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Years before the Runaways or the Go-Gos, there was pioneering “chick rock” band, Fanny. Fanny was formed in 1969 by teenaged guitarist-singer June Millington, with her sister Jean and drummer Alice de Buhr, as “Wild Honey.” When Nickey Barclay, a keyboard player who toured with Joe Cocker’s infamous Mad Dogs and Englishmen group joined them, the group was renamed “Fanny.” (In the UK, where the word means “vagina” and not “butt,” they were thought to be quite outrageous by radio programmers.)

Fanny was the first real female rock group signed to a major label (Reprise Records, the artists first label started by Frank Sinatra, who was the “Chairman of the Board”). They worked with famed producer Richard Perry and later Todd Rundgren. They recorded at the Beatles’ Apple Studios and backed Barbara Streisand on her first “rock” album, Stoney End. They toured opening up for huge 70s acts like Slade, Jethro Tull and Humble Pie, but they are little more than a gender pioneer footnote today.

Fanny were nothing short of incredible, as you will hear, but they never made it as big as they should have.

David Bowie, in a 1999 Rolling Stone interview said of the group: “One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest… rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful. They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time.” (Fanny bassist Jean MIllington has, in fact, recorded with Bowie).

Their biggest hits were “Charity Ball” and “Butter Boy.” Fanny broke up in 1975. In 2002, Rhino Handmade released the excellent

Above, performing “Charity Ball” on The Sonny & Cher Show in 1971.

“You’re The One” from The Old Grey Whistle Test TV show in 1971.

Fanny Rocks (official website)