Steve Marriott

Steve Marriott, the lead singer and guitarist for the British groups the Small Faces and Humble Pie, came into the world on January 30, 1947, in London. He enjoyed early success as a child performer, portraying the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver! while still a teenager, yet by the mid-1960s he had taken a job at a neighborhood music shop. There he crossed paths with bassist Ronnie Lane, who invited him to sit in with his band the Pioneers; Marriott soon committed full-time, and after steering the sound toward American R&B and adopting Mod-inspired attire, the musicians renamed themselves the Small Faces. Although “Itchycoo Park” gave them their main American foothold, the Small Faces scored repeated domestic hits with “All or Nothing,” “My Mind’s Eye,” and “Lazy Sunday,” capped by the 1968 album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. Marriott bristled at the chart climb of “Lazy Sunday,” a track he had cut as a lark and had tried to keep from release, and his discontent deepened when the more reflective “The Universal” stalled outside the Top 20.

His departure from the Small Faces came abruptly when he walked offstage during a New Year’s Day 1969 gig. He quickly enlisted former Herd guitarist Peter Frampton to launch the hard-rock outfit Humble Pie; after intensive rehearsals at Marriott’s cottage in Essex, they issued the single “Natural Born Boogie,” which reached the U.K. Top Five. The album As Safe as Yesterday Is followed, yet American recognition remained elusive until the 1971 live set Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore earned gold status. Frampton exited soon afterward, but 1972’s Smokin’ cracked the U.S. Top Ten. Subsequent releases could not sustain that momentum, and Humble Pie dissolved in 1975. Following the solo album Marriott in 1976, he took part in a Small Faces reunion and, four years later, reconvened Humble Pie with original drummer Jerry Shirley. Two further LPs appeared before the band split once more. Marriott largely withdrew from view for the rest of the decade, yet he was preparing to rejoin forces with Frampton when a house fire claimed his life on April 20, 1991.