Rachel Sweet

At <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stiff+Records%22">Stiff Records</a>, nothing was sacred; often the label's slogans and unorthodox promotion were as memorable as the truly inspired music they released. With teenage Rachel Sweet, whom they marketed as a "jailbait" country singer (and later as a leather-clad child abductor), it would seem that their perverse humor had finally gone too far. One listen to her albums, however, and all questionable images and in-jokes fall into the background; "the little girl with the big voice" made some terrific music, holding her own on a roster that had no shortage of talent.

Akron-born Rachel Sweet began her singing career at age six, doing everything from singing commercial jingles to touring with <a href="spotify:artist:3xL6MN3ARaJ5WI1Ltt4Tkz">Mickey Rooney</a> and opening for <a href="spotify:artist:4JeqRr8Upw5uxLEu6jgIRm">Bill Cosby</a>'s Las Vegas act. Between 1976 and 1978 she recorded a few failed straight-ahead country singles for the local <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Derrick%22">Derrick</a> label ("Any Port in a Storm," "Paper Airplane," and "The Ballad of Mable Ruth Miller and John Wesley Pritchett") and a handful of demos for songwriter Liam Sternberg, who shopped them to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stiff+Records%22">Stiff Records</a>. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stiff%22">Stiff</a> signed the young singer and debuted her on The Akron Compilation. She recorded her first album, Fool Around, with backing from <a href="spotify:artist:34XOKvo8R7mnjdS8S0Gwvq">the Rumour</a> in 1978. She promoted the album on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stiff%22">Stiff</a> package tour (The Be Stiff Tour) using <a href="spotify:artist:3oFRpiLvaflFOVNxvsLrze">the Records</a> as her band. The album didn't sell particularly well, but it did receive a fair amount of critical praise.

The attention was short-lived, though, and Protect the Innocent, released through <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stiff%22">Stiff</a>/Columbia, went virtually ignored the following year. She switched to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Columbia%22">Columbia</a> in 1981 for ...And Then He Kissed Me, an uneven album that nevertheless featured the Top 40 hit "Everlasting Love," a duet with <a href="spotify:artist:0UUErweJscAbuxMmVo8MON">Rex Smith</a>. After one more album, 1982's Blame It on Love, Sweet retired from the music business to pursue an education, returning sporadically, most notably to sing the title track to <a href="spotify:artist:3qeoYI3u0hMmvcmZGvZNcx">John Waters</a>' Hairspray, as well as Cry-Baby. Her focus later turned to acting. ~ Chris Woodstra, Rovi