Biography
Among the most pivotal figures shaping the transatlantic rock landscape, Cherry Vanilla combined the roles of actress, author, poet, and frontwoman with striking effect. Her presence in Andy Warhol's boundary-pushing Pork production placed her at the center of David Bowie's theatrical reinvention between 1971 and 1972. Performing with unbridled sensuality at Max's Kansas City, she left a clear imprint on the waitress who would become Debbie Harry. Through her own erotic artbook Pop Tarts, she supplied the conceptual template later realized in Madonna's Sex. She also fronted an early incarnation of the Police and released two late-1970s albums that continue to command cult reverence, securing her status in rock history as both established and near-mythic.
Born Kathy Dorritie and occasionally billed as Party Favor, she entered the cast of Pork as an unknown, portraying a necrophiliac nurse alongside Lee Black Childers and Wayne County. Initially propelled by Warhol's notoriety yet quickly independent, Pork became an underground sensation of 1971 in New York and especially London, where a six-month run drew attention from every quarter of the press. David Bowie watched with particular intensity; after Vanilla and County extended their own support—taking the long-haired folk singer under their wing and overlaying their distinctive glamour—he emerged within months as Ziggy Stardust. The Pork principals joined his operation, Vanilla serving as publicist and finding ample scope for her own appetite for provocation and scandal.
Bowie and his wife Angie both endorsed Vanilla's creative pursuits; Angie, at the Springfield Rock Festival in Missouri—an event devoted entirely to Bowie's catalog—encouraged her to contribute original lyrics to one of the acts. In a 1974 Penthouse interview the couple spoke enthusiastically of Compositions, Vanilla's recently issued poetry collection. Plans were even discussed for a full album produced by Bowie in 1975. Although that project never materialized, much of the intended material surfaced once Vanilla assembled the Staten Island Band and began appearing at Max's Kansas City.
The next year her track "Shake Your Ashes" stood out on the inaugural Live at Max's compilation, while her New York profile rose further with the release of the provocative and highly influential Pop Tarts. By year's end, however, she had moved to London, aligning with Wayne County and Johnny Thunders among the first American arrivals who grasped the nascent punk movement.
A regular at the Roxy, Vanilla performed with a backing trio of bassist Gordon "Sting" Sumner, drummer Stewart Copeland, and guitarist Henry Padovani—the same musicians then idling in the Police. Her own trajectory, by contrast, accelerated. In mid-1977 she signed with RCA, the label to which David Bowie was then attached. When her debut album was recorded, management chose largely American musicians, displacing the Police who had been slated to appear.
Issued after the single "The Punk"/"Foxy Bitch," Bad Girl arrived in early 1978, blending punk, rock, and burlesque in a manner that inexplicably met with neglect and hostility. Though raw in execution and occasionally blunt in language, Vanilla's inherently alluring vocal delivery eclipsed many more celebrated female singers of the era. A follow-up, Venus D'Vinyl, proved comparably noteworthy in 1979 yet fared worse commercially; RCA further rejected her preferred cover image of her severed head revolving on a turntable, the stylus approaching.
Thoroughly disenchanted, Vanilla ceased performing that year, returned to the United States, and later settled in Puerto Rico to work with synthesizer innovator Vangelis. After two decades out of print, her RCA albums were restored as a two-fer reissue in 2000.
Born Kathy Dorritie and occasionally billed as Party Favor, she entered the cast of Pork as an unknown, portraying a necrophiliac nurse alongside Lee Black Childers and Wayne County. Initially propelled by Warhol's notoriety yet quickly independent, Pork became an underground sensation of 1971 in New York and especially London, where a six-month run drew attention from every quarter of the press. David Bowie watched with particular intensity; after Vanilla and County extended their own support—taking the long-haired folk singer under their wing and overlaying their distinctive glamour—he emerged within months as Ziggy Stardust. The Pork principals joined his operation, Vanilla serving as publicist and finding ample scope for her own appetite for provocation and scandal.
Bowie and his wife Angie both endorsed Vanilla's creative pursuits; Angie, at the Springfield Rock Festival in Missouri—an event devoted entirely to Bowie's catalog—encouraged her to contribute original lyrics to one of the acts. In a 1974 Penthouse interview the couple spoke enthusiastically of Compositions, Vanilla's recently issued poetry collection. Plans were even discussed for a full album produced by Bowie in 1975. Although that project never materialized, much of the intended material surfaced once Vanilla assembled the Staten Island Band and began appearing at Max's Kansas City.
The next year her track "Shake Your Ashes" stood out on the inaugural Live at Max's compilation, while her New York profile rose further with the release of the provocative and highly influential Pop Tarts. By year's end, however, she had moved to London, aligning with Wayne County and Johnny Thunders among the first American arrivals who grasped the nascent punk movement.
A regular at the Roxy, Vanilla performed with a backing trio of bassist Gordon "Sting" Sumner, drummer Stewart Copeland, and guitarist Henry Padovani—the same musicians then idling in the Police. Her own trajectory, by contrast, accelerated. In mid-1977 she signed with RCA, the label to which David Bowie was then attached. When her debut album was recorded, management chose largely American musicians, displacing the Police who had been slated to appear.
Issued after the single "The Punk"/"Foxy Bitch," Bad Girl arrived in early 1978, blending punk, rock, and burlesque in a manner that inexplicably met with neglect and hostility. Though raw in execution and occasionally blunt in language, Vanilla's inherently alluring vocal delivery eclipsed many more celebrated female singers of the era. A follow-up, Venus D'Vinyl, proved comparably noteworthy in 1979 yet fared worse commercially; RCA further rejected her preferred cover image of her severed head revolving on a turntable, the stylus approaching.
Thoroughly disenchanted, Vanilla ceased performing that year, returned to the United States, and later settled in Puerto Rico to work with synthesizer innovator Vangelis. After two decades out of print, her RCA albums were restored as a two-fer reissue in 2000.
Albums
