You may know them as 'the black chicks in Prince's band', says Priya Elan. But Wendy & Lisa have a secret B-movie past, provide the spooky music to Heroes and may yet write I Kissed a Girl: The Musical
WEN-DEEEEE!" chant Pharrell and Madonna before Wendy Melvoin's funky breakdown kicks in on She's Not Me, the standout track from Madge's recent album. It's an echo of Prince's call for "Little girl Wendy's parade!" as she riffed into action more than 20 years earlier on His Royal Purpleness's anthem Kiss. From inspiring Prince to make the best music of his career to scoring the TV series Heroes, Wendy and her musical (and former life) partner Lisa Coleman have been darting about the pop culture zeitgeist for three decades. Not that anyone would know.
"For most people, we're the black chicks in lingerie who were in Prince's band," quips a very white Lisa, at Henson Recording Studios in LA. Between 1981 and 1986 Wendy & Lisa were key members of his band the Revolution and helped create some of his greatest work (including Purple Rain and Sign O' The Times). While they will be forever etched in people's minds complaining about the thermostat on Purple Rain (the infamous "Is the water warm enough?" intro from Computer Blue), theirs is a secret history that takes in the Beach Boys, Linda Blair and Trevor Horn.
Right now, the duo are currently holed up in the studio for an intense session scoring another week's episode of Heroes.
"Wendy and I score in real time," the softly spoken Lisa says. "We write and record at the same time - we have 30-35 minutes of music to do each episode."
The duo have a lot of creative freedom thanks to their personal relationship with Heroes executive producer Allan Arkush.
"We hit it off immediately," says Wendy. "We were in his office and we were looking at the pictures on his wall. There was a picture of Alan with my brother (Jonathan) who had passed away. It turned out Alan had directed the film Get Crazy which Jonathan was in. It felt like it was meant to be."
Wendy's brother, who was touring keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins, died in 1996 from a heroin overdose. Keen-eyed readers of sleevenotes will have observed that Jonathan also played on Prince's album Around The World In A Day along with assorted members of the Melvoin and Coleman clan. Most famously, Wendy's twin sister Susannah was engaged to Prince in the mid-80s and, it is alleged, he wrote Nothing Compares 2 U during one of their many break-ups.
The two families grew up in each other's pockets because Wendy's father Mike Melvoin and Lisa's dad Gary Coleman (no, not that one) were firm friends from the days of being LA session musicians in the 60s and 70s for the likes of Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand and Marvin Gaye.
Lisa's first foray into music started young. One band, Waldorf Salad, consisted of a pre-teen Lisa, her sister Cole and brothers David and Jonathan. "They had a single, Look At The Children. Ai-yi-yi! So cheeseball," balks Wendy.
Despite being deemed "too young" to join Waldorf Salad, Wendy and twin sister Susannah had their own ideas about their musical careers. "We decided we wanted to be the Doublemint Twins. In the US they had an ad campaign for the gum where they would only hire twins," explains Wendy. "So we went to New York to try and get hired but they thought we were too bohemian, not middle America enough."
Meanwhile, Lisa continued her teen forays into stardom, with a notable appearance in Sarah T - Portrait Of A Teenage Alcoholic, a movie starring The Exorcist's Linda Blair making the difficult transition from child star to...something else. "It was B-movie heaven," laughs Lisa.
A few years later, Lisa joined Prince's band. He was looking for a replacement for Gayle Chapman, who'd left after deciding that a nightly routine of simulating fellatio during Head clashed with her religious beliefs.
"I didn't know what he expected when I joined," Lisa admits. "Prince was so separate from the band." Being one of "Prince's ladies" she soon realised that her stage costume should consist of lingerie and makeup.
"Prince would get on my case for not dressing right - at home wearing jeans was cool but in Minneapolis it was like 'farm time'."
By the time she'd sorted out her clothes, Lisa's effete musical tastes had affected Prince's musical melting pot, too. Not only had he written a song for her (the unreleased Lisa), he was taking inspiration from her life. "I bought this vintage pink Mercury at a car auction," she remembers. "It was so bitching-looking that Prince used to borrow it and dent it, which I'd make him feel bad about. He slept in it one time and came up with Little Red Corvette... even though it was a pink Mercury."
Meanwhile Wendy had sung on the track Free (on the album 1999) "as a test" but that's as far it went; he didn't even know she could play guitar. All that changed when the extended Melvoin-Coleman clan went out to Manhattan to spend Christmas with Lisa, on the last leg of the 1999 tour.
"Wendy freeformed on an acoustic and Prince was blown away," says Lisa. "Even Joni Mitchell heard her play some chords once and asked, 'What tuning was that? It was really beautiful.' Wendy's playing has the ability to do that." The next day, Prince's normal guitarist Dez Dickerson didn't show up for rehearsals and Wendy ended up soundchecking for him. "Then the 'Funky Little Wendy' side of her came out and it was just over," says Lisa. "Prince began a love affair with her playing."
Soon after, she joined Prince's band for $300 a week. By the time of the Purple Rain phenomenon Wendy and Lisa were playing pivotal roles. "I liked the fact that in the film we were separate to his craziness... which we were," Wendy admits. "But at the end of the film where he plays 'our' song Purple Rain - we didn't have that kind of glory in real life."
By the time of Parade they had formed a powerful musical and emotional trio, pushing Prince's music into a whole new realm of genius. "The three of us started quite a love affair," admits Lisa. "We travelled together, we'd spend a lot of time together in Nice while he was shooting Under The Cherry Moon. He trusted us."
Perhaps this growing closeness to the famously private Prince was one of the reasons that he disbanded the Revolution at the height of their powers. Despite guest appearances on Prince's recent albums and a "reunion" of sorts at the Brits in 2006, their relationship is complicated.
"The three of us really had a special relationship and it's unbreakable," says Lisa. "I really love him. He's like a brother to me. We did things that only happen in your dreams, they were some of the best times of my life. He's such a talented person, so creative."
However, Wendy remains sanguine. The duo performed at The Family Jamm!, a charity concert in 2003 which saw performances from a reunited Revolution and other Prince acolytes like Shelia E, The Family, Apollonia and Chaka Khan. There was one notable absentee, however.
"Everybody from the Purple Rain tour was there, something like 365 people, including the truck and bus drivers," Wendy says with a mix of sadness, disbelief and anger. "Prince was the only one that didn't show up. And it's just a bummer that he has to make that kind of line in the sand. He doesn't realise that he's missing out on a tremendous amount of good feeling. He sold himself short and I reserve the right to think he was entirely wrong for doing it."
Wendy and Lisa released three solo albums in the late-80s and early-90s. They were critical successes but their label, Virgin, didn't know what to do with them. "I think we were a bit too intellectual for them," says Wendy. An abortive album with perfectionist producer Trevor Horn followed ("During the playback, he'd fall asleep on the console. It was not a good sign").
Their forthcoming album White Flags Of Winter Chimneys was recorded when Heroes was on hiatus during the Hollywood writers' strike. Wendy describes it as "their best work" and the atmospheric Balloon and Beatlesy Invisible suggest an epicness only hinted at previously. There's also a supergroup album with ?uestlove from the Roots and Erykah Badu, a song they've written for the new Family album and a possible musical. "Our friend Jill Sobule did the original version of I Kissed A Girl and we've done a piss-take version in answer to Katy Perry," says Lisa. "We might do a whole musical together."
Prince may have disappeared from the scene but it's good to know that Wendy and Lisa are continuing his good work.
WEN-DEEEEE!" chant Pharrell and Madonna before Wendy Melvoin's funky breakdown kicks in on She's Not Me, the standout track from Madge's recent album. It's an echo of Prince's call for "Little girl Wendy's parade!" as she riffed into action more than 20 years earlier on His Royal Purpleness's anthem Kiss. From inspiring Prince to make the best music of his career to scoring the TV series Heroes, Wendy and her musical (and former life) partner Lisa Coleman have been darting about the pop culture zeitgeist for three decades. Not that anyone would know.
"For most people, we're the black chicks in lingerie who were in Prince's band," quips a very white Lisa, at Henson Recording Studios in LA. Between 1981 and 1986 Wendy & Lisa were key members of his band the Revolution and helped create some of his greatest work (including Purple Rain and Sign O' The Times). While they will be forever etched in people's minds complaining about the thermostat on Purple Rain (the infamous "Is the water warm enough?" intro from Computer Blue), theirs is a secret history that takes in the Beach Boys, Linda Blair and Trevor Horn.
Right now, the duo are currently holed up in the studio for an intense session scoring another week's episode of Heroes.
"Wendy and I score in real time," the softly spoken Lisa says. "We write and record at the same time - we have 30-35 minutes of music to do each episode."
The duo have a lot of creative freedom thanks to their personal relationship with Heroes executive producer Allan Arkush.
"We hit it off immediately," says Wendy. "We were in his office and we were looking at the pictures on his wall. There was a picture of Alan with my brother (Jonathan) who had passed away. It turned out Alan had directed the film Get Crazy which Jonathan was in. It felt like it was meant to be."
Wendy's brother, who was touring keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins, died in 1996 from a heroin overdose. Keen-eyed readers of sleevenotes will have observed that Jonathan also played on Prince's album Around The World In A Day along with assorted members of the Melvoin and Coleman clan. Most famously, Wendy's twin sister Susannah was engaged to Prince in the mid-80s and, it is alleged, he wrote Nothing Compares 2 U during one of their many break-ups.
The two families grew up in each other's pockets because Wendy's father Mike Melvoin and Lisa's dad Gary Coleman (no, not that one) were firm friends from the days of being LA session musicians in the 60s and 70s for the likes of Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand and Marvin Gaye.
Lisa's first foray into music started young. One band, Waldorf Salad, consisted of a pre-teen Lisa, her sister Cole and brothers David and Jonathan. "They had a single, Look At The Children. Ai-yi-yi! So cheeseball," balks Wendy.
Despite being deemed "too young" to join Waldorf Salad, Wendy and twin sister Susannah had their own ideas about their musical careers. "We decided we wanted to be the Doublemint Twins. In the US they had an ad campaign for the gum where they would only hire twins," explains Wendy. "So we went to New York to try and get hired but they thought we were too bohemian, not middle America enough."
Meanwhile, Lisa continued her teen forays into stardom, with a notable appearance in Sarah T - Portrait Of A Teenage Alcoholic, a movie starring The Exorcist's Linda Blair making the difficult transition from child star to...something else. "It was B-movie heaven," laughs Lisa.
A few years later, Lisa joined Prince's band. He was looking for a replacement for Gayle Chapman, who'd left after deciding that a nightly routine of simulating fellatio during Head clashed with her religious beliefs.
"I didn't know what he expected when I joined," Lisa admits. "Prince was so separate from the band." Being one of "Prince's ladies" she soon realised that her stage costume should consist of lingerie and makeup.
"Prince would get on my case for not dressing right - at home wearing jeans was cool but in Minneapolis it was like 'farm time'."
By the time she'd sorted out her clothes, Lisa's effete musical tastes had affected Prince's musical melting pot, too. Not only had he written a song for her (the unreleased Lisa), he was taking inspiration from her life. "I bought this vintage pink Mercury at a car auction," she remembers. "It was so bitching-looking that Prince used to borrow it and dent it, which I'd make him feel bad about. He slept in it one time and came up with Little Red Corvette... even though it was a pink Mercury."
Meanwhile Wendy had sung on the track Free (on the album 1999) "as a test" but that's as far it went; he didn't even know she could play guitar. All that changed when the extended Melvoin-Coleman clan went out to Manhattan to spend Christmas with Lisa, on the last leg of the 1999 tour.
"Wendy freeformed on an acoustic and Prince was blown away," says Lisa. "Even Joni Mitchell heard her play some chords once and asked, 'What tuning was that? It was really beautiful.' Wendy's playing has the ability to do that." The next day, Prince's normal guitarist Dez Dickerson didn't show up for rehearsals and Wendy ended up soundchecking for him. "Then the 'Funky Little Wendy' side of her came out and it was just over," says Lisa. "Prince began a love affair with her playing."
Soon after, she joined Prince's band for $300 a week. By the time of the Purple Rain phenomenon Wendy and Lisa were playing pivotal roles. "I liked the fact that in the film we were separate to his craziness... which we were," Wendy admits. "But at the end of the film where he plays 'our' song Purple Rain - we didn't have that kind of glory in real life."
By the time of Parade they had formed a powerful musical and emotional trio, pushing Prince's music into a whole new realm of genius. "The three of us started quite a love affair," admits Lisa. "We travelled together, we'd spend a lot of time together in Nice while he was shooting Under The Cherry Moon. He trusted us."
Perhaps this growing closeness to the famously private Prince was one of the reasons that he disbanded the Revolution at the height of their powers. Despite guest appearances on Prince's recent albums and a "reunion" of sorts at the Brits in 2006, their relationship is complicated.
"The three of us really had a special relationship and it's unbreakable," says Lisa. "I really love him. He's like a brother to me. We did things that only happen in your dreams, they were some of the best times of my life. He's such a talented person, so creative."
However, Wendy remains sanguine. The duo performed at The Family Jamm!, a charity concert in 2003 which saw performances from a reunited Revolution and other Prince acolytes like Shelia E, The Family, Apollonia and Chaka Khan. There was one notable absentee, however.
"Everybody from the Purple Rain tour was there, something like 365 people, including the truck and bus drivers," Wendy says with a mix of sadness, disbelief and anger. "Prince was the only one that didn't show up. And it's just a bummer that he has to make that kind of line in the sand. He doesn't realise that he's missing out on a tremendous amount of good feeling. He sold himself short and I reserve the right to think he was entirely wrong for doing it."
Wendy and Lisa released three solo albums in the late-80s and early-90s. They were critical successes but their label, Virgin, didn't know what to do with them. "I think we were a bit too intellectual for them," says Wendy. An abortive album with perfectionist producer Trevor Horn followed ("During the playback, he'd fall asleep on the console. It was not a good sign").
Their forthcoming album White Flags Of Winter Chimneys was recorded when Heroes was on hiatus during the Hollywood writers' strike. Wendy describes it as "their best work" and the atmospheric Balloon and Beatlesy Invisible suggest an epicness only hinted at previously. There's also a supergroup album with ?uestlove from the Roots and Erykah Badu, a song they've written for the new Family album and a possible musical. "Our friend Jill Sobule did the original version of I Kissed A Girl and we've done a piss-take version in answer to Katy Perry," says Lisa. "We might do a whole musical together."
Prince may have disappeared from the scene but it's good to know that Wendy and Lisa are continuing his good work.
