Melancholy, morphine and the Baader-Meinhof group: Marianne Faithfull’s 10 best recordings

From a career-detonating collaboration with the Rolling Stones in 1969 to a hypnotic experiment with 13-era Blur, Marianne Faithfull’s career was one of reinvention – yet always underpinned by her wrenching, affecting vocals

• News: Marianne Faithfull dies aged 78
• Alexis Petridis: ‘Faithfull was not just a muse’
• Peter Bradshaw: ‘Faithfull was a magnet for film-makers’

Marianne Faithfull’s 60s releases were wildly variable, perhaps because she seems to have been beholden to the whims of producers who didn’t really know what to do with her: one minute she was recording rounded-edged folk – Cockleshells, What Have They Done to the Rain – the next retooling the Ronettes’ Is This What I Get for Loving You? to no great effect. But, occasionally, she rose above it all, injecting her cut-glass delivery with an alarming degree of melancholy, as on Morning Sun. The B-side of her hit This Little Bird, it’s a pretty but slender song, driven by what sounds like a echoing harp, that her voice transforms into something weirdly wrenching: “I’m very sad, tears follow me,” she sings, and she genuinely sounds it.

Topics

Marianne Faithfull Made an Art of Upending Expectations

The singer, who died on Thursday at 78, spent decades in the spotlight exercising a very specific and subversive power.
The New York Times - 16h
Marianne Faithfull, a Pop Star Turned Survivor, Is Dead at 78

A fresh-faced singer in the 1960s, she went on to experience more than her share of hard times before emerging triumphant in the ’70s.
The New York Times - 13h
Marianne Faithfull: A Life in Pictures

The singer and actress, who embodied the Swinging Sixties and performed for decades afterward, exuded an effortless cool.
The New York Times - 14h
Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull dies at 78

She was known for hits such as 1964's As Tears Go By and films including 1968's The Girl On A Motorcycle.
BBC News - 15h
Marianne Faithfull, British pop star and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78

Marianne Faithfull's first hit, "As Tears Go By," was recorded when she was just 17 years old after she met with the manager of the Rolling Stones at a party.
CBS News - 17h
From the archives: Marianne Faithfull on the hard road to becoming a legend

Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull, who was part of the 1960s British Invasion with her hit single "As Tears Go By," and who was a muse to Mick Jagger, died on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at age ...
CBS News - 17h
Marianne Faithfull, British singer and actress whose hits included ‘As Tears Go By,’ dies at 78

Iconic singer and actor Marianne Faithfull, who provided one of the most prominent female voices of the British Invasion, died Thursday in London, her spokesperson said.
NBC News - 19h
Marianne Faithfull was a towering artist, not just the muse she was painted as

The late singer made her share of bad decisions – but someone this artistically adventurous and unafraid was never going to have an ordinary life. • News: Marianne Faithfull, singular icon of ...
The Guardian - 21h
Marianne Faithfull, singular icon of British pop, dies aged 78

Singer and actor overcame drug addiction and homelessness to collaborate with everyone from the Rolling Stones and Metallica to Jean-Luc Godard. Tribute: Marianne Faithfull was a towering artist, ...
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