Nick Awde writes: New York-based singer-songwriter Denise Marsa hit fame as the other half of the duet on Dean Friedman’s 70s hit ‘Lucky Stars’. As her new solo show The Pass premieres at London’s Playground Theatre, she reveals that there’s a lot more behind the silky voice who so famously asked the immortal words “Did you see Lisa?”
What was the spark to put together the vignettes and songs in The Pass that relate to your life as a singer and songwriter?
After not performing for a while, I decided to book a few performances in the States. Some of our libraries here put on these really nice intimate Sunday concerts, and some also function as museums with a special room for art or exhibits – some even have pianos.
One was a library-museum in Springfield, New Jersey. It was such a lovely environment that I suddenly decided to make the show a Q&A. After each song, people asked about me and the song and said what they thought, what they felt, just off the cuff, and they really enjoyed it.
That was 2014, and when I tried it again in 2016, I began to think maybe it would be an interesting concept for me to tell longer stories as well as sing my songs. It would give people an idea of my background, what it’s like to be a songwriter, what it’s like to be in the music business and a woman, to share something of my journeys.
The result being The Pass, a fully-fledged work which, lucky for us, you’ve chosen to premiere in the UK.
Well, one good reason is Eileen Sherman, a wonderful woman who does a lot of theatre in New York. She sat with me when I first started thinking about this in 2015. I said: “I don’t know, is there something here? Something’s saying ‘do this’.” And Eileen said: “Absolutely. And in fact, why don’t you premiere it London where you’re more well known?”
I hadn’t even started the show but she’d already planted the seed. I thought it wasn’t a bad idea because my biggest claim to fame in the UK is still ‘Lucky Stars’, certainly my first success. So it made sense to me… maybe! Even though I’d never taken my own show to the UK before.
Like Dean Friedman, you’re from New Jersey. It’s good to see artists like you who make us aware that songwriters don’t have to be raised in the heart of Manhattan to have that East Coast credibility, that New Jersey is also a hotbed of musical talent in every genre.
That’s a wonderful thing to say about New Jersey. You have no idea how happy New Jerseyans will be to hear that, because we get so much crap – excuse my French! – simply because we’re from New Jersey. I don’t know where it started, but over the bridge, over the water, New Jersey, as opposed to New York, has always been considered as a second-class citizen. But of course look at the amazing musicians from there. If there’s the show Jersey Boys, well I say Jersey Girls should be a show too because there’s nothing like a Jersey girl, and I’m an example!
So when did you get the music bug?
Right from when I was a little girl. There’s a scene in The Pass about me as a child in my acting class. I was a natural performer, I did summer stock, performed at high school, I had a band, won the talent show two years in a row.
As for songwriting, well I remember falling in love with ‘Walk On By’ by Dionne Warwick. I just had to hear that song. I used to pretend I was sick – I’d put the thermometer by the heater just so I could stay home and listen to the song. Burt Bacharach, Hal David, amazing songwriters – that was the first pop song that really made me say ”I want to do that!” And I’d sit at my mother’s wooden vanity and pretend I was playing piano. Then I decided to teach myself piano. So it was just in me.
Before and after ‘Lucky Stars’ you’ve always been a singer-songwriter. Has there been a specific style that you’ve pursued or have you followed the trends?
Of course, I can be influenced by trends and the sounds of the times, but as far as writing goes it’s always the song itself. I always listened to Laura Nyro growing up, I love Gino Vanelli. As for my biggest influence, that’s Kate Bush because she’s so unique. When I first heard her, the universe opened up.
I’ve always loved the artists that were unique unto themselves, and so my goal was always to write songs that don’t sound like anything else. And, if something starts to sound like something else, I’m going to move to a different place with it.
I do like to mix genres, create an eclectic mix of sounds, feel and vibe, but it’s really about the song. I’m very lyric-oriented. It’s the lyrics, it’s the whole feel, it’s the melody, it’s where the song takes you. For example, I really admire Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom, an amazing album. When I was in London, I got the opportunity to meet his producer Geoff Emerick – he also worked with the Beatles.
Is there a particular favourite song in the new show?
I wrote ‘Steady’ while I was in London. If I’ve ever had one song that everyone had said: “This is a hit. This is a hit. This is a hit,” it’s ‘Steady’. I’ve recorded it three or four times now. It’s a really special song with a special lyric, and it still remains peoples’ favourite.
And again there’s the London connection. I recorded ‘Steady’ there and I had the pleasure of working with [top UK producer/engineer] Greg Walsh on the track. He did a really big production with it.
Funny enough, when I released my album in 2013, I worked with a co-producer doing the basic tracks in Santa Fe in New Mexico. He sent the album to the New Mexico Music Awards – the criteria was some of the people that worked on it had to be from New Mexico. ‘Steady’ won Best Song, Best Adult Contemporary Song and Best Producer. It’s a song that I always thought had legs and obviously, I’m very proud of it.
I’ve also been producing for years. I produced my first demo and I was lucky that my first manager was the top engineer at Columbia Records, at CBS. That’s actually how I met Dean.
Dean was doing some remixing, and I was going for an audition at the studio where my manager-to-be was the engineer. Dean heard me perform, and then he ran into me on the street and that’s how I became part of ‘Lucky Stars’. Apparently, he wrote the song with me in mind.
In The Pass you look at the specific challenges faced by you as a woman making it in the music business, but you’re actually offering insights for just about anyone who’s determined to get on in life.
When I first got started, people gave me a lot of warnings about the music business. When I first got started, some labels would only sign one female artist every three or four years. Things are certainly better now.
So yeah, it’s an amazing journey, and in the end you do what you do, because that’s part of it. One of the show’s taglines is: “When giving up is not an option.” I’ve always believed in myself and what I do. Doing the show in London is going to be an interesting experience because I hope that this platform is a good way for me to say “Hey, these are my songs,” because you do want them to be heard.
Were Broadway and Brill Building songs influential for you?
They were, and that’s why I feel I have a very eclectic sound. I remember when I was first getting started, there were people who said: “Wow, that sounds a little bit like a Stephen Sondheim song.” I was also singing when I was a little girl, Baby June from Gypsy. So the first performance I did was a show tune. My family, especially my dad, also loved Ella Fitzgerald, so she was playing in the background.
On your website (denisemarsatheartist.wordpress.com), if anyone signs up for your email list, they can download your solo album Self and Live Forever.
Sure, I’m giving them away! I like people to know about what I’m doing, and I want people to hear the music. It’s bizarre because I only manufactured a small amount of Self but they’re still selling new copies – for a lot of money. I released that record in 1997, and I only pressed a certain amount, a very small amount, and I’m surprised. I don’t want to spend my energy chasing down it all, but people are selling it new, and I don’t know how they’re getting it. That’s my record! And I don’t want people to go and have to buy it for so much money – I’ve seen it for £60. Really?! But that’s life, right?
Part of your coming back to performing was appearing live with Dean for ‘Lucky Stars’, wasn’t it?
This was when I was thinking about coming back to performing after something like a ten-year break. For the longest time, I hadn’t been performing. I had the Mother Band and performing in Los Angeles, but then I came back to New York where I got very involved with my company KeyMedia Music Group, helping other people with their goals and dreams.
I started missing performing, and so I went to one of Dean’s shows in New York and I sang there onstage. Then later when I was doing my second album, I didn’t really think it through or plan it but I just said: “You know what? Maybe I’ll go sing something with Dean, in London.” So there were two times in the years after the tour we did that I did sing with Dean onstage.
That was the UK tour was when ‘Lucky Stars’ was in the charts?
It was when the song hit. We started touring the UK in September 1978, and then it went into 1979. In fact, I later lived in London after I had my first publishing deal with Warner Bros Music. I lived in Camden Town from 1984 until 1989.
I do love London. When I was a little girl, I used to watch all those movies like Mary Poppins. I wanted to live in London and I then had the chance to. ‘Lucky Stars’ was a big part of me being able to do so. I’ll never forget flying into Heathrow where we had these gorgeous Daimler limousines waiting for us. I fell in love with London the minute I stepped outside from the airport. That scene when I get off the plane is in the show as well, because I had no idea the song was so big. I was a little bit cocky. I was like, “Yeah, it’s going to be a hit!”, but then it actually was a hit.
You lived in London during a period when the British musical was in the ascendancy and redefining people’s appreciation of music, crossing over into pop and rock.
It was an amazing time because it was the 80s: dance, The Cure, Elvis Costello. There was this amazing originality in the 80s coming through, and definitely musicals were taking on more of a rock, pop attitude. Things were shifting.
We have to end with the question everyone’s burning to ask (you’re allowed to say that we’ll have to find out) but do you sing ‘Lucky Stars’ in the show?
Well, you’ve kind of led me to the answer… you’ll have to find out!
* The Pass, written and performed by Denise Marsa, runs at the Playground Theatre, London from 27-29 September 2018
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