• First-Ever Vinyl Reissue.  

  Mark Deming: The third time really was the charm for Fanny, the pioneering all-female rock band who were the first act of their kind to win a major-label record deal in 1970. While Fanny's second album, 1971's Charity Ball, was a solid and imaginative set whose title track became a minor hit single, their third album, 1972's Fanny Hill, truly caught them at the peak of their strength. Produced by Richard Perry at London's Abbey Road Studio, with Geoff Emerick as engineer (who worked on several of the Beatles' best recordings), Fanny Hill is the group's hardest-rocking set, full of June Millington's big, raunchy guitar figures facing off with Nickey Barclay's rollicking keyboards, the smart but muscular rhythm section of Alice de Buhr on drums and Jean Millington on bass, and the foursome's stellar harmonies. Fanny were more than capable of effectively turning down the tempo for quieter numbers like "You've Got a Home" and "Wonderful Feeling," but it's rockers like "Blind Alley" and their covers of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" (with Rolling Stones associate Bobby Keys on sax) and the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" where Fanny demonstrate they were one of the best and most underappreciated American rock bands of the '70s. Fanny Hill still stands out as this group's strongest and most exciting work. 

June and Jean Millington were from the Philippines and joined forces with Alice De Buhr and Nickey Barclay in Sacramento, the band originally called Wild Honey. They’d release five albums (with Patti Quattro joining for the last one when June would move to Isis) and then split in 1975. While the Quattro sisters and their Detroit band the Pleasure Seekers predate Fanny, few knew of them, and Fanny played a big part in inspiring female rockers, likely the rockers that rose in the second half of the 1970s, such as the Wilson sisters of Heart and the girls of the Runaways. In fact, many young girls growing up in the 1970s point out how this group inspired them to learn to play instruments and dedicate their lives to rock n roll. Fifty-one years ago, Fanny released this third album. Fifty years later, here’s the first-ever reissue. -- winch

Fanny had already stepped into some big shoes by being the first all-female rock band signed to a major label, but with the release of 1972’s Fanny Hill, they took things to a new level, recording at Abbey Road with producer Richard Perry and famed Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick (the album includes a Beatles homage with a cover of “Hey Bulldog”). And the result was Fanny’s most varied and ambitious album, sporting a beautiful mix of ballads and rockers and a mature, socially conscious lyrical approach. Pressed in milky clear vinyl complete with original album jacket art and lyric sheet…first time on LP since its original release and limited to 2000 copies!

Side One

1. Ain’t That Peculiar
2. Knock on My Door
3. Blind Alley
4. You’ve Got a Home
5. Wonderful Feeling
6. Borrowed Time

Side Two

1. Hey Bulldog
2. Think About the Children
3. Rock Bottom Blues
4. Sound and the Fury
5. The First Time