Marianne Faithfull debuted in 1964 as one of the more promising voices of the British Invasion. The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, discovered her, which lead to Mick Jagger (eventually her romantic partner) and Keith Richards co-penning her debut single “As Tears Go By.” Musically, however, she was a far cry from the Stones, possessing an effortlessly quivering soprano that imbued her string-laden baroque pop with a nebulous, folky mysticism.
Between 1964-65, she placed five songs on the Billboard Hot 100, with “As Tears Go By” climbing the highest on the tally (No. 22). In the late ’60s, her commercial output came to a virtual stop. The next decade would see laryngitis, drug abuse and depression take their toll on the nascent talent. After a well-documented rough patch, she returned with the most thematically weighty and artistically influential material of her career, Broken English. That 1979 masterpiece took cues from the burgeoning post-punk and synth-pop movements to create a sardonic portrayal of a world-worn survivor too savvy to ask for pity and too jaded to think she’s the only one who got burned by ’60s optimism.
It was that edge, directness and wit (reminiscent of a tart-tongued cabaret MC) that endeared Faithfull to a whole new generation of fans, and undoubtedly led to her being cast as God in a few episodes of the British hit series Absolutely Fabulous. On Jan. 30, 2025, Faithfull died peacefully in London at the age of 78.
In honor of her distinct, eclectic voice (literally and artistically) and her impact on pop music, here are Marianne Faithfull’s 10 best songs.
