Tiffany
In I987 Billy Idol got to number one in the U.S. with a lousy cover version of Mony Mony. It was a delight when Billy got knocked off the number one spot by a Californian teenager called Tiffany who had recorded an absolutely fantastic cover of I Think We're Alone Now. The song had originally been a hit for Tommy James and The Shondells. The original version was fine but young Tiffany Darwisch’s version was far superior.
Tiffany reached number one with the same song in the UK on January the 30th 1988 and it stayed at number one for 3 weeks. The British press often mentioned Tiffany had ginger hair and usually mentioned her young age but the fact they always brought up was that Tiffany had came to people’s attention by performing live in shopping malls. There was a suggestion that by touring the malls and doing lots of other personal appearance stuff at various schools, that Tiffany had earned her chops and learnt her onions in a similar way to The Beatles in Hamberg. There was definitely something refreshing about young girls being excited by and supportive of a person their own age. When I Think You're Alone Now was Number One in the UK it's believed around 2,000 children bunked off school to see her sing live in Piccadilly Circus.
One of her follow up hits was her take on a Beatles classic, I saw Him Standing There. Tiffany had been impressing people with her voice since the age of 2 and had record company interest by the age of 12. Sadly her personal life wasn't as fun and carefree as the songs she sang. Not long after her self-titled debut album got to number one, Tiffany ran away from her Mom at first to her Grand Mom’s house and then to her Aunt’s. The money Tiffany earns from her hits is put in a trust (presumably so her Mom can’t get at it). And an obsessed Tiffany fan called Jeff Turner is ordered by court to stay at least 200 yards from her at all times and to stop sending letters to her with comments such as, “God wants us to be together.”
After a spell being the support act for New Kids on The Block, Tiffany decided it was a good idea to do a sponsorship deal with CoCo Pops (the cereal that is so chocolatey it turns the milk brown) and her face appeared on the front of the cereal boxes. She had one great pop track left in her called Radio Romance which made the top 40 on both sides of the pond. Elvis Costello mentioned in interviews he liked her and the song and wanted her to do well but Tiffany’s 15 minutes of fame felt like they were coming to an end. Tiffany’s voice talents were used in the 1990 animated film, The Jetstones. According to Wikipedia, “Tiffany sang three songs used in the film (I Always Thought I’d See You Again, You and Me and Home).” Tiffany did not write any of the songs, but she cited I Always Thought I’d See You Again as one of her favourites to sing. When fans of Tiffany did see her again it was when she posed for Playboy magazine!
The American-Irish comedian Dennis Leary used to do a stand up routine in the 1990s when he discussed the unfairness in the way female actors always had to expose their breasts in their first two movies before they could be taken seriously but male actors always got to keep their dignity and their pants on right from the start. Yet, Tiffany today says she has no regrets about the shoot.
In recent years she’s released albums such as; Rose Tattoo (2011), A Million Miles (2016) and Pieces of Me (2018). The future is unwritten. I believe we’ll see her again.
Harry Pye
Drawing of Tiffany by Harry Pye with extra texture added by Chris Tosic.
