American band from Brooklyn, New York, featuring Annie Golden as the striking lead singer. In the mid-1970s, they managed to perform several times at the famous CBGB, initially as the opening act for bands including the Talking Heads.
Gradually, they caught the attention of major record labels. Their first album, titled The Shirts, was recorded in London and released in 1978. During the same period, Golden appeared in Milos Forman's film Hair. She would later appear in many more films.
Annie Golden began her career in 1975 as the singer of The Shirts, a band she stayed with until 1981. In 1977, she performed in the Broadway musical Hair and in 1979 in its film adaptation.
Between 1990 and 1997, she formed the duo "Golden Carillo" with Frank Carillo. They released three albums and enjoyed particular success in Europe. The duo wrote most of the songs together. In 1992, they wrote the song "Waiting for someone" for the feature film Prelude to a kiss. In this film, the duo played a small role as themselves.
The Netherlands
The debut LP was especially successful in Europe, with the single ‘Tell Me Your Plans’ doing well. From the second album, the single ‘Laugh And Walk Away’ was released in 1979. The song was particularly popular in the Netherlands.
End of the success
The third album was not a success, partly due to poor promotion by the record company. The group disbanded in 1981. They reunited a few times, but without Golden, who preferred to focus on acting. In 2006, a new album by The Shirts was even released: Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.
Top 2000
In the 24th edition of the Top 2000 (2022), there is no longer any mention of The Shirts. They had other plans, after all.
Sunday Morning Classic.
On 14 May 2023, The Shirts were featured as the Sunday Morning Classic with their debut album The Shirts from 1978.
I still see Annie Golden standing there, chewing gum unbelievably tacky just like Blondie while singing. Tell Me Your Plans remains, of course, a fantastic song. It is a balanced album without bad tracks, but also few standouts, except for Empty Ever After and Running Through The Night. The weaker songs are Lonely Android, Poe and Teenage Crutch, where it occasionally gets a bit shouty.
It is a nice album, just like the second. It's a shame that The Shirts have fallen into obscurity, because musically they were good and Annie Golden had a unique stage personality. You can see that on YouTube.
Source: NPO and Wikipedia Photo: Capitol promotional photo
