Singer, actress, and all-around iconoclast Marianne Faithfull died today at age 78. The news was shared by her family: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” a statement read. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
Born in 1946 in Hampstead, England, Faithfull’s music career started when she attended a Rolling Stones party in 1964 and was discovered by band manager Andrew Loog Oldham. That same year she released her debut single, “As Tears Go By,” which was written by Mick Jagger (who she dated in the late ’60s) and Keith Richards, and was a hit in the UK and the US. (The Rolling Stones would record their own version later.) She released her self-titled debut album along with a folk album, Come My Way, on the same day the next year. Both were hits, and she would also hit the charts “Come and Stay with Me,” “This Little Bird,” “Summer Nights,” and more.
Mick, Keith, and Marianne also co-wrote “Sister Morphine,” which Marianne released as a single in 1969 and then the Stones recorded for 1971’s Sticky Fingers. She paired her version with the Jagger-produced “Something Better,” which she also performed for the Stones’ 1968 concert film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.
At the same time, Marianne was also a successful actress, with roles in The Girl on a Motorcycle, Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising, and more. She survived a rough ’70s filled with addiction, anorexia and homelessness, and her 1979 comeback album Broken English is a highlight of her discography. She continued to make music and act through the 2010s and nearly died from Covid, but survived and released a spoken word album, She Walks in Beauty, in 2021, that featured musical accompaniment by Brian Eno, Warren Ellis, Nick Cave, and more.
Rest in peace, Marianne. You were one of a kind.
A documentary about Marianne is currently in the works by filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard that features new versions of her songs made by Thurston Moore, Courtney Love, My Bloody Valentine’s Deb Googe, and more.
The Rolling Stones paid tribute to Marianne, as did Metallica, who Marianne collaborated with on 1997’s “The Memory Remains.”