Marianne Faithfull, British Rock Icon, Dead at 78

Marianne Faithfull, an icon of 1960s British rock whose career went on to stretch seven decades, is dead at 78. Faithfull died “peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family,” a spokesperson told the BBC. Her career took off after she met the Rolling Stones’ producer and manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at a party for the band in 1964. By June of that year, she had recorded and released “As Tears Go By,” one of the earliest songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The song peaked at No. 9 in the U.K., and Faithfull followed up with three more top tens from 1964 to 1965, including her biggest, “Come and Stay With Me.” Faithfull released her first two albums on the same day: Marianne Faithfull was the pop-oriented project Decca Records wanted her to pursue, while Come My Way was a record of folk songs she had pushed to release.

Faithfull began dating Stones singer Jagger in 1966. She sang backup on “Sympathy for the Devil” and inspired Jagger to write songs including “Wild Horses” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” During this period, Faithfull also pursued a stage career, acting alongside Glenda Jackson in a Royal Court Theatre production of Three Sisters and playing Ophelia in Hamlet. Faithfull broke up with Jagger in 1970, ahead of a downturn in her career. Her issues with drug addiction were covered extensively. For periods in the 1970s, she suffered from anorexia while living on the street.

Faithfull made a comeback in 1979 with her seventh album, Broken English. She pursued a more electronic, New Wave–influenced direction on it, showcasing a voice weathered from years of drug use. The album got Faithfull signed to Island Records, received critical acclaim, and even earned her a Grammy nomination. She recorded consistently since then, becoming an influential figure in independent and alternative music. After a break, she returned to acting on TV and film in the 1990s, notably playing God in multiple episodes of the British comedy Absolutely Fabulous.

After surviving a 2020 hospitalization due to COVID, Faithfull released her final album, She Walks in Beauty, with Bad Seeds musician Warren Ellis. Faithfull recited British Romantic poetry over instrumentals from Ellis for the record, which was a passion project.