GENEVIÈVE WAITE "LOVE IS COMING BACK / BITING MY NAILS" (1974)

He came up to me and he said
Catch you later, baby, I gotta split
I've got a habit I just can't quit
Catch you later, baby, I gotta split
I've got a habit I just can't quit

Oh oh, just biting my nails [x4]

A flake of snow on a silver spoon
A pretty woman and a big full moon
A handsome man with a diamond ring
How he wishes he had that thing

Oh oh, just biting my nails [x4]

He's got a finger in her painted lips
Always got a hand upon her African hips
Give me money for the dinner, honey not this time
I've got a habit, and it's all mine

Oh oh, just biting my nails [x4]

Now, if you're ever gonna see me biting my nails
You just tell my mama and she's gonna spank me
'Cause I don't want a bad habit
I don't like it, I don't want one
I'm gonna, I'm gonna... p-p-put it down
I'm gonna, I'm gonna... g-g-give it up, you'll see

Oh oh, just biting my nails [x4]

[From the lyrics of "Biting My Nails"]



Geneviève Waite is a former actress, singer and model born 13 February 1948 in Cape Town, South Africa. She started out in her native Country and worked in Britain before coming to the U.S. in the early '70s.

As an actress she is best remembered for her starring role in "Joanna", a 1968 movie by Michael Sarne about a fanciful country girl that goes to London to follow a fashion design course and becomes the lover of the black owner of a night club... A true snapshot of the late '60s Swinging London! Sadly enough, Geneviève was declared persona non grata in South Africa after making this film because of her love scenes with black actor Calvin Lockhart.

On 31 January 1972 she married singer-songwriter John Phillips (...of The Mamas and the Papas...) and this brings us closer to today's post.



During the '70s the couple spent most of their marriage strung out on drugs and went through several detoxifications before finally divorcing in 1985 after giving birth to two children... Anyway, in 1973 they moved to New York City and Phillips started building a quirky album of breathy, neo-hipster torch songs around Geneviève's unusual voice, a sort of Betty Boop meets Marilyn Monroe mixture.

When the album was completed, Warner Brothers showed interest in distributing it but balked at Phillips's insistence that it be released on his own label, Paramour Records. Meanwhile, the couple also worked on an ill-fated musical entitled "Man On the Moon"; due to her commitment to that show, Geneviève's had to pass on the opportunity to star opposite David Bowie in "The Man Who Fell To Earth"...

With four songs co-wrote by Geneviève herself, and showcasing a cover-picture by Richard Avedon, "Romance Is On the Rise" was finally released in July 1974. The album will be the subject of a future post here on Stereo Candies, as soon as I'll be able to lay my hands on the CD version, which contains four bonus tracks.

The "Love Is Coming Back / Biting My Nails" single was released and manufactured in France by Pathé Marconi / EMI; I'm not completely sure but I guess that a domestic edition of the single was never released in the U.S.

Geneviève Waite and John Phillips sometimes during the 70s

Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. Love Is Coming Back (2:28)
02. Biting My Nails (2:47)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in December 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.





On side A we find "Love Is Coming Back", which is also the album's opening track; it starts with an acoustic guitar intro lifted from The Mamas and the Papas' "Dream a Little Dream" and instantly throw the listener into Geneviève's rasping world: you'll either love it or hate it, that's for sure.

The flip side, a streetwise druggie joke entitled "Biting My Nails", was covered in an electro dub style in 1988 by Renegade Soundwave and became an unlikely underground dance hit; you can compare the original and its cover by clicking on the videos below courtesy of YouTube.

More information about Geneviève Waite and John Phillips is available here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevi%C3%A8ve_Wa%C3%AFte

https://popgoesart.jux.com/16943

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0915688/bio

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20078715,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Phillips_%28musician%29

http://www.biography.com/people/john-phillips-490872

http://www.scottmckenzie.info/phillips.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/mar/15/john-phillips-mamas-and-papas

http://papajohnphillips.com/King%20of%20the%20Wild%20Frontier.pdf

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/man_on_the_moon_john_phillips_musical_warhol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_Is_on_the_Rise

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/5-waite/

http://bricksofgold.blogspot.com/2010/09/geneive-waite-romance-is-on-rise-1973.html

http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Is-Rise-Geneviève-Waite/dp/B00642AFBC/ref=tmm_vnl_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1355269576&sr=8-3

If you have any other useful information about Geneviève Waite - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!