Why Was Rachel Sweet Such A Failure

Here she is with a remake of Peter and Gordon's song "I Go To Pieces"

And for the gays, here she is with Rex Smith in tight pants singing "Everlasting Love" with some changed lyrics

Here she is with a promo of her Comedy Channel promo "The Sweet Life," which you can see strongly resembles what a YouTuber would do today

I first heard of her when she was doing The Sweet Life and found her appealing.

Rachel's song "Wildwood Saloon" is one of my all-time favorites.

I remember seeing her name as a producer on "Hot in Cleveland" and thinking, "Surely there are not two Rachel Sweets." Of course, it's the same.

I applaud her for taking whichever path her talents would lead.

Rachel and Helen Schneider both recorded versions of "Shadows of the Night" before Pat Benatar.

^^^ "Wildwood Saloon" also has one of my favorite lyrics: "Flies in my whisky, he says his name's Mike."

Oh, and by the way, I don't think Rachel Sweet was a failure at all.

Overall Rachel was not a failure but she was a failure as a singer and she should NOT have been.

I can easily see Voo Doo being a hit for Sheena Easton or Olivia Newton-John or even the new wave Go-Go's.

She has a lot of talent more in line with Tanya Tucker than Britney Spears.

Listening to her talk you can be sure Cyndi Lauper stole all her mannerisms from her.

At least she has critical acclaim for her singing and she achieved quite a bit outside of music.

I think trying to "sex her up," as they did with Brooke Shields, which is nothing now but was scandalous then, ultimately hurt her. She was just a teen at the time.

[quote]Here she is with a remake of Peter and Gordon's song "I Go To Pieces"

She did a lot of covers and this is a great one. Her cover of B-A-B-Y is also great.

Love her trashy jailbait pout and sound combined with a great voice.

It's said that the minister in the "Everlasting Love" video is Pete Buttigieg's father, though I don't know it's true.

r10

They do bear a strong resemblance don't they?

Never heard of her and I can see why. Her singing in nothing special. Her voice has no richness or bottom end based on what was posted on here. There's no emotion. Good for her she that she was to find other work.

I love her an I’m surprised the DL even recognizes her. This place thinks musicians are failures if they do not have constant #1’s. We all know that is false.

My fave tracks by her are

Voo Doo

Paralyzed

Shadows of the Night

Hairspray

I saw her live in the early 80s...she was incredible. She really should have gone farther in her musical career. She was young then too...just 18...and she had already been around for years. Signing with Columbia is what did her in...they tried to commercialize her. Protect the Innocent was one of my favorite albums in the early 80s. Everyone I knew who heard it, went out and bought it.

[quote]and was the opening act for Bill Cosby in Las Vegas.

Lord, I hope there was no such thing as Children’s Methaqualone at the time.

Her version of "I Go To Pieces" is wonderful.

I never got the Britney Spears comparison. Unless you're simply looking for two young singers.

They still fail. Sweet had a lot of talent, but no music success and Britney had marginal singing talent but a lot of music success.

Um, Briney's songs were better.

Ugh. I remember the musical elites who complained that there was no richness or bottom end to Rachel Sweet’s vocals. Moon Unit Zappa bemoaned her contemporaries who weren’t schooled enough to keep a bubble in your throat and to project from one’s diaphragm. Britney is not worth the skid marks in Stacy Q’s underpants.

R19 is tone deaf.

"Hairspray" is one of the best movie soundtrack songs of the '80s and it's better than any song in the musical adaptation. I was sure they were going to try to sneak in Sweet's version because it's just so damn catchy.

I'm happy for her second-wind success but she'll always be the girl who sang the title song for Hairspray.

Hey some people make it big, and some people don't. She was kind of plump and plain; no sex symbol. Maybe that hurt her chances. I for one never thought she was anything special musically.

Her 70's albums for Stiff are excellent - an eclectic mix of new wave, country and retro pop, with some great versions of songs like the Velvet Underground's New Age. I also like her Stiff bandmate Lene Lovich though musically they were very different.

Part of the problem was her height...shes really short...under 5 ft.

This was a year before Benatar's cover:

She dubbed Amy Locanes singing in Cry Baby

I wouldn't call her a failure. She was more successful than 90 percent of aspiring singers who we never hear of. She had her moment in the sun. As for why she never became huge it's an impossible question. There are a million factors when it comes to enduring fame. I suspect much of it is luck. I am absolutely baffled as to Britney Spears and Taylor Swift's ongoing status. But for whatever reason some people just manage to stay in the public eye.

[quote] Part of the problem was her height...shes really short...under 5 ft.

I'm not sure why that would have been that much of a problem. Pat Benatar is really short too, just five feet tall I think. She also had no tits and no ass. And pop eyes and tombstone teeth. Yet somehow she was considered a sex symbol. Go figure.

No, shes really short...like 4'6 or 4'9...I cant remember which, but shes tiny...you can see it in her videos.

She seemed stuck in the 70s. 1982 was the year everything changed: British invasion; electronic music. She couldn't ride the New Wave.

Wikipedia says she bought one of Madonna’s houses, eventually selling it for $4.9 million. Why can’t I be a failure like that?

She should have starred in a Brenda Lee biopic.

Does anyone know if she sang "Shadows of the Night?" Let's just clarify that in this thread. And link to the video!

r33...see r25

R33, you do understand that incredibly irritating posters (like you) are blocked by many people here?

No one ever sees their content so it gets re-posted.

I like and stan her but not sure what era or genre she would fit in during her prime. The affiliation with Stiff gave her novelty status and lumped her in with Lene Lovich and others. She did graduate Columbia and has a successful TV producer career so second acts definitely happen.

She was in Gypsy with Bette Midler also.

She was one of a whole slew of young female singers in the late 70's/early 80's that the critics creamed their jeans over and touted as the Next Big Thing: Louise Goffin (Carole King's daughter), Cindy Bullens, Genya Ravan, Ellen Foley, and Karla DeVito (the future Mrs. Robbie Benson) were some of the others. All fell way short of the great things that were predicted for them

Critics and labels seemed to sense that the world needed a new type of female pop star, and these women all seemed to fit the bill in one way or another, but at the end of the day there just wasn't any "there" there.

In that era, critical raves usually didn't translate to radio airplay, which was starting to become more and more tightly controlled. And without radio airplay back then, you were dead in the water.

Because she didn't have "it."

[quote] Wikipedia says she bought one of Madonna’s houses, eventually selling it for $4.9 million. Why can’t I be a failure like that?

That was a long time ago. I assume she didn't pay that much for the house initially and sold it at a profit, no doubt the fact that Madonna once lived in it added to its value. I suppose she made a decent living in the entertainment industry for a time. But she never really hit it big. I doubt that she's ever starved but she never achieved a great deal of success. I remember a review Rolling Stone did of one of her performances, when it was thought she was going to be this big deal. During the performance she went into the audience and started "casually signing autographs." Yech! My guess is that the autograph seekers were probably paid by her publicist.

Is she the one who sang Shadows of the Night? I’m starting to think so.

In 1989, she appeared in a largely forgotten, low budget picture entitled "Sing". Patti LaBelle, Lorraine Bracco, Peter Dobson, and Mary Hartman herself also starred. Sweet performed a campy talent show number called "Life Ain't Worth Living When You're Dead".

She had a "look" but Im unimpressed with her vocals. I detest that goat wobble in anyones voice. I still dont know how Shakira is so huge.

Akron's answer to Kirsty MacColl.

[quote]In 1989, she appeared in a largely forgotten, low budget picture entitled "Sing". Patti LaBelle, Lorraine Bracco, Peter Dobson, and Mary Hartman herself also starred. Sweet performed a campy talent show number called "Life Ain't Worth Living When You're Dead".

"Sing" wasn't a low budget movie, it was a major release from Tri-Star. It is however considered a lost film and never been on DVD. Rachel didn't even make the soundtrack album.

Rachel wrote a lot of her last two (post Stiff) albums. I like her Spectoresque "Party Girl."

r45 is right. I remember there was TONS of promotion for Sing, for both the movie and soundtrack. But it was a huge flop. It really has become a lost film but they really tried to make it a hit like Flashdance and Footloose.

“🎼 You wanted me to write you a letter, here it is, it's left down river on the boat. As if these things I feel around me could reach you, but they never will. You’re much too remote…🎼

She wasn’t a big star because her songs were only so-so as someone upthread said. At least one person I knew had a couple of her albums in the 70’s. That’s how I heard of her.

Who sang it better? Rachel?

Someone youtubed "Sing"

Or Ellen?

Whoever styled her for the Hairspray video did her dirty. The mumsy hair and ghostly make up did nothing for her. She was only about 28 at the time.

She sang the theme song to Clarissa Explains It All. One of the most annoyingly catchy themes that stayed in my head rent free years after it went off the air.

Put blonde hair on her and she does seem like Britney. Pete Buttigieg’s father I can see Pete in him.

[Quote] Signing with Columbia is what did her in...they tried to commercialize her.

I don't know about that. She co-wrote and co-produced much of her last album.

Streetheart, streetheart.

Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Baby Let's Play House, with added leather queen.

I loves Rachel Sweet

Looking very '90s in 2011.