The Roches

They did a catchy cover of Laura Nyro's Wedding Bell Blues on a tribute album.

Thank you, Mr. Sellack! I never heard this. I love it. Thanks!!

^^ It was several years too late, but this is the version of the song they should have used on "thirtysomething" when Ellyn was preparing to get married. Oh well....

Here's a link of a performance from their peak era:

Sorry Suzzy, but after watching the soundstage video above and listening to that song again... It's not a winner. Time to cut bait and let that one go. You have so many charming songs. That is not one of them.

Just to put a bug in someone's ear.... Terri and Suzzy should get Mary Kay Place to sing Maggie's parts. And maybe go on tour? She'd be great.

Hammond Song!

OP: The Roches were niche: folksy/a capella, quirky sister harmonies, story songs. They got a big PR push but it didn't make them, nor were they ever going to be, Top 10 pop stars.

Comparing The Roches to "weirdos" B-52s, a loud, rocking, zany, party band with a colorful, fun, wig aesthetic, does not make sense. "Rock Lobster" vs "The Married Men"?

Try harder.

[quote]No one danced to The Roches ever.

No one who liked the Roches gave one single fuck, not even one, over whether we danced to them.

Albums I bought by the Roches: 4

Albums I bought by the B-52s: 0

I just use a Roches Motel, gets rid of them right away.

I hate 🪳

Francis Ruth Roche married The Earl Spencer and was mother of Princess Diana. Was she one of these Roches?

I’m a huge fan. Saw them only once in concert, at town hall. I’m very sad I’ll never see them again because of Maggie’s death.

I was a SoCal college art major, late 70s/early 80s. I remember all of the Roches press hype and had bought their album at a yard sale, but only ever liked the first song. A year or so passes and I'm at a life drawing class where a classmate had brought a boombox, and about ten minutes in, on came The Roches. I looked across at her and thought "This isn't going to go well. At least I'm not sitting that close so no one will mistake it for my music."

And sure enough, a little more time passes and someone said "Who IS that?' or '"Can you turn that down?" etc. and it was such an awkward moment I still remember it all these years later. iirc, she clicked off her boombox, put all of her charcoal pencils back in her ArtBin, secured her Academie drawing pad with a big silver clip and walked out of class with her head bowed in shame. When you're an early 20s art major, your ego is paper thin.

Perhaps if they didn't scatter whenever someone turned a light on...

At the time they released their debut album, the critics praised it as if it were the second coming. I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't, except for "The Married Men," which would be a killer song no matter who performed it. Their second album, "Keep on Doing," received little attention by comparison, but it's a much, much better album. A whole lot of songs there I played right down to the grooves.

One song from "Keep on Doing" that strikes me as especially interesting years later is, "Steady with the Maestro." Besides having a haunting melody and clever lyrics, it could have been a theme song for the Elaine Benes character from Seinfeld. Remember when she dated "the Maestro"? I always thought there was a place for an Elaine montage set to this song.

Well, are they descended from the Barons Fermoy or not?

I

LOVED

THE ROCHES!

On the road to Fairfax County, I spied a highway man…

I was living in NYC when Crossing Delancey was released, having just moved there as a teenager. The director used the Roches' cover of Come Softly to Me from Another World to open the film, and Suzzy Roche had a supporting role in the film. Though I had heard of the band, I had never heard any of their music before this and I loved what I heard, so I went out and bought that album. A year later (1989) The Roches put out a new album and toured behind it. They did a few nights at The Bottom Line so I decided to go see them.

Believe me when I tell you that if you haven't seen/heard The Roches live, you have not heard The Roches. They are one of the few acts who cannot possibly be captured to their full talents on record. Not that their recordings were bad, it's that they were so much better live. It's hard to describe what it was, exactly, and that sort of thing is very rare. But they were magical. I becme an instant Roches freak.

Thankfully, The Bottom Line was their second home and they played there a LOT. They would do regular gigs, and every year for a while, they would do a Roches and Friends Christmas show, which would feature everyone from Loudon Wainwright III to Patty Smyth from Scandal. Every time I went to see them, I would drag someone new, and I was usually able to convert them.

In 1990, they did a Christmas album, We Three Kings, that really needs to be better known. Gorgeous material, both new and classic, and a fantastic old Jewish ladies rendition of Winter Wonderland.

I think the last time I saw them perform was at Town Hall in the mid-90s. They stopped coming around to The Bottom Line and then you didn't really hear about them anymore.

I was actually in touch with Suzzy and Terre on a business matter a few months back (I don't know them and never met them prior to that) and I had not known Maggie had died until right before I communicated with them. They are content to be retired and while they are happy they still have fans, they aren't necessarily looking to do much outside of a local show now and then in upstate NY.

I will always treasure my times getting to see them perform live. It was one of the things that made living in NYC back then so special.

I also think of Elaine when I hear "STEADY WITH THE MAESTRO."

I can't stop singing and listening to The Roches—the first album, that is. I played it over and over again in 1979 and 1980. The last few nights, I've found myself singing the "steam table" song while doing the dishes, thanks mainly to this thread. Thanks, OP.

I really like this song. The Roches are great musicians. But the message of all their songs (men are assholes) was never going to sell a lot of records.

[quote]Believe me when I tell you that if you haven't seen/heard The Roches live, you have not heard The Roches.

I saw them at The Bottom Line many times, r19. Many other places, including Carnegie Hall, which was a perfect venue for them. Occasionally. a man would appear far upstage of them and play guitar. The sisters only took notice of him once. Suzzy said "Who was that guy?"

Robert Fripp.

Here's The Train.

Been listening to The Roches when I water the garden at dusk, There is NO ONE like them Such a unique and comforting sound. WOW. Their harmonies are magical.

Theyd have been superstars in 1965. Cant get on board with their sound,I did try though. I loathed folk music shit in the 60s and I loathe it today.

Spotify put Hammond Song in my Discover Weekly a few years back - beautiful song, and I had never heard of it before.

thanks OP / i hope this thread pulls in new fans. it all came together performing live ...... as stated above.

I liked the Roches but I LOVED the B52s. NO FUCKING COMPARISON. OP is a sad sack tool. The Roches were way ahead of their time in that they now seem similar to the most maudlin styles of PODCASTING, somehow.

this link has the albums / tracks in sequence