Patti Smith - Wonderful Woman No. 118

Patti Smith - Born 1946
American Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Actress and Writer

Added to the album by Julie, A Wonderful Woman

I have written about many female singers in the blog, some of my own selections and some of other people. You may remember from the edition on Joan Jett - Wonderful Woman No. 84 (also one of Julie's additions) that Rock isn't really my kind of music, so reading about Patti Smith and uncovering her wonderfulness has been really interesting and another reason to reflect on how great it is to have contributions to the album from different people. Thank you Julie and to all those who make suggestions of additions, the album continues to grow with more and more Women of Wonderment, I hope to write about all of them in time.

She ranks among the most influential figures in rock 'n' roll... people who aren't even enthralled with her music respond to her rawness and passion, her intellectual curiosity.
The New York Times

I was born in Illinois...mainline of America...
beat to shit...Chicago tenement
big red eyed rats in the night...dead rats to tease at night
Morning...I waited for the organ grinder
with my nickel for the monkeys tin cup
gingerbread man...cotton candy man
bad girl setting fire to the oil cans
run like hell escape on the icemans truck
I was a limping ugly duck
but I had good luck

Patti Smith (Extract from the poem Autobiography)

A Poet, a Playwright and an occasional Actress, Patti is best remembered as the front-woman of her Patti Smith Group, with whom she lead vocals and played guitar. The punk-rock group recorded their first album Horses in 1975, in total they have released ten studio albums, the last Banga released just this year. While as a recording artist, Patti has not been the most commercially successful of artists, her popularity as an underground artist is huge and her influence is well documented, with the likes of Madonna, Morrissey and KT Tunstall all acknowledging her as inspiration for their own music and careers.

Patti has had many industry acknowledgements, including winning the Polar Music Prize and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

She has also written many books, had her poetry published and created visual art.

Aside from her full and interesting artistic career, Patti has often involved in political activism. In particular, she strongly campaigned against the war in Iraq and for peace in Gaza. A number of her songs contain messages of protest and peace.

A wonderfully creative woman; interesting, intelligent and passionate.

Let's just say that I think any person who aspires, presumes, or feels the calling to be an artist has a built-in sense of duty.
Patti Smith

Mary Quant - Wonderful Woman No. 117

Mary Quant - Born 1934
British Fashion Designer and Business Owner

Added to the album by Howie, A Wonderful Man

International name and logo, associated with youth and freshness.
Vogue

The 1960s were a time of great change for women in the United Kingdom. For the first time, women were earning a living, attaining social freedom on a level not previously known and their attitudes and expectations were being liberated. Mary Quant was one of those women herself and became a central player in shaping the 'look' that would be favoured by the women of those swinging times.

Mary's first boutique, Bazaar, opened in London in 1955. Her clothes were experimental, provocative and full of the edginess that so defined the era, she was right in the middle of the pop culture. Her shop frequented by the likes of The Beatles and her clothes worn by celebrities and shop-girls alike. She created something individual and symbolic - The London Look.

Among her many innovative designs, Mary is credited with the creation of The Mini Skirt. The skirt, worn as short as possible and retaining very little for the imagination, is by far the item for which Mary is best remembered. The skirt really marked freedom for women through fashion, gone with restrictive garments and in with sexiness and liberation. Like much of Mary's creations, the skirt gave they idea of strong female sexuality, sexual freedom and sexual power.

Her business spanned from couture into cosmetics and is still a widely recognised name internationally; Mary Quant Cosmetics now licensed in Japan, were there are more than 200 Mary Quant Colour shops, generating around £95m a year.

Iconic, successful, inspirational, wonderful.

Women are the sex in charge.
Mary Quant

Tina Turner - Wonderful Woman No. 116

Tina Turner - Born 1939
American Singer and Actress

Added to the album by Sandy and Melanie, Two Wonderful Women

Simply the best!
@noprospects via Twitter, A Wonderful Tweeter

Having career longevity is something that I have commented on in the blog previously, in cases such as Meryl Streep - Wonderful Woman No. 52 and Diana Ross - Wonderful Woman No. 103, again with Tina Turner, one can't help but marvel at a career that has spanned more than fifty years and at a woman still performing past the age of seventy.

Tina's recording career began in 1960 with the track A Fool In Love. At the time, she performed with Ike Turner, whom she later married. Together, the pair released a staggering 29 studio albums. Having already released two solo albums, under the production of Ike, Tina split both personally and professionally from Ike in 1976. She went on to release a further seven solo studio albums and had numerous hits in the singles charts, including instantly recognisable anthems such as Private Dancer, What's Love Got To Do With It and Simply The Best. Widely considered one of the greatest female performers of all time, Tina has been awarded countless industry prizes, including eight Grammy Awards and inclusion in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Her tempestuous relationship with Ike Turner has been much documented. Throughout the relationship, Tina suffered both physical and mental abuse, as well as having her career heavily controlled by Ike during the years they were together. That her story of survival is an inspiration to many and her triumph over years of cruelty are both clear testimonies to the Wonderfulness of this Woman... as well, of course, as her fantastic career achievements.

Not only an amazing and successful singer and stage performer, Tina has also appeared in several films. Sometimes playing herself but on occasion giving competent acting performances in films such as; Tommy, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Last Action Hero.

There are a great many more Wonderful things about Tina; her image, her stage presence and her personal tenacity all high on the list. Her music is unforgettable, her life a testament to her greatness.

Physical strength in a woman - that's what I am.
Tina Turner

Nadia Comànci - Wonderful Woman No. 115

Nadia Comànci - Born 1961
Romanian Gymnast

Added to the album by Howie, A Wonderful Man

I went to gymnastics at our local sports centre after seeing her on TV when was little. I learnt how to do backflips on the beam and swing on the aysemetric bars.
Natalie, A Wonderful Woman

Spotted for her gymnastic skills whilst aged just seven, Nadia Comànci became one of the world's best known Gymnasts and inspired a generation of young girls, just like Natalie.

In 1976, still only fourteen years old, Nadia competed in the Montreal Olympics. She gave flawless performance and received a perfect score from all judges, a feat previously thought to be unachievable in the Olympic event. She won three gold medals, for the bars, the beam and the all-around competition, as well as a team silver and a bronze for her floor exercise.

She moves with measured care although this is obscured by the ease which is such a feature of her performance. On one handstand she swung her legs overhead so tantalisingly slowly that it seemed as if she did not have the momentum to reach the position. But she did – and then lingered there, as if to emphasise the smoothness of the action before continuing her routine.
The Guardian, 1976

Nadia won nine gold medals in European Championships, two golds in the world championships and she returned as an Olympian in Moscow 1980, where whe won a further two gold medals, along with two silvers.

Nadia struggled in her native Romania under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Her mother once claimed that Nadia had been raped by the dictator's son, though this is something Nadia herself denies. She has spoken at length about feeling like a prisoner in the country and having a longing for liberty. In 1989, a few weeks before the country's revolution, Nadia fled Romania to start a new life in the USA.

We haven't featured many sports women in the blog, so far, and in truth, the album does not contain as many sports women as it does women from other fields. I guess it takes a special kind of woman to impact and impress from the field of sports and Nadia certainly qualifies as that.

Life is tough for everybody... It would be great if you could discover a way of working very little and being successful, but there isn't one.
Nadia Comànci

Mary Anne Evans / George Eliot - Wonderful Woman No. 114

Mary Anne Evans (Pen Name: George Eliot) - 1819–1880
British Author, Poet and Journalist

Added to the album by Julie, A Wonderful Woman

As we have read with many of the Wonderful Women already featured in the blog, such as Frida Kahlo - Wonderful Woman No. 37 and Gertrude Elion - Wonderful Woman No. 86, in so many fields of work women have faced fierce sexism and a struggle to be taken seriously in their careers. Mary Anne Evans was so conscious of the negativity towards female writers, that she chose to adopt a male pen name, George Eliot, in order for her writing to reach a wider audience.

In 1851, Mary Anne began writing for The Westminster Review, a left-wing political journal. She was a very liberal woman for the time, bearing children to a married man, speaking openly of her lost faith in Christianity and travelling extensively throughout Europe.

The first of her seven novels, Adam Bede, was published in 1859. The most famous Middlemarch, published in 1871, remains popular to this day and is considered a masterpiece of English literature.

One of the few English novels written for grown-up people.
Virgina Woolf, Another Wonderful Woman

In addition to her novels, Mary Anne wrote many essays and articles, as well as a fine catalogue of poetry.

I Grant You Ample Leave

I grant you ample leave
To use the hoary formula 'I am'
Naming the emptiness where thought is not;
But fill the void with definition, 'I'
Will be no more a datum than the words
You link false inference with, the 'Since' & 'so'
That, true or not, make up the atom-whirl.
Resolve your 'Ego', it is all one web
With vibrant ether clotted into worlds:
Your subject, self, or self-assertive 'I'
Turns nought but object, melts to molecules,
Is stripped from naked Being with the rest
Of those rag-garments named the Universe.
Or if, in strife to keep your 'Ego' strong
You make it weaver of the etherial light,
Space, motion, solids & the dream of Time--
Why, still 'tis Being looking from the dark,
The core, the centre of your consciousness,
That notes your bubble-world: sense, pleasure, pain,
What are they but a shifting otherness,
Phantasmal flux of moments?--

A woman of great intelligence and talent, who understood and overcame the inequality faced by women in the time she lived, an excellent addition to this celebration of Wonderful Women.

When a woman's will is as strong as the man's who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment.
Mary Anne Evans / George Eliot

Donna Summer - Wonderful Woman No. 113

Donna Summer - 1948-2012
American Singer, Songwriter and Actress

Added to the album by Sarah, A Wonderful Woman

She was a queen, the queen of disco, and we will be dancing to her music forever.
Liza Minelli (As featured as Sally Bowles - Wonderful Woman No. 7)

I recently wrote about the sadness I felt on hearing the news of Amy Winehouse - Wonderful Woman No. 109 having passed away a year ago, just last month similar pangs of sadness were felt on hearing of the passing of Donna Summer. A disco legend and another Wonderful Woman whose music has been like an old friend to me.

She sang for breakfast and for lunch and for supper.
Mary Gaines, Mother

After leaving school before graduating to move to New York and join a blues-rock band, Donna gained a role in the cult musical Hair. In 1974, she started working on music with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, releasing her first album in the same year. Her first hit Love to Love You was released the following year and she went on to have a string of highly successful hits including classics such as I Feel Love, Bad Girls and Hot Stuff, to name just a few.

I Feel Love remains the best musical representation of sex ever recorded.
@mrparsley via Twitter, A Wonderful Tweeter

It's true to say many of Donna's songs were highly sexually charged and filled with implied erotic meaning. She fabulously exposed the idea of strong female sexuality, as was true of many disco records in the 1970s. Indeed, on the cover of Bad Girls she dressed as a prostitute and many live performances were considered provocative at the time.

From 1974 to 2008, Donna released no less than eighteen albums. She was hugely popular with her contemporaries and received a plethora of industry awards, including five Grammys.

She was a true disco legend and one disco-lovers like me will never forget and will never stop playing her music, her very wonderful music.

God had to create disco music so I could be born and be successful.
Donna Summer

Tippi Hedren - Wonderful Woman No. 112

Tippi Hedren - Born 1930
American Actress, Model and Conservationist

Added to the album by Owain, A Wonderful Man


Another excellent suggestion of a Wonderful Woman whose life I knew little about before her inclusion in the blog.

Tippi Hedren had been a successful model in the 1950s, appearing on several magazine covers in her native USA and also in television commercials. It was on seeing her in a TV advert that director Alfred Hitchcock first spotted Tippi. He went on to cast her in her debut film The Birds. Tippi won a Golden Globe for her performance and became well-known almost over-night.

She made another film directed by Hitchcock, Marnie, in which she played the title role. She has starred in more than fifty other pictures, including instantly recognisable titles such as; Pacific Heights (which also features her daughter, Melanie Griffith) and Citizen Ruth.

In 1983, Tippi founded the Shambala Preserve in Acton, California. The wildlife preserve cares for endangered species of big cats, most of which were born in circuses and zoos, or given up by private owners, who could no longer care for the animals. Tippi has donated a wealth of her personal time and money to the organisation, including making a film about the animals.

Tippi is a remarkable woman and there is much more to say about her than I have been able to include in these few short paragraphs. A very talented actress and an excellent conservationist, a empathetic human being and an incredibly Wonderful Woman.

To be the object of somebody`s obsession is a really awful feeling when you can`t return it.
Tippi Hedren

Jamie Lee Curtis - Wonderful Woman No. 111

Jamie Lee Curtis - Born 1958
American Actress, Inventor and Writer

Added to the album by Craig, A Wonderful Man

While I am lead to believe that Craig's reasons for adding Jamie Lee Curtis to the album was more for aesthetic reasons than anything else, she's a successful actress who has managed to have longevity in a career many struggle to maintain, so I think there are definitely other reasons to include her here.

In 1978, Jamie appeared in the cult horror film Halloween. She went on to appear in a number of other horror films, which lead to her being bestowed the media title of the Scream Queen. Jamie has appeared in films of many other genres, with major box-office hits such as A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places and True Lies. She has been awarded numerous showbusiness acolades, including a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

In 1993, Jamie published her first children's book When I Was Little: A Four-Year Old's Memoir of Her Youth and has since produced a further nine pieces of children's literature, one of which making the New York Times best-seller list and staying there for ten weeks.

A woman of many talents, Jamie is also the inventor of an adaptation of babies nappies that contain a moisture proof pocket containing wet wipes that can be taken out and used with one hand. Furthermore, she refused to allow companies to use the design of the invention until the use of biodegradable materials was initiated.

I think happiness comes from self-acceptance.
Jamie Lee Curtis

Just for Craig, I thought the video I should include with this addition of the blog should be something our male readers will find easy on the eye. Though, let's be clear, there is much more to this Wonderful Woman than the physical...

Zora Neale Hurston - Wonderful Woman No. 110

Zora Neale Hurston - 1891–1960
American Writer, Political Activist and Anthropologist

Added to the album by Owain, A Wonderful Man

Everyone should read Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Owain

The struggle for freedom for black Americans has already become one of the repeated focus of attention for this blog; from Rosa Parks - Wonderful Woman No. 12 to Aretha Franklin - Wonderful Woman No. 66. Often, it is women who are amidst extreme oppression and suffering that rise up and allow their wonderfulness to shine. Zora Neale Hurston is another such Wonderful Woman. Born and raised in Alabama "with its vicious racists" - to quote Martin Luther King - and the constant threat of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Zora graduated with a degree in Anthropology in 1927. She wrote many essays and short-stories, often documenting the struggle of black Americans and their quest for freedom and equality. During the 1920s, Zora was a part of a group of black writers, who called themselves 'niggerati', who produced the literary magazine Fire!! which featured a lot of pieces from writers of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement developed by the African-American community in Harlem.

Aside from the magazine and her short-stories, Zora wrote four novels. The most famous being Their Eyes Were Watching God (as previously mentioned by Owain), the book as widely regarded in the highest order both as a piece of African-American literature and as a piece of women's literature, indeed it is included in Time Magazine's Top 100 English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Her work not only shows a strong sense of what it was to live as an African-American during those fierce times but also is filled with feminist individualist ideas and the idea of strong female character.

Zora believed strongly in the cause of equality, particularly where education was concerned.

Stong, intelligent, successful and passionate - another excellent addition to our celebration of Wonderful Women.

I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
Zora Neale Hurston

Amy Winehouse - Wonderful Woman No. 109

Amy Winehouse - 1983–2011
British Singer, Songwriter and Record Label Owner

Added to the album by Gemma, A Wonderful Woman

So much love for Amy XXX
Gemma

That's who i was going to suggest.
Jessica, Another Wonderful Woman

Writing this and thinking about Amy Winehouse, I still feel moved and saddened about her untimely death less than twelve months ago. From Billie Holiday - Wonderful Woman No. 4 to Marianne Faithfull - Wonderful Woman No. 95, I have written in this collection of Wonderful Women many times about how immensely talented women, women who have had the power to influence, inspire and empower other women, have sometimes struggled to control their own lives.

Often, Amy seems defined by her addictions and turbulent personal life. Indeed, this was a huge aspect of the person she was and it would seem foolish not to acknowledge that this troubled life, the dark thoughts and the chaotic moments were poured into her songwriting and, perhaps, she would not have been quite so wonderful if her life had been different. I define her wonderfulness through her amazing and unique musical talent though, and for that unmistakable voice, filled with passion, and melancholy; timeless, beautiful, special.

A voice that was filled with such power and pain that it was at once entirely human yet laced with the divine... She was a fucking genius.
Russell Brand

Amy received a guitar as a gift at the age of thirteen. She began to write songs and not long after, while still a teenager she began to perform at various events in London. She was signed to her first record company in 2002 and released her debut album Frank the following year. Her second album Back to Black was released in 2006, it brought her international success and stardom and a string of top ten singles. Her final album Lioness: Hidden Treasures was only released after her death. Her music and skills as a songwriter has received wide critical acclaim and an enormous amount of awards, including six Grammys, four Ivor Novello Awards and a string of Brit Awards.

In 2009, Amy launched her own record label, Lioness.

When Amy's death was announced on the news, I don't mind saying a shed a few tears for this vulnerable, troubled woman with the powerful, enigmatic voice. I presented a specialist soul music radio show on local radio at the time and featured Amy as a spotlight artist in tribute, the week she died, as I said on the show at the time, someone like Amy never really dies because true talent and a voice like that will last forever. And for that, she was and is truly a Wonderful Woman.

Girls talk to each other like men talk to each other. But girls have an eye for detail.
Amy Winehouse