Good to see Annie in the swing of things again. I have a very peripheral connection with her. Let me explain. Back in the mid-70's I picked up a couple of Renaissance albums and fell in love with her voice, if not the bands signature sound. in 1977 she put out her first solo album,
Annie in Wonderland (****), produced by ex-Move member and 4 year fiancé, Roy Wood. Being a rabid Move/Roy Wood solo fan I instantly scarfed the album up and fell more madly in love with her voice; a 6 octave range of exquisite beauty. While my "guy" friends derided my obsession with her voice, my fiancé and current wife loved it. So much so, that we chose the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic "If I Loved You" as our wedding song from the album. Obviously our attempts to find a female singer to sing it at our reception were futile. The band we hired was kind enough to let us play the song thru their PA system. Here's a clip from YouTube of her singing the song on a Renaissance re-union tour. Do yourself a favor though and get the album/cd, if you can find it.
Fast forward to the early 90's and I'm on a service call for my then current employer, a telecommunications firm in Southeast Pennsylvania. As I'm troubleshooting a phone in the owners office I notice all these photos/posters of Annie & some with him and I can't help but inquire about his interest in her. He explains that it's his wife; imagine my excitement. I tell him about our wedding and Annie's contribution to it. At this point I'm waiting for him to usher me out the door, with a quick call to my firm to let them know I was
persona non grata. Luckily he sensed I was a true fan and not some deranged fan boy and he arranged for me to meet her when I came back to replace his phone. I went back and Annie was very kind to sign my album & Japanese import cd to my wife and I and we chatted about her then current projects (mostly painting & raising her family). Very memorable indeed.
