Childhood friends and Amicable Exes Wendy Melvoin (born January 26, 1964) and Lisa Coleman (born August 17, 1960), much like fellow Prince associate Sheila E., had musical families: Wendy's father Mike and Lisa's father Gary (not to be confused with Gary Coleman the actor) were highly in-demand session musicians, and Wendy's brother Jonathan also went on to become a musician and served as touring keyboardist for The Smashing Pumpkins... until he died of a heroin overdose.
Lisa was the first to join The Revolution as a keyboardist in 1980, replacing Gayle Chapman. Once guitarist Dez Dickerson left in 1983, Lisa pulled the I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine card and got Wendy into the band as a guitarist.
Wendy & Lisa (as they were always credited) were generally acknowledged by fans and critics as The Revolution's "secret weapon": their complex approach to melody and songwriting helped push Prince and the band to a whole different level musically, while their love of The Beatles was reflected in the Pop and Psychedelic Rock influences they added. Their backing vocals and contributions to Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade are held in very high regard. And their spoken introduction to "Computer Blue" has proven quite memorable, being referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000 and other places.
Unfortunately, their relationship with Prince during their tenure grew increasingly sour, both due to creative differences, and the latter seemingly going out of his way to find new ways to piss them off (up to and including not only bringing in Wendy's twin sister into the band, but dating her!). Prince's assholish behavior towards Wendy and Lisa in Purple Rain wasn't exactly acting. In fact, Prince's conflict with the two was one of the key intra-band conflicts that eventually led to Prince's disbanding of The Revolution in 1986.
In response, Wendy and Lisa recorded their first self-titled album in 1987. They co-produced the album with Revolution drummer Bobby Z, called up contributions from family members (namely Wendy's sister Susannah, Lisa's brother David and father Gary), played various instruments, wrote and sang all the songs. The result was a quirky, low-budget pop album filled with memorable melodies and possessing an overall ethereal character. The album received positive reviews, made a bit of headway in the USA and climbed up to a moderate position up in the UK.
For their follow-up album, Fruit at the Bottom, the two abandoned the low-key charms of their debut and tried to take a shot towards success, adding more synths and dance beats to their music. Unfortunately they came up short in the songwriting department, which was reflected in its sales: the USA pretty much ignored it completely, while the British again sent it up the charts. Prince did a remix of the track 'Lolly Lolly' for the single release which is the only instance of Prince contributing to Wendy & Lisa's solo work.
Wendy and Lisa next signed with Virgin Records and released a new album, Eroica, a much more eclectic alternative-rock oriented work that didn't sacrifice the group's trademark ethereal atmosphere or memorable melodies. It met with strong reviews and became their biggest success... in the UK, natch.
The two took some time off from their solo career and found a second job out of soundtracks - they've since contributed soundtracks and incidental music for various films and TV shows such as Toys, Dangerous Minds, Heroes, Bionic Woman, Crossing Jordan, Something New and Nurse Jackie, the last of which they won an Emmy for. They also took up work as session musicians, appearing either together or alone on albums by Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Michael Penn, Liz Phair, Seal, Madonna and k.d. lang.
They've also made two more albums since, the Tchad Blake-produced Girl Bros. in 1998 and the entirely self-released White Flags of Winter Chimneys in 2008 (the latter's online release being similar to the ones for Radiohead's In Rainbows and Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV).
Discography:
- Wendy and Lisa (1987)
- Fruit at the Bottom (1989)
- Eroica (1990)
- Girl Bros. (1998)
- White Flags of Winter Chimneys (2008)
Wendy and Lisa provide examples of:
- '80s Hair: They had this back in... well, the eighties. See for yourself.
- Amicable Exes: It was believed for a long time that they were just Heterosexual Life-Partners, and they were, in fact, childhood friends, but in a 2009 interview with Out magazine they revealed that they had a past romantic relationship with each other, and had been openly out since.
- Fading into the Next Song: On the self-titled debut, "Everything But You" and "Light".
- Grief Song: "Jonathan" deals with the death of Wendy's brother Jonathan after an overdose during a tour with The Smashing Pumpkins (the same incident resulted in Jimmy Chamberlain being fired from that band.) This topic was also explored in Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel", and Prince's own "The Love We Make" (judging by the hints left in the liner notes).
- Insistent Terminology: Their group name's either spelled "Wendy and Lisa" or "Wendy & Lisa". Nobody seems to agree on this, but the "&" seems to be the most widespread.
- Instrumentals: "White".
- In the Style of: Given away right in the title of "Salt and Cherries (MC5)".
- Lighter and Softer: Fruit at the Bottom, which was a more mainstream-sounding album than its predecessor.
- Lyrical Dissonance: A common criticism of Fruit at the Bottom is that the dance beats clash badly with the lyrics.
- The Minneapolis Sound: Contributed to its development as part of the Revolution, and even influenced the genre's gradual shift towards psychedelic rock, which fully materialized in Around the World in a Day and Parade.
- Pop-Star Composer: As mentioned above, they've scored multiple films and television series. Dangerous Minds was their very first film they scored.
- Rearrange the Song: "This Is the Life" was rearranged for the Dangerous Minds soundtrack.
- Something Blues: Played with a bit in the title "Blues Away".
