Patty Smyth

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the lead singer of the band Scandal. For the 1970s punk singer, see Patti Smith. For the album, see Patty Smyth (album).

Patty Smyth
Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Background information
Birth namePatricia Smyth
Born (1957-06-26) June 26, 1957 (age 66)
New York City, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
Years active1981–present
Labels
Websitepattysmythandscandal.com

Patricia Smyth (born June 26, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She first came into national attention with the rock band

Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song
.

Musical career

With Scandal

Main article: Scandal (American band)

After growing up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Gerritsen Beach, Smyth joined Scandal as lead vocalist in 1981. The band released a self-titled debut EP the next year. Featuring the song "Goodbye to You," it went on to become Columbia Records' biggest selling EP. In 1984, they put out their follow-up, Warrior. Buoyed by MTV airplay, the album peaked at No. 17 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and the first song off the release, also titled "The Warrior," was a Top 10 hit. However, despite their success, internal strife within the band led to their break-up soon afterward.

Solo career

Following the end of Scandal, Smyth was invited by her friend Eddie Van Halen to join the band Van Halen to replace David Lee Roth as lead singer. However, she declined the offer, because she was eight months pregnant and "It was just not the right time for me," she says now. "I was a New Yorker, I didn't want to live in L.A. ... and those guys were drunk and fighting all the time". In a 2023 interview on "Steve O's Wild Ride",[1] Sammy Hagar stated that Eddie Van Halen and Patti Smyth were having a sexual relationship at the time. She guest-appeared on the Hooters 1985 album Nervous Night on the song "Where Do the Children Go" as an accompanying vocalist.

Smyth released her first solo album,

gold for sales of 500,000. The album, also certified gold, featured an additional US Top 40 hit with "No Mistakes" and also spawned the minor hit "I Should Be Laughing." Smyth 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 subsequently co-wrote the 1994 song "Look What Love Has Done," nominated for a

theme tune, "Wish I Were You," to the 1998 feature film Armageddon. (Her husband, John McEnroe, claimed in his autobiography[3] 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 own feelings about the music industry were much more ambivalent.) In 1999, Smyth sang lead vocals on "Ode To Billie Joe," a cover of the 1967 Bobbie Gentry
hit, on the album Smokin' Section by Tom Scott & The L.A. Express.

In 2015, to promote the release of her Christmas album called Come On December, she crowd-funded a campaign to support the Headstrong Project with all the money raised on the pre-orders of her album going to the non-profit.[4] The album featured the single "Broken," and the music video for the single was released just before Veterans Day, and was filmed on the grounds of a Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter. The album was released on November 20, 2015.[5]

Reunion with Scandal

In 2004, VH1 recruited Smyth and the surviving members of Scandal for a Bands Reunited episode, resulting in a small reunion tour of concerts on the East Coast of the United States in 2005. The next year, Columbia/Legacy released a new Scandal compilation CD as part of the We Are the '80s series. The 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". In July 2008, Billboard reported the upcoming release of new music by the band[6] (featuring original members Keith Mack and Benjy King). They debuted their first single as a band ("Hard for You to Love Me," also referred to as "Make It Hard") in over 24 years on January 17, 2009 in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Personal life

Smyth in 2008

Smyth was married to musician Richard Hell in 1985–86; they had a daughter, Ruby. She met tennis player John McEnroe in 1993; their daughter Anna was born in 1995, and the couple married in 1997. They have since had another daughter, Ava.[7]

Smyth and McEnroe live in a duplex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.[8]

Discography

Albums

Year Album Peak chart positions
US
[9] 		AUS
[10]
1987 Never Enough 66 —
1992 Patty Smyth 47 94
1998 Greatest Hits – Featuring Scandal — —
2015 Come On December[11] — —
2020 It's About Time[12] — —
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart.

Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions Album
US
[2]
US Main
[2]
US AC
[2]
 AUS
[13] 		CAN
 CAN AC
UK
[14]
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 5 1 2 22 Patty Smyth
"No Mistakes" (uncredited harmony vocal by Don Henley) 33 — 4 — — — —
1993 "I Should Be Laughing" 86 — — — — — —
"Shine" — — — — — — —
1994 "Look What Love Has Done" 106 — 23 — — — — Non-album single
2015 "Broken" — — — — — — — Come On December
2020 "Drive" — — — — — — — It's About Time
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

References

  1. ^ Sammy Hagar is SHOCKINGLY Wealthy (And Generous) - Steve-O's Wild Ride #155, retrieved July 16, 2023
  2. ^ a b c d "Patty Smyth - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 21, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  3. ISBN 978-0-425-19008-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  4. ^ "Patty Smyth Come On December on PledgeMusic". Pledge Music. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  5. ^ "Patty Smyth Releases 'Broken,' New Song, for Veteran's Day". People. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  6. ^ "Patty Smyth, Scandal to Reunite, Record". Billboard. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
  7. ^ "Patty Smyth and John McEnroe Still Rockin'". People. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  8. ^ Myers, Marc (February 14, 2017). "John McEnroe: From Homes in Queens to a Central Park Duplex". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  9. ^ "Patty Smyth Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  10. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 258.
  11. ^ FOX (December 15, 2015). "Patty Smyth returns to performing with 'Come On December' - Story | WNYW". Fox5ny.com. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  12. ^ Brodsky, Rachel (July 23, 2020). "Patty Smyth On Turning Down Van Halen, Getting Patti Smith's Mail, And Releasing Her First New Music In 28 Years". Stereogum. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  13. ^ "Patty Smyth with Don Henley – Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough". australian-charts.com. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  14. ISBN 1-904994-10-5
    .

External links

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