"Nightout" (October 1979 review)
Ellen Foley - The Palace 4 Feb 1980 (March 1980 review)
SHE (April 1980 interview)
Ellen Foley is a long tall blonde with big suprised eyes, and I really would love to ... interview her. Her record is produced by the spirited Hunter-Ronson duet, who are really working a lot these days. Ellen has a beautiful american voice ; you can't explain that, you just feel it right from the first hearing. She sings Graham Parker and Jagger-Richards("Stupid Girl"). The arrangements are in the same vein as the Englishmen's others productions ; rich, dynamic, designed to strike their full chord through a car radio loudspeaker. Despite titles like "Sad Song", "Thunder and Rain" or "We Belong To The Night", Ellen Foley's record is merrier than Matioszek's. It has to do with richer arrangements, and the singer's wider range. She never lets the music that carries her encroach upon her emotional side.Indeed, nothing revolutionary is to be found in this album : just a careful and gifted performer's work. But give me more performers with this voice and this pretty young face.
By Jean Eric Perrin
Tonight, it's the parisian recognition of the new american star. Almost recognition : the theatre is not full. But all are conquered in advance, and next year they'll be three times as many. Look at the star ! Her boyish chest, her so white skin, her long sexy legs, her wild blondeness, her greedy lips and her sensuous eyes. Feel the thrill of the tones of her huge voice, desire her so supple liana/body. Beautiful Ellen treats you to her fruity rock show. From her theatrical past, she's kept the sense of evocative gestures and facial expressions, and of an effective attitude. Her songs are classics. She uses a few props : a mirror, a jacket, even a cap gun. Each song is introduced by a monologue : "this is the story of a girl who wants to be a singer... and so on". An electrical surpriseless move. Let's have a big round of applause. It's a success ! Wet dreams upon a background of rock à la Springsteen. You know, that's all we need, waiting for terminal chaos: sex and rock'n'roll?
J.-E. P. (Jean-Eric Perrin)
I hate those "Cosmopolitan" like interviews : in the lounge of an anonymous palace hotel, the star in furs undergoes the consecutive attacks of specialised scribblers. Muzak, multiple conversations, businessmen, thick carpet, and in the tape recorder the unending noise of cups in saucers. Help ! Furthermore, Ellen has such big eyes, so blue, so deep, that I drowned in them, for too much bending over them ! Ellen who ? Ellen Foley of course, tomorrow's star. She has a strong experience of theatre : Broadway, Hollywood, experimental theatre, farce, "thirties" musicals, ads, television films. Not to mention touring with the National Lampoon. In the meantime, and as soon as her schooldays, she sings rock'n'roll. One day, on a stage, she meets Meatloaf and Jim Steinman. The three of them share the same idea of a theatrical wagnerian rock. They record "Bat Out Of Hell", Meatloaf's first opus. Then, as Ellen Foley wishes to stand on her own two feet, and as her manager has hooked her on the East Coast Big Sound duettists (Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson), she commits, under their rule, a superb performer's record : "Nightout" (CBS). Since then, her star personality asserts itself more and more. She now writes her own songs. She is tall, beautiful, sings in an excellent voice and shows a hell of a character. Debbie'd better prepare herself for the competition.
J.-E. P. (Jean-Eric Perrin)