Martha Davis

Born January 15, 1951, in Berkeley, California, Martha Davis rose to prominence as lead singer and principal creative force behind the Los Angeles group the Motels throughout the 1980s. Her professional path had already started years earlier when she entered the Berkeley ensemble Warfield Foxes in 1971, contributing vocals and guitar. After the group moved to Los Angeles in 1975, it adopted the name the Motels, circulated its recordings without success, and disbanded in 1976. Davis reassembled the lineup two years afterward, adding guitarist Jeff Jourard. During the following ten years the Motels issued five albums and scored two Top Ten hits, “Only the Lonely” and “Suddenly Last Summer.” In February 1987, after multiple departures from the roster, she declared her exit from the band to launch a solo career. Her debut solo album, Policy, appeared that November. The record underperformed commercially, missing the Top 100 and producing just one modest single, “Don’t Tell Me the Time,” which nevertheless reached the Top Ten in Australia. Around the same period Davis also defeated a diagnosis of cancer. Although her recorded work has remained limited since the Motels’ peak era, she secured recognition as one of the decade’s most distinctive and compelling female performers. In 1998 she assembled a fresh version of the group that first brought her notice, billing it the Motels Featuring Martha Davis.