Singer, songwriter, from Detroit. Singer of soulful duets with the stars over the years. The poor man's Annie Lennox? I don't know. She's just as good, if not better. YMMV, of course.

But there's some uncool roots. She was a backup singer, with fellow Detroit future-legend Bob Seger, for instance; after a move to Tulsa, Eric Clapton discovered her and her bandmates (including Eric alumnus Carl Radle from Derek and the Dominoes), and hired them. This was that dull period of Clapton's J.J. Cale-mania - "Cocaine" and all that other laid-back crap. Levy co-wrote "Lay Down Sally" and several other tunes. She also sang lead during parts of Clapton concerts.

She embarked on a solo career, first with other people's music; there was a track, duetting with Robin Gibb, on the soundtrack of Times Square, and a version of Darby Slick's "Somebody to Love", for Ralph Bakshi's American Pop. Then her own songs, while also working, successfully, as a session singer and Hollywood pop songwriter.

And then she was gone.

At some point she became "Marcella Detroit", named after Marcella, her 1982 LP (which was also the name of the Tulsa band) - "Marcella" may be Levy's real first name, for all I know. She shows up on MTV, co-leading Shakespears Sister, with Siobhan Fahey Stewart from Bananarama, an oil and water mixture of one who Can Sing and One Who Can't. But it was cool anyway - at least I didn't have to endure a Clapton snooze-a-thon to hear her.

One-time cornerer of the black mascara market once dominated by Siouxsie Sioux.


The "Marcella complex of nodes" is Under Construction.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.