Monday March 14, 2022 “Badge” Fanny
March is Women’s History month and we would be remiss if we didn’t celebrate Women’s Musical History but let's look a little deeper than the ‘usual suspects’.
Let’s start with Fanny, a band that if I decided to start a fan club would be among my initial choices. They were one of the first all girl rock groups , Fanny was David Bowie’s favorite band, they were just darned talented musicians and singers and should have been superstars. This was not a prefabricated group like the Monkees, these ladies could sing, play and rip it up with the best of them.
Today’s song, “Badge” was written by George Harrison and the original hit was Eric Clapton’s when he was a part of Cream but after you have heard Fanny’s version I suspect you will wonder why theirs didn’t get the radio airplay and attention that it deserved.
Fanny was formed in California originally under the name Wild Honey, teaming singer/guitarist June Millington, her bassist sister Jean, keyboardist Nickey Barclay, and drummer Alice de Buhr who does some very credible drum work on today’s song.
Fanny's self-titled debut LP appeared in 1970, earning some small radio airplay for its cover of today’s song "Badge." The title track from their 1971 follow-up album, Charity Ball, would be the group's first Billboard chart hit, which enjoyed greater commercial success within the UK than in the US. The band toured in support of Jethro Tull and Humble Pie but Fanny was banned from performing at the London Palladium on the grounds they were "too sexy."
Stay safe and well…and weirdly Fanny were session players on Barbra Streisand's self-titled 1971 album but I should point out that there are no studio musicians playing on today’s song, “Badge”, it’s all Fanny.