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 |
