Love to See You: Calling All Fans of The Roches!
Here at Second Disc HQ, we’re big fans of Maggie, Suzzy, and Terre Roche – a.k.a. The Roches! The trailblazing trio from Park Ridge, New Jersey, once described as “punk folk,” smashed genre barriers with their rich original songbook: alternately witty and wrenching, wise and wry, joyful and melancholy.
After Maggie and Terre made their debut on Columbia Records with Seductive Reasoning (including a production by Paul Simon, with whom they had sung on There Goes Rhymin’ Simon‘s “Was a Sunny Day”), they joined with youngest sister Suzzy as a trio. The Roches debuted on Warner Bros. Records with their 1979 self-titled album produced by King Crimson’s Robert Fripp – the first in a series of four acclaimed LPs on the Warner label. Their next major-label affiliation was with MCA Records, and in 1995, they released Can We Go Home Now on Rykodisc. Their final album arrived in 2007. While Maggie Roche passed away in 2017 at the too-young age of 65, both Terre and Suzzy continue to perform and make music today.
We’re celebrating The Roches’ Warner/Ryko years with a very special project, and we need your help! Have you seen The Roches in concert? Do you have a memory of a favorite Roches song from these eras? Has the music of The Roches scored a special moment in your own life? Please drop us an email now at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com and we’ll let you know how you can contribute. We can’t wait to hear from you!
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23 thoughts on “Love to See You: Calling All Fans of The Roches!”
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I was aware of the name for a few years before I heard them on the radio during the summer of 1989. Dave Fanning show. Big Nuthin’ was the most immediate track on Speak – a cynical yet heartfelt pop song. The single edit remains my favourite version – on the MCA promo CD.
Greetings from UK. Became aware of The Roches in 1979 after a radio show featuring Richard & Linda Thompson choosing their favourite tracks. They played “Runs In The Family” which blew me away and has remained a favourite of mine down the years. On the back of this, I drove from Cardiff to London (200+ miles) to see Maggie, Terre and Suzzy at The Dominion in the early ‘80’s. One of the most amazing gigs I’ve ever been to – and I go to a lot of gigs!
I’ve seen them numerous times, many shows. Including many Christmas shows at the Bottom Line. I have many great photos from those shows. I even got a hug from Suzzy Roche! At SOPAC, in South Orange, N.J. Suzzy and Lucy performed at my sister’s house. In house performance. At which time I also got a hug from her, and photos.
I love(d) all of the Roches Warner Brothers albums. The Hammond Song is definitely one of my top 100 songs.Face Down at Folk City bubbles under my top 100.
The Roches contribution to the Crossing Delancey soundtrack added much harm to that lovely film.
I did see them in concert , either at the Beacon Theater or Town Hall. It was so long ago, I don’t remember which venue it was.
Whatever the upcoming project is, consider me intrigued!!
OMG…much charm,not harm. I LOVE the Roches and Crossing Delancey.
Sorry for the typo!
I was fortunate enough to go to the legendary Carnegie Hall show. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic coming in from the burbs and didn’t get one of the homemade buttons the girls passed out before the show. Years later I had a chance to meet them and when I told Terre I was at the show she responded “Well then, you must have a button”!
OMG! Charm not harm re: Crossing Delancey. I love that film and the Roches contribution to the soundtrack.
I remember seeing The Roches live at the Roxy in Los Angeles in a haze of cigarette smoke that was just days after I had walked into a record store on Wilshire Boulevard that was playing their first album and it literally stopped me in my tracks. I’ve been obsessed with him ever since. I love that they wouldn’t compromise stuck to their guns and let their freak flag fly. Can there be anything better at Christmas than their rendition of the hallelujah chorus?
Have loved them from the start! I moved to NYC in 1973 to follow my dream of being a painter.
Crazy exciting time to be in the West Village, I could walk to Parsons for classes. After graduation I waitressed and was able to afford a studio and a painting space, so I really related to Mr Sellack. I became life long friends with Anita L, who was their road manager so I was able to enjoy their music and even get to know them a little bit. It was always a thrill to run into them caroling, which happened a number of times.
In the early nineties, my husband and I had a loft in Tribeca and Anita brought Terre by one evening, I was really thrilled. Love each album!
I did see them about 100 years ago. I don’t know, was it Kenny’s Castaways on Bleecker Street? All I remember is that I thought Terre was cute. Oh, and that their harmonies were that which can only come from singing siblings.
I first heard/saw the Roches on SNL. Love from the start. I finally saw them live for the first time at the Bottom Line sometime in the early 80s. I’ve seen them more than 50 times I’m a taper (coming from the grateful dead mindset) I began recording them (audio at first) at Club Bené in 1985. I videotaped them during the “Speak” album era a good many times at places like McCarter Theater and Paper Mill Playhouse. With the many audio trades I made throughout the 80s and 90s along with the many many master recordings I’ve made myself, I have probably a good 100 different live recordings of the band. Long live the Roches!!
I bought the Roches first album when it came out as I was already a Robert Fripp/King Crimson fan. I was not disappointed. Finally got to see them live around the release of Speak. I’ve also seen Suzzy once or twice at a small coffeehouse in Bryn Athyn.
I also loved their music in Crossing Delancey as well as Suzzy’s appearance in the film.
wow very excited for this! though i wish Seductive Reasoning was included, hopefully this project can be as comprehensive and carefully executed as the Roches deserve
Thanks to my longstanding close connection to producer Stewart Lerman, I was lucky enough to have the Roches sing on several tracks I recorded in the ‘90s, notably my cover version (apparently the first by a man) of Doris Day’s ‘Move Over Darling’.
I was a major Roches fan, so it was a real thrill to have them singing on my records and their vocal arrangements added a distinctive touch to my songs. I stayed for a while at Terre’s apartment in the village on one visit and I have stayed in touch with all of the girls as best I could ever since. I was able to repay the compliment and played on harmonica on a Roches record!
It was a sad loss when Margaret died, but I’m proud to have known and worked with three brilliantly talented women.
When we saw the Roches in a small club in Buffalo, NY we had the pleasure of riding the elevator with their aunt who lived in the area at the time. She was very nice and Maggie looked a bit like her!
While waiting on the TKTS line with my parents in the early 80s, I crossed the street to buy a drink just as Maggie stepped off of a city bus. Having greatly admired her as a composer, I was bold and said, “Hi Maggie! I absolutely love your music and play your songs on piano”. She was quiet and kind and thanked me. Thrilling!
When a dear friend, her mother and I saw the Roches at Town Hall, my friend’s mom somehow charmed her way and got us backstage. We briefly said our congratulations and how much we enjoyed their music and the concert. Again, they were gracious and kind. We were in high school, so it was a BIG DEAL!
A memorable concert experience was seeing them in Austin where we live now. We went with our New York friends and our children, who had grown up listening to their music. They obsessively listened to Will You Be My Friend (released the year our eldest was born) and later, Moonswept on repeat! It was our first time seeing them as a family. It was a beautiful concert in a small church venue. That was the last time we saw them play and possibly the best show due to the intimate setting while in the company of our daughters and beloved friends.
Lastly, when our car got broken into one night, our Seductive Reasoning CD was stolen. (Thief had good taste.) Unfortunately, the disc was out of print at the time. Fast forward to the Austin show a few years later, my husband went up to the sisters after the show and told them the theft story. Suzzy gave my husband her mom’s email saying she could help getting us a new copy. He wrote to her, sent her 20 bucks, and their mom mailed us a CD. Coolest ladies ever!! So grateful for their incredible music and the great memories we all have.
If you’re planning re-releases of their albums, be sure to include their beautiful cover of “Come Softly to Me” from the Crossing Delancey soundtrack as a bonus track on one of them.
When I first saw them on Saturday Night Live in 1979 I absolutely hated them, but like a lot of my now favorite artists such as Chet Baker, Billie Holiday, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright, I had to mature into a real appreciation of their artistry. I was a diehard fan after listening to their first album and have been a lifelong fan ever since. Ahhhhh! So many great songs. “Hammond Song” and “On The Road To Fairfax County” are definitely desert island favorites.
I first saw them live in December 2010 at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA. As it was a Christmas show they invited audience members up on stage to sing carols with them at the end the end of the show. My three friends joined them but I was too shy to go up and stupidly missed my chance to share a stage with Maggie, Terri, and Suzzy.
I’ve loved the Roches since my brother introduced me to them via the BBC’s “Rock Goes to College” show in the early 80s. It wasn’t until that last tour that I got to see them live in Toronto, but their music has always been connected to so many memories for me.
I first heard The Roches around 1990. Hammond Song was a staple on the acoustic music show on my college (Vanderbilt) radio station. I remember this surreal sensation of feeling that this was something entirely, mind-blowingly unique and deeply comfortingly familiar at the same time. Based on this, I bought Speak the day it came out (Tower Records on West End Ave). I’ve been a huge fan ever since.
“On The Road To Fairfax County” breaks my heart and makes me tearful every time I hear it. It’s heartwrenchingly sad and The Roches’ lovely harmonies and guitars transcend a simple folk song into a very emotional and almost operatic tearjerking tragedy.
I bought Seductive Reasoning when it first came out, and it remains my very favorite of all the various Roche sister’s output.
When I was 20 years old I visited a friend living in Indonesia. It was my first big trip overseas. We played that cassette tape of the Roches non-stop. To this day, whenever I hear the album I think of hot, humid Indonesia, smelling of clove cigarettes, not crowded subway cars or fat men drinking a beer.
As a Brooklyn boy in Alaska in the early 80s, I found their lp at a garage sale and fell in love. In the 90s I saw them in Seattle. Top 10 lp for me of all time. This is how I imagine angels sound, if they were from New Jersey.