Stacey Q

Stacey Lynn Swain (born November 30, 1958), known by her stage name Stacey Q, is an American pop singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Her best-known single, "Two of Hearts", released in 1986, reached number one in Canada, number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in five other countries.

Early life Swain was born on November 30, 1958, in the Orange County suburb of Fullerton, California. She is the youngest of three children. Her mother, Joyce, bred Cardigan Welsh Corgis that have appeared in Hollywood films and television. In a 1989 interview, Swain said she was three years old when she asked for dance lessons, but had to wait until she was five, when she did classical ballet. In 1969, she became the youngest member of the Dance Theater of Orange County, a local company that performed at benefit shows in Anaheim. After graduating from high school in 1976, Swain joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where she performed as a showgirl in her first year, and as an elephant rider in her second year. Jon was a big fan of synth bands like Kraftwerk and M; when he met Stacey Swain in 1981, he knew right away that this impossibly stylish former Ringling Bros. elephant girl and veteran of the Disney Main Street parade possessed star qualities perfectly compatible with electronic music, a genre Stacey also adored. She was enamored of the obscure Japanese band The Plastics and The B-52's, and simply could not get over David Bowie. As a student of style, Swain could literally turn rags into a fashion statement. On one occasion she went to the renaissance fair in Agoura dressed simply in two large pieces of soft leather she bought from a shop in Anaheim. The band consisted of St. James on guitars, and Dan Van Patten and John Van Tongeren on vocoder and synthesizer. She served as the assistant producer on the band's four tracks for The Q EP when St. James realized they needed a vocalist for their first track "Sushi", which Swain provided as she had previously recorded demos at his studio. In 1981, Q (the original project) was Jon, Dan and myself hence Jon Q, Dan Q and Stacey Q. Q, the original name of the project, references James Bond and the scientist responsible for all his high-tech gadgets.

In 1997, Swain released the album Boomerang, which reflected her experiences in Tibet, as well as her conversion to Buddhism. She also released a cover of a Janis Ian tune called "Tenderness", which reached number 5 on the Jamaican charts. In 2000, she played the lead female character Yeshe Tsogyal in a production of The Life of Padmasambhava by the San Francisco-based Namsay Dorje Theater Company.

In September 2022, Stacey's Better Than Heaven album was re-released with bonus tracks and remixes.

Discography

Solo studio albums Better Than Heaven (1986) Hard Machine (1988) Nights Like This (1989) Boomerang (1997) Color Me Cinnamon (2010) SSQ Playback (1983) Jet Town Je t’aime (2020)

Filmography Year Film Role Notes 1985 Cavegirl Brenda 1986–87 The Facts of Life Cinnamon Eps. "Off-Broadway Baby", "A Star Is Torn" 1987, 1989 The New Hollywood Squares Stacey Q Celebrity guest, 3 episodes 1988 Full House Herself Ep: "D.J. Tanner's Day Off" 1989 Mama's Family Ciji Ep: "Bubba's House Band" 1989 One Man Force Leah Jennings 1998 Playing the Odds Chinese Food Delivery Woman 2000 Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence Stacey 2002 Never Mind the Buzzcocks Episode 1.3, 18 March 2002 2003 Stratos 4 Karin Kikuhara first voiceover role in anime dub 2011 RuPaul's Drag U Herself/Makeover model Episode: "80's Ladies"