musical duo that was formed in 1988 by Irish singer-songwriter Siobhan Fahey, a former member of Bananarama. Shakespears Sister was initially a solo act but became a duo by 1989, with the addition of American musician Marcella Detroit. Together they released two top-ten albums and a string of top-forty hits, including the 1992 single “Stay”, which remained at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for eight weeks.[2] Detroit was let go from the band in 1993, leaving Fahey as the sole member again, until the latter ended the project in 1996.[3] After working under her own name for some years, Fahey revived the Shakespears Sister moniker in 2009.[4] In 2019, Fahey and Detroit reunited as Shakespears Sister for a tour and released the singles “All the Queen’s Horses” and “When She Finds You”, and the EP Ride Again.[5]

History
1988–1990: Beginnings and Sacred Heart
Shakespears Sister was conceived as a solo project by Siobhan Fahey, a one-time punk turned chart-pop singer who had left the successful British/Irish girl-group Bananarama in 1988,[6] due to disillusionment with the group’s musical direction.[7][8] The name was adapted from the title of the song “Shakespeare’s Sister” by The Smiths, which was in turn a reference to Virginia Woolf’s work A Room of One’s Own.[9] According to Fahey, the misspelling began with an accidental punctuation slip on a woodcut sign (the missing apostrophe from Shakespeare’s). She decided to keep it because “It made it sort of my thing, as opposed to the song by The Smiths”.[10] Fahey has described the meaning of the name being “Siobhan Fahey is the mother, the sister, the daughter, it’s not the artist. The artist is Shakespears Sister.”[11]

Fahey began writing and recording work for the project with their record producer Richard Feldman.[6] Several other musicians were involved in the songwriting, one of whom was Feldman’s friend and colleague Marcy Levy, a veteran of live and studio work with Eric Clapton (with whom she had written “Lay Down Sally”),[6] Leon Russell and Bob Seger as well as a songwriter for artists including Jennifer Rush, Chaka Khan and Patty Weaver. An accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, harmonica and keyboards), Levy also made vocal and instrumental contributions to the sessions, staying on as a prominent ‘hired hand’. During this time, Fahey suggested that Levy — who had previously failed to get a couple of solo albums released – take on a new professional name in order to gain a new lease of artistic life. Levy agreed and restyled herself as Marcella Detroit, a name she has used throughout her time with Shakespears Sister and afterwards.

The debut Shakespears Sister single was “Break My Heart (You Really)/Heroine” (released as a double A-side in the UK and as two separate singles in the United States, although none of the releases charted successfully).[6] “Break My Heart” had been intended to differentiate Fahey’s solo artist persona from her past work with Bananarama. David A. Stewart (Fahey’s then-husband and a member of Eurythmics) had been impressed by the musical chemistry between Fahey and Detroit in the recording studio. Seeing potential benefit in turning Shakespears Sister from a solo project into a band, he suggested that Fahey and Detroit should unite as a duo. It was a suggestion that was backed by Feldman, Fahey’s management, and her record company, London Records.[3] Despite initial reluctance from both women (both of whom wished to retain their independence and avoid band commitments), Detroit was invited to become “a 50% member” towards the end of the recording sessions. She would later recall “by the time we did the last song on the first album, my role became more integral… I didn’t just want to be a background singer… It was Siobhan’s band, this was made perfectly clear. But I was cool with that – that’s the way it was.”[3][12]