Sandy Stewart
 

Forgive me for my ignorance, but...
Who is Sandy Stewart, and what's her story?:confused:
Here's what I know:
-She helped write some Stevie songs including Seven Wonders
-She sang on Nightbird
-She recorded one album called Cat Dancer (none of which I've heard) which got lousy reviews that called her a Stevie wannabe, basically.

Other than that, I know nothing. Can't find a bio of her on The Penguin. I'd like to know about this mysterious woman who seems to have been in Stevie's inner circle and mimics her style, apparently.
Anyone have the scoop?

-Sonia
:wavey:

you know... ive always been sort of curious about her too... she was one of "the girls" during the wild heart album era... co wrote some songs... played on the songs on the album... had two of her own albums that stevie sang on one of which was cat dancer... i heard that she and stevie had some sort of fight at one point... but then she wrote seven sonders for stevie... but then i've also heard that the fight was over seven wonders cause sandy wrote the song but stevie changed the line "all the way down to the line" to "all the way down to emmeline" and got like half of the writer's credits for it... or took it... whichever it was... hell i don't know... but then she wrote or co wrote some songs on street angel and we all know she wrote too far from texas... who knows... maybe she's just one of stevie's random friends but we know about her because she's also worked with stevie a little... i mean seriously- stevie probably has several girlfriends that we don't know about and whose names we don't know, but we don't wonder about them because we've never seen their names on album credits, you know?

LOL.....For the longest time I thought Sandy Stewart was a man. See....Dolly Parton has this friend, Sandy Gallin....hahaha...and I got them mixed up and thought that Stevie was the one with the male Sandy....hehhe...I know nothing about her either...just thought I'd share my thinking she was a man.

Picture of Stevie and Sandy
 

Just found this piccie :)

From my understanding, Stevie and Sandy never really had a major "falling out"... Sandy just distanced herself from Stevie musically for a while, to try and establish her own identity.

It seems that there was a brief period of tension when Sandy's first album was released, because Stevie had worked a lot more on it than the final product reflected.
Apparently, a lot of Stevie's backing vocals were mixed-out so that it wouldn't appear that Sandy was relying too heavily on Stevie's name-value to sell her album.

Obviously this tension didn't last long, since Stevie has recorded several of Sandy's songs in the years since.

Beyond that, I don't really have a lot of personal info on Sandy, other than the fact that she's a Houston, TX. native, and that she's written songs for many other popular artists (including Tina Turner).
She definitely keeps a low profile.


Johnny Stew

Blue Yonder?
 

The other album she's rumored to have appeared on is "Blue Yonder," but when I looked into it, I'm not so sure she's actually on it. Several people who have the album and are big Sandy fans assure me she's not. I've listened to "Windsong" myself and haven't heard her. While the single is listed as having her on it in Mick's "My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac" discography, on the other hand it's not listed on the NicksFix, her official site.

Also, we know that Stevie appeared on "Catdancers," "Get My Way," and "I Pretend" on Sandy's "Catdancer" album, yet the "My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac" has her listed as appearing on the "Saddest Victory/Mind Over Matter" single from that album instead. I've decided not to take the word of the "25 Years in Fleetwood Mac" discography in either case and instead rely on the NicksFix official discography, which only has her listed as appeared on the one "Catdancers" album.

Re: Blue Yonder?
 

You're a brave lass to put any more credence in the discography on The Nicks Fix than in the discography in the Fleetwood book. I'd say they're both about equally reliable -- in other words, let the buyer beware. The vast majority of Nicks Fix information on the site was supplied by fans; when Chris Nicks & his crew moved in, they didn't comb over every last bit of information in order to ascertain its accuracy. The Nicks organization will never do that; it doesn't have the time or the interest.

The answer for the discrepancy between discographies may lie in what Johnny Stew reported earlier in this thread: Stevie did indeed put her voice on a lot more of the first Sandy Stewart album than listening to the released mix would reveal. Stewart mixed Stevie out of much of the album; maybe the session info Mick relied on indicated Stevie's involvement in tracks that Sandy later eliminated.

There were a lot of stories in 1984 & 1985 about why Stevie & Sandy's relationship took a down turn, & most of it revolved around the vocal mix on "Cat Dancer." Another story was that Sandy moved out of Stevie's house & went back to her home town.

David, your comment about the Nicks Fix discography has me curious... are there any blatant mistakes that you've noticed?

I know that at one point they hadnt included one of the Walter Egan songs she guests on, but that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head, and it's since been corrected.
I'm sure there are others though.

By the way, I should point out that I'm not questioning the validity of your comment, I'm just curious as to what you might have noticed that I havent caught!
:)

Here's another question for you, I have yet to prove that Stevie is on the Maria Vidal track, "Life On The Train" (I could verify it pretty easily, I'm sure, if I could just get my hands on it!)... do you have any info on that one?


Johnny Stew

1. Honestly, it's been ages since I looked at it & I don't remember what mistakes I found, if any. I'm sure many others can give a better accounting of the gaps on that site. I really just meant that, in principle, the Nicks Fix discography is no more trustworthy than any of the unofficial fan sites because the information (with the exception of recent or topical news about Stevie's current doings) was sent in by hundreds of fans who provided Kinney with his content. Nicks officials don't verify the accuracy of any of the pre-existing Nicks Fix content, as most of us know, & I'd be very surprised if they ever intended to. For the most part, I have a lot of confidence in the fans; but of course they don't have access to records that could reliably verify one way or the other.

2. I don't really know anything about Stevie's appearances elsewhere, so I'm sorry but I don't know about the Maria Vidal. It seems possible, though, given the fact that she is a friend of Nicks & has participated on the latter's albums. Another mystery is Stevie's credit on the "White Nights" song with another Stevie friend, Marilyn Martin.

Thanx!
 

Thanks to all for the info. I guess Ms. Stewart does keep a low profile:D
-Sonia

My favorite song on "Cat Dancer" is "Leave It All Behind".

It's too bad this album isn't available on CD.

I listened to that song over and over and came up with this. Stevie sang one word, 'Compromised' as backup when Marylin and Phil Collins got to the part about, 'Willing to compromise.'

Randy

Not to toot my own horn, but I think I'm pretty adept at picking out Stevie's voice, even when her contributions to a song are subtle... and I definitely agree with Randy: Stevie *is* on "Seperate Lives," but the only instance where her vocals are noticeable is the last word of the line "willing to compromise." ("compro-mi-i-i-ise")


I remain absolutely unconvinced that Stevie is actually on "All Over You," the supposed Prince demo.
I've had people swear to me that it's her, and maybe they're right, but to me, it sounds like a pale imitation.



Johnny Stew

hmmmmmmm
 

stevie nicks? prince? "all over you"? hmmmmmmmmm. now i've never heard the demo but knowing prince and just knowing that the name of the song is "all over you", i'm not too sure that stevie would be singing on that one. well, wait let me ask. hey johnny, is the song really sexual?

mimi:)

Re: hmmmmmmm
 

The song really isn't sexual (beyond the implications of the title)... in fact, it really isn't much of anything at all.
It mainly consists of a lot of scat-singing ("do-do di-do-do, di-do do do"), and repeats of the phrase, "all over you."



Johnny Stew

oh well in that case......
 

i don't know lol! i would like to hear it though lol!

mimi:)

Sandy Stewart
 

Great to read that people are still posting about Sandy. I am one of her original fans (bought both albums when they came out, and i hstill have them in pristine condition!). I too think of myself as pretty adept at noticing when Stevie is singing on a song or not. I can catagorically state that i have always known that Stevie is all over Cat Dancers, but that she is definately not on Blue Yonder (though i wish she had of been!). If there were diferent mixes of the songs on CD, with Stevie on them, i would love to hear them!
I would dispute the fact that Stevie sings on either, 'This is the day' or 'Seperate lives', though i often think i can hear her voice on the courus of 'Don't come around here no more' by Tom Petty.
Don't mean to sound like a know it all, but i have lived with and loved SS albums for years and know them inside and out!
Wish somebody could track Sandy or some of her associates down (wonder if she is still writing with David Munday?) and give us the rundown on her latest stuff. The last thing i heard featuring Sandy is a song called 'Blind situation' by Shea Segar (which is great!)
Cheers
Dave

I'd love to hear some of her songs
 

...since I've never heard any. Maybe someone can post some on a website?
-Sonia