One of my favorite shows in the mid 80's was Night Court, I was a fan of Harry Anderson's flim flam man appearances on Cheers and looked forward to seeing what wacky things he would do on a weekly basis. A staple of the show was for Judge Harry to have some sexual tension with the defense attorney (3 in all, Karen Austen, Markie Post and the person featured today). Although Markie Post was a better fit for the show, I thought the one 'ol Judge generated the most heat with was Ellen Foley. Foley only appeared for one season on Night Court and she played her character Billie with a fast talking toughness that the other attorney's lacked. Until last week I thought she was simply an actress who had one shot at a network series for a season before disappearing.
Then I came across some trivia that the vocals on Meat Loaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" was performed by an Ellen Foley. While I knew that the girl who was featured in the video didn't sing it originally, I didn't know that the actual voice was someone I had heard of before. So I snooped around on the 'net and found that the actress and the singer were in fact the very same person.
Not just that, she had recorded solo albums that featured her powerhouse voice. From what I've read, she later turned punk after dating a member of The Clash but what really grabbed me was this video from 1979. This Meat Loaf'y track is pretty good and her voice is of the strength that could level a mountain. So here's to adding to my Night Court memories with a video of Billie, er, Ellen Foley in action with "We Belong To The Night".
2 comments:
That is an interesting bit of trivia. I was a big fan of the show too - who knew. Everytime I hear Paradise by the Dashboard light I may think of Night Court from now on.
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While writing this post I found another piece of trivia about Ellen Foley that was a complete surprise - she inspired The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go."
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