Kirsty MacColl

Kirsty MacColl came from a lofty musical lineage as the daughter of legendary folk singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl, but the path she pursued with her own songs took her far from her father's world. Born in Croydon, England on October 10, 1959, MacColl kicked off her musical career as a backup singer for punky pub-rockers The Drug Addix, who released an EP on Chiswick in 1978. However, she soon found herself in the spotlight with another indie label, Stiff Records, which released her debut single, the perfect pop tune "They Don't Know," in 1979. It didn't make much commercial impact at the time, but the MacColl-penned tune became a big hit for Tracey Ullman four years later (and was subsequently covered by countless others). In the meantime, MacColl scored a U.K. hit with 1981's quirky rockabilly gallop "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis," establishing her way with a left-field lyric. Her debut album, Desperate Character, was released that same year, but didn't trouble the charts. A string of brilliant singles followed over the next couple of years, and MacColl connected again with her hit version of Billy Bragg's "A New England" in 1984. She reached her greatest level of renown three years later for her duet with Shane McGowan on The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York." But after Stiff went belly up in 1986, legal complications kept her from releasing her second album until 1989. Kite, produced by her husband, Steve Lillywhite, gave MacColl another U.K. hit with a cover of The Kinks' "Days." From 1991's Electric Landlady, the hip-hop-inflected "Walking Down Madison," co-written by erstwhile Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, became the only MacColl single to earn attention in America. Titanic Days followed two years later, and MacColl's final album, Tropical Brainstorm, was released in 2000. On December 18 of that year, she was struck and killed in Mexico by a boat illegally entering an area reserved for divers, having pushed her sons out of danger.