Patty Smyth (born June 26,
1957, New
York
) is an American
rock and roll musician. She first enjoyed mainstream
success in 1982 as lead
singer of the
band Scandal. That band's self-titled
debut release became
Columbia
Records' biggest selling
EP.
Her last name is pronounced to avoid confusion with
punk rocker Patti
Smith.
Personal life
In the mid 1980s, Smyth became friends with
Valerie Bertinelli and her then husband,
Eddie Van Halen. When
David Lee Roth left the band
Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen invited Smyth to
replace Roth as the band's lead singer. Smyth declined the
offer.
Smyth dated
punk musician Richard Hell
for two years; their daughter, Ruby, was born in 1985. In April
1997, Smyth married former
tennis star
John McEnroe. They presently live in
New York City and have six children between them (three from his
previous marriage to
Tatum O'Neal,
Ruby, and two together: daughters Anna and Ava).
Solo career
Following two solo albums in 1987 and 1992, she secured a further
hit
record via a
duet with
Don Henley
of
The Eagles; "
Sometimes Love Just Ain't
Enough" peaked at number 2 in the
Billboard Hot 100, and went
gold. Its parent album,
Patty Smyth, also went gold and featured an additional
Top 40 hit with "No Mistakes", as well as "I
Should Be Laughing", a minor hit. She had previously recorded with
Henley as a
backing singer on several
songs on his albums
Building The Perfect Beast
and
The End of the
Innocence. Smyth guest-appeared on
The Hooters 1985 album
Nervous Night on the song "Where Do the
Children Go" as an accompanying vocalist. Her solo hit "Never
Enough" (from the 1987 album by the same name) was also co-written
with members of
The Hooters.
She subsequently co-wrote the 1994 song "Look What Love Has Done",
nominated for a
Grammy and an
Academy Award after its inclusion in the
soundtrack to the
feature film Junior. Further soundtrack commissions
resulted in her penning the
theme tune,
"Wish I Were You", to the 1998 feature film
Armageddon. (Smyth's husband,
John McEnroe, claims in his
autobiography that she was inspired to write the song by his own
attempt at a musical career: she was struck by his excitement at
playing music, when her feelings about the music industry were far
more ambivalent.)
As a result of her renewed popularity, Columbia issued a
retrospective album,
Greatest Hits - Featuring Scandal.
Two new songs were released on the anthology, including "Carnival
Lights". The song, co-written with Bob Thiele Jr., concerned her
mother Betty Smyth's years as a
trapeze
artist. Smyth set out to promote the album on an acoustic tour,
employing ex-Bullet Lavolta
guitarist Duke
Roth as her
sideman.
In 2004,
VH1 recruited the surviving members of
Scandal for a
Bands Reunited episode
resulting in a small reunion tour in 2005. In 2006, Columbia/Legacy
released a new Scandal
compilation
CD as part of the
We Are The 80's
series. The new compilation contained three unreleased tracks
from the 1982 recording sessions ("Grow So Wise", "If You Love Me",
"I'm Here Tonight") as well as "All My Life", previously available
on the
flip side of "Goodbye To
You", perennially one of her more popular songs.
Discography
Albums
- Never Enough (1987) #66 U.S.
- Patty Smyth (1992) #47 U.S.
- Greatest Hits – Featuring Scandal (1998)
Singles
| Year |
Single |
Peak chart positions |
Album |
| US |
US
Main |
US
AC |
UK |
| 1987 |
"Never Enough" |
61 |
4 |
— |
— |
Never Enough |
| "Downtown
Train" |
95 |
40 |
— |
— |
| "Isn't It Enough" |
— |
26 |
— |
— |
| 1992 |
"Sometimes Love Just Ain't
Enough" (with Don
Henley) |
2 |
— |
1 |
22 |
Patty Smyth |
| "No Mistakes" |
33 |
— |
4 |
— |
| 1993 |
"I Should Be Laughing" |
86 |
— |
— |
— |
| "Shine" |
— |
— |
— |
— |
| 1994 |
"Look What Love Has Done" |
106 |
— |
23 |
— |
Non-album song |
| "—" denotes releases that
did not chart |
|
References
- Stuck in the '80s | tampabay.com: Archives
- McEnroe, J., & Kaplan, J. (2003). You Cannot Be
Serious, Berkley Trade, ISBN 978-0425190081
External links
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