SAM PHILLIPS

Born: Leslie Phillips; East Hollywood, California, 28 June 1962

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Martinis and Bikinis (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "I Need Love," "Baby, I Can't Please You," "Zero, Zero Zero"

Not to be confused with the legendary Sun Records producer Sam Phillips, singer/songwriter Sam Phillips got her start in contemporary Christian music. She quickly switched genres early in her career, with her first pop album The Indescribable Wow (1988). Critics acknowledge Phillips has never quite received the accolades and record sales that her talent as a songwriter merits. With a penchant for witty, cerebral love songs that recall 1960s pop influences such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys, Phillips is a psychologically incisive songwriter who knows that a touch of levity adds the right portion of irony.

Phillips grew up in Glendale, California, the second of three children. Her given name is Leslie, but her nickname was Sam. Phillips was exposed to myriad cultural arts: painting, dancing, singing, and piano. By the time Phillips was a teenager she was writing her own songs. It proved an effective coping mechanism as she watched her parents' marriage dissolve. By the time Phillips was twenty-two, performing as Leslie Phillips, she was selling a quarter million copies with her gospel-flecked records.

Phillips fled the Christian scene, which she found too confining, and recorded two albums before her Grammy Award–nominated Martinis and Bikinis (1994). Hailed by critics as smart, consistently melodic, and at times surprising, the album is her most acclaimed release. It garnered a near hit with "I Need Love." With its insidious hook, and textbook verse-chorus-verse structure, it is one of her most structured pop songs. It is also one of her best, illustrating her world-weary wisdom and deft sense of word-play. "I need love / Not some sentimental prison / I need God / Not the political church," she sings out in the chorus. Its weighty sentiments belied their light delivery and poet's attention to rhyme and rhythm.

Phillips's third album, the beautifully produced Omnipop (It's Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop) (1996), features collaborations with members of the band R.E.M. and witty stabs at the entertainment business and politics. After Omnipop, Phillips took a break and switched labels from Virgin Records to Nonesuch, a prestigious label known for its roster of high-caliber, left-of-center talent. Phillips released Fandance (2002), her most unadorned album.

Phillips is married to guitarist and producer T Bone Burnett, who produced her final Christian album, and has worked with her on her rock albums. She is the kind of artist whose music is too smart for commercial radio, but has found a home with fans of Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) radio.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

The Indescribable Wow (Virgin, 1988); Cruel Intentions (Virgin, 1991); Martinis and Bikinis (Virgin 1994); Omnipop (It's Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop) (Virgin, 1996); Fan-dance (Nonesuch, 2001).

carrie havranek