* En anglais uniquement
Although better known to the public at large as an actress,
Nancy Priddy also enjoyed a sporadic recording career, in 1968 releasing her lone LP,
You've Come This Way Before, a minor classic of psychedelic folk. Born and raised in South Bend, IN,
Priddy later studied liberal arts at Oberlin College, eventually graduating from the Northwestern School of Drama. Her fledgling theatrical career included a stint doing cabaret, and in 1964 she relocated to Greenwich Village, joining the folk combo the Bitter End Singers and making her recorded debut on the 1964 Mercury release Discover the Bitter End Singers.
Priddy exited the group a year later to resume her acting career, eventually returning to the Chicago area. There she began writing her own songs, recording a series of now-lost demo sessions; upon landing back in New York City in 1967, she also contributed backing vocals to the classic
Songs of Leonard Cohen.
At the end of 1967,
Priddy and aspiring producer
Phil Ramone initiated work on
You've Come This Way Before, a dreamy, far-reaching acid-folk effort featuring contributions from jazz arranger
Manny Albam and funk drummer
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Issued with virtually no fanfare on Dot Records in late 1968, the album quickly disappeared. During a subsequent visit to Dot's Los Angeles headquarters,
Priddy met her future husband, staff producer Bob Applegate. (The couple's daughter Christina Applegate later co-starred in the long-running television sitcom Married...with Children before mounting a feature film career.) During her SoCal stay
Priddy also cut a single with producer
Harry Nilsson, the 1969 release "Feelings." After contributing to composer
Mort Garson's multi-volume opus Signs of the Zodiac, she effectively retired from music, renewing her focus on acting and later appearing in films (Short Walk to Daylight, The Aliens Are Coming) and television (Bewitched, The Waltons, and Barnaby Jones). Following a lengthy but triumphant battle with breast cancer,
Priddy returned to music in the early '90s, self-releasing a series of LPs including Can We Talk About It? and Mama's Jam. ~ Jason Ankeny