Tuesday July 19, 2022 “Two Faces Have I” Lou Christie
Falsetto king Lou Christie will give us our number two for this week’s rock & roll by the numbers with his top ten song “Two Faces Have I”...that’s a lot of numbers for one sentence.
Christie was 15 years old when he met his songwriting partner Twyla Herbert, described as a "bohemian gypsy, psychic, and former concert pianist." More than 20 years older than he was, she was a self-described clairvoyant and mystic who allegedly predicted which of their songs would become hits.
Christie said of Herbert, "I never worked with anyone else who was that talented, that original, that exciting. She was just bizarre, and I was twice as bizarre as her." The pair co-wrote the great majority of Christie's hits, including "The Gypsy Cried", "Two Faces Have I", "Rhapsody in the Rain" and most famously, "Lightnin' Strikes", a song originally banned and then later covered by many other artists.
There’s an unsubstantiated rumor that “Two Faces Have I” was the inspiration behind Bruce Springsteen's "Two Faces", which is featured on his 1987 album Tunnel of Love…could be. "Two Faces Have I" is also one of the very first songs we heard on US radio that had a reggae beat, long before Bob Marley.
Stay safe and well…and there may be some value about having two faces…one to laugh and one to cry.