Fanny - Fanny Hill (1972/2019)

The third time really was the charm for Fanny, the pioneering all-female rock band who were the first act of their kind to win a major-label record deal in 1970. While Fanny's second album, 1971's Charity Ball, was a solid and imaginative set whose title track became a minor hit single, their third album, 1972's Fanny Hill, truly caught them at the peak of their strength. Produced by Richard Perry at London's Abbey Road Studio, with Geoff Emerick as engineer (who worked on several of the Beatles' best recordings), Fanny Hill is the group's hardest-rocking set, full of June Millington's big, raunchy guitar figures facing off with Nickey Barclay's rollicking keyboards, the smart but muscular rhythm section of Alice de Buhr on drums and Jean Millington on bass, and the foursome's stellar harmonies. Fanny were more than capable of effectively turning down the tempo for quieter numbers like "You've Got a Home" and "Wonderful Feeling," but it's rockers like "Blind Alley" and their covers of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" (with Rolling Stones associate Bobby Keys on sax) and the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" where Fanny demonstrate they were one of the best and most underappreciated American rock bands of the '70s. Fanny Hill still stands out as this group's strongest and most exciting work.