Hi all! Due to life events, I will not be posting or reupping albums in the future. Some of the albums might be available on the Facebook group mentioned below. Thanks for understanding!

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Friday, November 12, 2010

The Rainbow Girls - Girl's Life (1990)

Keeping with the theme of early 90s pop/R&B girl groups that I began with Oscar, I offer you up the only album by The Rainbow Girls. This was another awesome gift from Adriana, and I know she would be thrilled to share it with you all. I have to confess, I have never heard of this group and can find absolutely nothing about them, other than that the lead singer, Anishja, is also known as Lisa McLean. She co-wrote almost all of the songs on the album, and if you ask me, this project was basically a showcase for her. Even the backing vocals sound like she did them all herself. It's debatable if the other girls, whose names remain a mystery, had anything to do with the recording. Likely 'Anishja' thought that her music would get more attention if it came from a girl group versus a solo artist. And at the time, as I mentioned with Oscar, girl groups of this type were popping up everywhere. Though they had the gimmick of being an all-white girl group singing R&B flavoured songs, it appears that they may have tried to hide this fact initially, as the album's cover image attests - the same sort of trick Madonna played at the beginning of her career, so as not to have the audience biased against her. Whatever the case, their first single "Make Your Move 4 Love" didn't go anywhere, so when they released the album's title track as their next single, they revealed themselves in the video. This didn't seem to generate much interest either. They were signed to minor label Quality Records, the same label as previous Isle postee Angelica, and likely the label didn't have the funds to give it a major push. It is a fun album, however, and reminds me a lot of previous Isle postee Ms. Adventures (one of that group's members, Amy Morriss, even co-wrote the track "It's Been Too Long"), but with a bit more soul. A couple of years later the all-white R&B girl group Good 2 Go mined similar territory to about equal success (and they will be featured here in the future, no worries. ;) If anyone has any more info on The Rainbow Girls, please hit me up and fill us all in, won't you?

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous commenter, I found out that the Australian girl group Girlfriend covered the track "Girl's Life" for their debut album Make It Come True in 1992. They released it as their first single. See the video HERE and download the album HERE. ;)

ANOTHER UPDATE!: Lisa McLean/Anishja/Shay McLean herself just wrote and gave us all the details we need! Fascinating stuff! Thanks so much for filling us in, Shay! We're all huge fans. :) Here is her response:

"Okay, been awhile. I must have forgotten that I posted something here - oops! ;) Anyway, I am Anishja (well, formerly) it was a stage name. My real name is Lisa McLean and I go by Shay McLean now (not legally though ;) And no, I don't have multiple personality disorder lol, although I could understand if someone thought that!

Okay it started when I met up with Ricky Timas, the producer of all the songs we co-wrote. I was doing a demo in James Gadsden's studio in L.A. with Denzil Miller for an upcoming movie and met some people there. I can't remember the gal's name but she gave me a card and said Ricky was looking for a female singer to do some demos. I ended up calling him and setting up a meeting and we hit it off. Originally, I was signed as a solo artist, but they wanted to put a girl's group together, something I did not want, really. But we did it anyway. We put out the first single, "Make Your Move (4 Love)" and it did fairly well, #2 on some stations in L.A., #1 in Hawaii, Philadelphia, etc. But we didn't make the Billboard charts and that's what matters. Also, that song was doing really well but the company (Quality Records) didn't get the CD in the stores on time - which was disastrous. You just can't have a song out with no way for people to buy it! So, that didn't fly, eventually, they just decided to cut their losses. I decided I just wanted to forget the whole mess. I don't know what any of the other girls are up to. Jessica, (blonde in front) got married I think and she did some acting work. Denise (Top Left) was an incredible dancer but I don't know what she's up to and I never heard anything about Susan since. The business is rough!

We had fun but it was hard. The company didn't seem to know what they were doing, which didn't help. But I remember most of the time fondly. Daily rehearsals, traveling (that I loved) and working in the studio.

However, I've been toying with the idea of doing my own album now. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @ReallyShay - you'll find some interesting info there. ;)

It's going to be a blues/funk-type of sound. ;) Thanks for all the posts.

P.S. - I remember the Magic Mountain incident! Fun!"

Download Girl's Life

1
Special One

2
Make Your Move 4 Love

3
Sugar Baby

4
It's Been Too Long

5
Time 2 Find Another Lover

6
Take Me On

7
My Only Lover

8
Girl's Life

9
Always There 4 Me

10
Love Is All It Takes

18 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks for posting this. I've never heard of them before.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here's a picture of the Rainbow Girls I found on Discogs:
    http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?artist=Rainbow+Girls%2C+The

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Kyleigh. I actually posted that pic on Discogs. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. One of my ex girlfriends made a mixed tape with the song "My Only Lover" back in the mid 90's. I have been searching for information on the background of the song for the last 15 years! I have literally scoured the internet, record shops, googled the lyrics but no luck. I ran out of ideas on how to find the name of the artist or details on the song. Finally, i thought about typing in the name of the song in ITunes and after 15 years, FOUND IT! Anyway, don't have much more to add to the information above, but the song "My Only Lover" will forever hold a special place in my heart! By the way, an Aussie group by the name of "Girlfriend" had a number one song with "Girls' Life" back in the early 90's which is the same song as the one on this album....

    ReplyDelete
  5. To any who are interested, I was one of the Rainbow Girls. I'm the one on the far left on the cover of the album. I don't know what you could possibly want to know about us but I'll answer any questions that I can.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OMG, we want to know everything you can tell us! :) Like what the members names are, when you were formed, how you were formed, if you all did indeed sing vocals on the album, what it was like being in the group, why you broke up, what has happened to the members since... Everything, please! You'd be surprised how many people visit this blog for just this kind of info! Thanks in advance! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. My friend and I used to hang with these girls! They were super friendly, I recall letting the cut in line once at Magic Mountain. I was excited to find you on itunes. It brings back memories of you and the Guys Next Door!!

    Cara
    @italysmoon

    ReplyDelete
  8. Okay, been awhile. I must have forgotten that I posted something here - oops! ;) Anyway, I am Anishja (well, formerly) it was a stage name. My real name is Lisa McLean and I go by Shay McLean now (not legally though ;) And no, I don't have multiple personality disorder lol, although I could understand if someone thought that!

    Okay it started when I met up with Ricky Timas, the producer of all the songs we co-wrote. I was doing a demo in James Gadsden's studio in L.A. with Denzil Miller for an upcoming movie and met some people there. I can't remember the gal's name but she gave me a card and said Ricky was looking for a female singer to do some demos. I ended up calling him and setting up a meeting and we hit it off. Originally, I was signed as a solo artist, but they wanted to put a girl's group together, something I did not want, really. But we did it anyway. We put out the first single, "Make Your Move (4 Love)" and it did fairly well, #2 on some stations in L.A., #1 in Hawaii, Philadelphia, etc. But we didn't make the Billboard charts and that's what matters. Also, that song was doing really well but the company (Quality Records) didn't get the CD in the stores on time - which was disastrous. You just can't have a song out with no way for people to buy it! So, that didn't fly, eventually, they just decided to cut their losses. I decided I just wanted to forget the whole mess. I don't know what any of the other girls are up to. Jessica, (blonde in front) got married I think and she did some acting work. Denise (Top Left) was an incredible dancer but I don't know what she's up to and I never heard anything about Susan since. The business is rough!

    We had fun but it was hard. The company didn't seem to know what they were doing, which didn't help. But I remember most of the time fondly. Daily rehearsals, traveling (that I loved) and working in the studio.

    However, I've been toying with the idea of doing my own album now, so if you would like updates, just send me an email and I'll put you on the list. shay351@gmail.com

    It's going to be a blues/funk-type of sound. ;) Thanks for all the posts.

    P.S. - I remember the Magic Mountain incident! Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi again! Shay here - please forget that email address...it got overrun with spam! Feel free to follow me on Twitter @ReallyShay - you'll find some interesting info there;)

    Thanks again!

    P.S. - Hope you are all doing GREAT!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Actress Deeny Dakota was one of the 1st Rainbow girls,who also sang on a few tracks.She brought Denise into the group,they were professional hip-hop dancers..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Ya!
    No valid links on the album. Can you upload them again please? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Finally found information on the Rainbow Girls! Thank you Shay!.i remember listening to this CD when i was younger. ..btw.. does anyone have the videos to upload? unfortunately the link to the video at the top of this site leads to a porn site not the video

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi all, I Elise Papazian Pritikin and was the wardrobe stylist for The Rainbow Girls music videos such as Girl’s life and also Make Your Move for Love. It was a blast to work with them. They were all really great girls and Shay was a super talent. My late husband, Scott Pritikin was a music video director and editor and directed the videos. I know we must have a 1 inch master tape of all of the videos. They would need to be transferred. Scott and I founded GoCoffeeGo.com and I can be reached at contactus@gocoffeego.com

      Delete
  13. I'm a huge Girlfriend fan and had no idea "Girls Life" was a cover. And, I asked Robyn (the lead singer of Girlfriend) and she mentioned she had no idea either. Given that these bands/songs were all pre-internet, that makes sense. I also spoke to Noel who created Girlfriend and he didn't know either. He said the song was given to him by and LA song writer friend. Oddly, The Rainbow Girls album is on Australian iTunes..
    I'm possibly biased, but I prefer the Girlfriend version. It has a faster pace and Robyn, Melanie and Lorinda (rap), with Jacqui and Siobhann totally made the song their own. In fact it's pretty much their signature tune.

    It's a shame The Rainbow Girls vanished. I'm sure I would of been a fan had I of known about them.

    Girlfriends first single was "Take It From Me":
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8zDCU-0PPc

    And "Girl's Life" was their second single:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIZSpekNMlw

    Scott

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you for your blog, for your work!
    Keep doing what you doing!
    Thank you one more time and God bless you!

    P.S. File has expired :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. hey Nasty G, would love to hear this if you have any time to re-up. thanks!

    ReplyDelete