Cristina Monet-Palaci[2] (b. 1959), known professionally as Cristina, is a singer and writer, best known for her No Wave recordings made for ZE Records around 1980 in New York.
A Harvard drop-out,[3] and the daughter of a French psychoanalyst and an American illustrator-novelist-playwright, she was working as a writer for The Village Voice when she met Michael Zilkha, who later became her husband.[4] A wealthy heir to England's Mothercare retail empire, Zilkha was just starting ZE Records with Michel Esteban. Zilkha persuaded her to record a song called "Disco Clone", an eccentric pastiche dance record written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of hers at Harvard.[5] The original recording, released as ZE001, was produced by John Cale and was the first to be issued on the ZE label.[6] A later version featured the uncredited Kevin Kline trying to seduce the breathy Cristina.[4]
"Disco Clone" was a cult success and encouraged ZE to release a full-length album in 1980, which was produced by August Darnell (aka Kid Creole).[4] The album was later reissued as Doll in the Box. Cristina also issued, on a 12" single, a poker-faced cover of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" with new lyrics which led its authors, Leiber and Stoller, to sue and get it withdrawn for many years.[3] Later, she released a cover of the Beatles' "Drive My Car". She also released a track, "Things Fall Apart", produced by Was (Not Was), on ZE's Christmas Record, in 1981.
Cristina's second album, Sleep It Off, was produced by Don Was and released in 1984 with a sleeve design by Jean-Paul Goude (a year before he used the same idea for Grace Jones). Her lyrics dryly detailed a world of urban decadence, but the record flopped, and Cristina retired to domestic life in Texas. She and Zilkha divorced in 1990 and she returned to New York.[4] She has more recently contributed learned essays and reviews to publications such as London's Times Literary Supplement, while battling a debilitating illness.[4] Her two albums for ZE were reissued in 2005.
Discography[]
| Releases | |
|---|---|
| ↙Studio albums | 2 |
| ↙Singles | 6 |
Studio albums[]
- Cristina (1980, Ze Records)
- Sleep It Off (1984, Ze Records)
- Doll in the Box (2004, Ze Records) - Expanded re-issue of Cristina
- Sleep It Off (2004, Ze Records) - Expanded re-issue
Singles[]
- "Disco Clone" (1978)
- "Is That All There Is?" (1980)
- "Baby You Can Drive My Car" (1980)
- "La Poupée Qui Fait Non" (1980)
- "Things Fall Apart" (1981)
- "Ticket To The Tropics" (1984)