The Steinettes | |
---|---|
Origin | Greenwich Village, New York [1] [2] |
Genres | A cappella, doo-wop [2] |
Years active | 1978 [3] – mid-1980s |
Members | Julie Janney
[4]: 612 Diane Shaffer [4]: 612 Nathalie Blossom [4]: 612 Patty Katz [4]: 612 |
The Steinettes were an a cappella doo-wop [2] street quartet [5] from Greenwich Village, New York, [1] [2] formed in 1978. [3] The group appeared in HealtH [4]: 612 and Popeye, [4]: 506 two films from director Robert Altman that saw release in the early 1980s.
Consisting of four actresses— [3] Julie Janney, Diane Shaffer, Nathalie Blossom and Patty Katz— [4]: 612 the Steinettes were formed in 1978 during a production at the Westbeth Theater. [3] Another a cappella group, the Great American Dream, had been formed at this venue. [3] Early on in their tenure, the quartet sang for donations at the Sheridan Square in Manhattan's West Village area. [3] Eventually, they also served as a filler act for local comedian Phil Stein, [2] and in 1981, they filled in for Rodney Dangerfield. [6]
The group contributed vocal performances to the score of Robert Altman's HealtH, [4]: 612 completed in 1979 [7] but shelved by 20th Century-Fox for over two years. [8] During the shoot, they were dressed in vegetable outfits. [9] A year later, they also appeared in another Altman production, Popeye. [4]: 506
During their existence, the Steinettes appeared in commercials for television and radio, as well as in nightclubs. [10] In 1985, they performed backing vocals on three tracks of a self-titled album by dance artist Robey. [11] One of them was a version of " One Night in Bangkok" from the musical Chess, which peaked at #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1985. [12]
Diane Shaffer, one of the Steinettes, became a playwright in 1995 with the religious piece Sacrilege. [5] [10] [13] Another member, Julie Janney, became an actor by the late 1990s, starring in shows such as Ellen and Another World. [14]
Steinettes.