Marianne Faithfull’s 10 Greatest Musical Moments

variety.com:

A.D. Amorosi What makes a Marianne Faithfull song great is something an artist can’t buy or learn: It’s the sound of experience.

Faithfull’s most haunting (and haunted) quality as an artist was the raspy world weariness in her voice and phrasing, the sense that this elegant woman — who died today at the age of 78 — had seen things, good and bad, and had the wisdom to show for it, even as an angelic 17-year-old girl singing “As Tears Go By.” That 1964 song, her first hit (written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), was recorded when she was just 17, but its mood set the tone for the rest of her long and diverse career as a singer.

Here are ten of Marianne Faithfull’s finest musical moments.“As Tears Go By” (1964)Already an “It Girl” at the height of the Swinging London era, Faithfull’s newly-found producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, famously wanted a song from his newest managerial charges, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, that reflected something untouchable and unattainable – an image of someone who sadly watches the world go by.

As Faithfull said of the song in her 1995 autobiography, “It’s an extraordinary song for a 21 year-old to have written.” She was referring to Jagger’s age at the time, but the same holds true of her timeless delivery as a 17-year-old. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1966)Recorded not long after her first encounters with Bob Dylan, this song from her second album, “Come My Way,” reflects her desire to be considered as a folk artist, and often split her label’s desire for pop hits with her own musical leanings.