Genya Ravan’s two new wave classics ‘Urban Desire’ (1978) and ‘…And I Mean It’ (1978) are coming back on vinyl and CD.
Genya was born in Poland in 1940 and emigrated to the USA in 1947 with her parents and sister. They were the only members of her family to survive the Nazi holocaust.
Genya started her music career in 1962 in Brooklyn, forming Goldie and the Gingerbreads in 1963 and getting signed by Ahmet Ertegun to ATCO Records.
In 1965 she had a Top 40 UK hit with ‘Can’t You Hear My Heart Beat’.
‘Urban Desire’ in 1978 reached number 66 in Australia.
Urban Desire, on black vinyl, red vinyl and CD, plus …And I Mean It, on black vinyl, pink vinyl and CD, display a rare pedigree of rock’n’roll smarts from New Wave, Soul, and Blues to Pop and Classic Rock’n’Roll. No one ever covered The Supremes(“Back In My Arms Again”) or John Cale (“Darling I Need You”) like this! Genya’sduet with Lou Reed (“Aye Co’lorado”) contains everything from piano wildness to punk bravado. Her duet with Ian Hunter (“Junkman”) is a match made in honky-tonk heaven (complete with Mick Ronson on lead guitar). The version of Marvin Gaye’s 1962 “Stubborn Kinda Fellow”—renamed “Stubborn Kinda Girl”—has to be ranked up amongst the greatest Gaye covers ever.
Genya was also a record producer working on ‘Young Loud and Snotty’ for The Dead Boys and ‘Siren’ for Ronnie Spector.
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