Fanny was an American rock band, active in the early to mid 1970s. They were one of the first all-female rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success, including two Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles.
The group was founded by sisters June and Jean Millington (on guitar and bass respectively), who had been playing music together since they moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s. After playing through several variations of the band, they attracted the interest of producer Richard Perry who signed them to Reprise Records in 1969 as Fanny. The band recorded four albums together before June quit the group, leading to the original line-up splitting. Following a final album, Fanny disbanded in 1975. The Millington sisters have continued to play music together since the split, and with a former drummer, Brie Howard-Darling, formed the spin-off group Fanny Walked the Earth in 2018.
The group attracted critical acclaim for rejecting typical girl group styles and expectations of women in the rock industry, instead emphasizing their musical skills. Later groups such as the Go-Go's, the Bangles, and the Runaways cited Fanny as a key influence.
Career
Sisters June and Jean Millington moved with their family from the Philippines to Sacramento, California, in 1961. They began to play music together on ukuleles, which helped them gain friends. In high school they formed an all-female band called the Svelts with June on guitar, Jean on bass, Addie Lee on guitar, and Brie Brandt on drums. Brandt left to get married and was later replaced by Alice de Buhr. Frustrated by a lack of success or respect in the male-dominated rock scene, Wild Honey decided to disband after one final open-mic appearance at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles in 1969. Warner Bros. installed the band in a rented mansion formerly owned by Hedy Lamarr, on Marmont Lane near Sunset Boulevard.
The band was then renamed Fanny, not with a sexual connotation but to denote a female spirit. Of it, June Millington stated: "We didn't know what Fanny meant in England, not at all. I wanted to have a name that had a girl's name in it, plus you know, Fanny Brice, your own Aunt Fanny, that was a legitimate woman and girl's name, and I loved the kind of straight-laced, formidable quality..." The initial lineup consisted of June on guitar, Jean on bass, de Buhr on drums, Barclay on keyboards, and Brandt on lead vocals and percussion. Perry dismissed Brandt because he wanted the group to be a self-contained four-piece band like the Beatles. The Millingtons and Barclay all assumed lead vocal duties on alternating songs, while de Buhr sang lead occasionally on later albums.
Perry produced the band's first three albums, beginning with Fanny in 1970. Because of the connection to Perry and Reprise Records, Barclay was invited to tour with Joe Cocker as a backing singer, and consequently appeared on the album Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The group's cover of Cream's "Badge" from the first album earned significant radio airplay. The follow-up album, Charity Ball, was released the following year and its title track reached number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. because Streisand had wanted to record with a small band. The group made several live television appearances during tours, including The Sonny and Cher Show, American Bandstand, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Beat-Club.
The group's third album, Fanny Hill (1972) featured the Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick in addition to Perry's production. It included covers of the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" (with a new verse) and Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar". The latter featured regular Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys, and was released as a single, reaching number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fellow Stones sideman Jim Price also played brass on the album. Rolling Stone wrote a rave review of the album, praising the group's musical skills and particularly June's ability to play both lead and rhythm guitar.
Their fourth album, Mothers Pride (1973), was produced by Todd Rundgren. Brandt left the band shortly after the album's completion when she married composer James Newton Howard, and was briefly replaced by Cam Davis. During this time, Fanny backed Keith Moon on his cover of their "Solid Gold" for his album Two Sides of the Moon. Another recording they did with Moon, "I Don't Suppose", was not released until a years later reissue of the album. Barclay quit the group at the end of 1974 to pursue other interests. Jean was married to Bowie's guitarist Earl Slick for a time and later became an herbalist. Nickey Barclay released a solo album titled Diamond in a Junkyard in 1976 then withdrew from the music industry. De Buhr later worked in marketing for several major record labels, and promoted the Go-Go's, who cited Fanny as an influence. She collaborated with Real Gone Music in a reissue program for the group's albums. Brie Brandt, later known as Brie Howard-Darling and currently as Brie Darling, had an active post-Fanny career, fronting the bands American Girls, which released one album in 1986, and Boxing Gandhis, which has released four albums since the mid-1990s. She has also acted in films such as 1982's Android and is the mother of Playboy Playmate Brandi Brandt. Quatro and Brandt both toured with Electric Light Orchestra and appeared on the album A New World Record in 1976.
In 2002, Rhino Records released the limited edition 4-CD box set First Time in a Long Time, which collected Fanny's first four studio albums along with live recordings, outtakes, and promotional items. A reunion concert featuring the Millington sisters and de Buhr (Barclay declined to appear for health reasons) was held at Berklee College of Music on April 20, 2007, The first four original Fanny albums are available on Real Gone records, with updated liner notes, pictures, and new mixes.
In 2016, Brie Howard joined a live performance by the Millington sisters. This inspired the formation of a new band called Fanny Walked the Earth. An album also titled Fanny Walked the Earth was released in March 2018. The album marks the first time June, Jean, and Brie all recorded at the same time in nearly 50 years.
Fanny were the subject of the documentary film Fanny: The Right to Rock, released in 2021 and directed by Bobbi Jo Hart. Fanny performed at Yerba Buena Gardens on May 20, 2023.
Musical style and legacy
Fanny was not the first all-female rock band to sign with a major label, coming after Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the Pleasure Seekers. However, the earlier groups released only singles, so Fanny were the first all-female ensemble to release a full-length album on a major label Fanny's music was influenced by the Beatles and the Funk Brothers, the loose studio musician collective on Motown records. Jean later said that Fanny had to have a strong live presence in order to overcome audience's perceptions that women could not play rock music well. June added, "We knew we had to prove we could play and deliver live. Otherwise, no one would believe it." Later all-female bands such as the Runaways and the Bangles cited Fanny as a key influence. June has been praised for her guitar skills, and was described by Guitar Player as the hottest female guitar player in the music industry. During her time in Fanny, she initially favored the Gibson ES-355 and Fender Twin Reverb amp, before acquiring a Gibson Les Paul Junior guitar and Traynor amplifiers. She used the Les Paul primarily for slide guitar playing. Jean's main instrument in Fanny was a 1963 Fender Precision Bass, which is still in her possession.
Little Feat bandleader Lowell George was a fan of Fanny and jammed with the group when they were in Los Angeles.
- Brie Howard – drums, vocals
- Lee Madeloni – bass, percussion
Discography
Studio albums
- Fanny (1970) <small>(No. 150)</small>
- Fanny Hill (1972) <small>(No. 135)</small>
- Fanny Walked the Earth (2018, as Fanny Walked the Earth)
Live albums
- Fanny Live (1998; recorded 1972)
- Live on Beat-Club '71-'72 (2024)
Compilation albums
- First Time in a Long Time – The Reprise Recordings (4-CD box set, 2002)
- The Reprise Years 1970-1973 (4-CD box set, 2024) (Substantially similar to the previous 4-CD collection but with some notable differences)
U.S. singles
- "Ladies' Choice" / "New Day" (1970)
- "Nowhere to Run" / "One Step at a Time" (1970)