Voice of unreleased 1970 soul demo from Blue Valentine soundtrack is 62-year-old Nannie Sharpe from Virginia
The mysterious singer of You and Me, the sleeper hit from 2010 film Blue Valentine, has been discovered in Virginia, four decades after she recorded the demo as Penny and the Quarters. "It's been 40 years since I've heard it," said Nannie Sharpe. "I'm shocked and elated."
You and Me plays an integral part in Blue Valentine, soundtracking the onscreen relationship of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams with electric guitar and lo-fi soul. But the film-makers scarcely knew anything about it; they got the track from Numero Group, a Chicago reissue label that found it on cassette at a yard sale.
That tape, from the estate of studio owner Clem Price in Columbus, Ohio, had a cryptic note in pencil: You and Me was recorded by "Penny and the Quarters". But who were the Quarters? Who was Penny?...
The mysterious singer of You and Me, the sleeper hit from 2010 film Blue Valentine, has been discovered in Virginia, four decades after she recorded the demo as Penny and the Quarters. "It's been 40 years since I've heard it," said Nannie Sharpe. "I'm shocked and elated."
You and Me plays an integral part in Blue Valentine, soundtracking the onscreen relationship of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams with electric guitar and lo-fi soul. But the film-makers scarcely knew anything about it; they got the track from Numero Group, a Chicago reissue label that found it on cassette at a yard sale.
That tape, from the estate of studio owner Clem Price in Columbus, Ohio, had a cryptic note in pencil: You and Me was recorded by "Penny and the Quarters". But who were the Quarters? Who was Penny?...
- 7/18/2011
- by Sean Michaels
- The Guardian - Film News
The strange tale of how an unreleased 1970 demo by a band nobody knows became a sleeper hit
The second the song starts in Blue Valentine – Ryan Gosling singing along in the motel room – you feel you know it. A crude, strummed guitar, rich harmonies, a heartbreaking high voice (a girl? A young boy?) just the right side of off-key. Sweet and soaring, it summons up 1950s finger-clicking kids on sun-baked street corners. In the film, it's Dean and Cindy's song. However bad things get, that tune brings back the good times, the innocent times. It would for anyone.
A check of the film's credits tells you the song is You and Me by Penny and the Quarters. A Google search reveals it's actually an unreleased 1970 demo and that no one even knows who Penny or the Quarters are, so the royalties from Blue Valentine are just piling up.
Which leads...
The second the song starts in Blue Valentine – Ryan Gosling singing along in the motel room – you feel you know it. A crude, strummed guitar, rich harmonies, a heartbreaking high voice (a girl? A young boy?) just the right side of off-key. Sweet and soaring, it summons up 1950s finger-clicking kids on sun-baked street corners. In the film, it's Dean and Cindy's song. However bad things get, that tune brings back the good times, the innocent times. It would for anyone.
A check of the film's credits tells you the song is You and Me by Penny and the Quarters. A Google search reveals it's actually an unreleased 1970 demo and that no one even knows who Penny or the Quarters are, so the royalties from Blue Valentine are just piling up.
Which leads...
- 6/16/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
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