timeline

Sparks

Brothers Ron and Russell Mael, a keyboard player and a falsetto singer from Los Angeles who turned up as a British glam sensation in 1974 and kept reinventing themselves for five decades.

Origin
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active
1968-present
Genres
art pop, art rock, glam rock, synth-pop, new wave
Labels
Bearsville, Island, Atlantic, Warner Bros., Elektra, RCA, Virgin, Lil' Beethoven, Domino, Transgressive
Also known as
Halfnelson

Halfnelson to Sparks

Sparks are two brothers from Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. Ron Mael, born in 1945, plays keyboards. Russell Mael, born in 1948, sings. Both studied at UCLA, Ron cinema and graphic arts, Russell theatre arts and filmmaking. They began in 1968 as a band called Halfnelson, named after a wrestling hold, with Earle and James Mankey and Harley Feinstein behind them.

Todd Rundgren produced the first album for Bearsville. It was reissued in 1972 under the new name Sparks, a play on the Marx Brothers, and produced a regional hit in Wonder Girl. A second record, A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing, led to a UK tour and a residency at the Marquee Club in London. In 1973 the brothers moved to England, signed to Island Records under manager John Hewlett, and replaced their American band with English players.

Kimono My House

The move paid off at once. Kimono My House came out on Island in May 1974, produced by Muff Winwood, with Martin Gordon on bass, Adrian Fisher on guitar and Dinky Diamond on drums. Its opening single, This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us, reached number two in the UK. A Top of the Pops appearance did the rest: Russell bare-chested and curly-haired, Ron motionless and deadpan beside his keyboard. The album reached number four in the UK. Propaganda followed in November 1974 and reached number nine in the UK. Indiscreet, produced by Tony Visconti, came in 1975 and sold less well.

The English chart run faded, and in 1976 the brothers went home to Los Angeles. Big Beat and Introducing Sparks were recorded there and sold poorly. Wanting a more electronic sound, they turned to Giorgio Moroder, and No. 1 in Heaven, made at his Musicland Studios in Munich and released in 1979, dropped guitar, bass and piano for layered synthesizers. Its closer, The Number One Song in Heaven, reached number 14 in the UK. Whomp That Sucker, Angst in My Pants and In Outer Space followed. Angst in My Pants gave them their first Hot 100 entry with I Predict, and Cool Places, sung with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's, reached number 49 in the US.

Reinvention

Through the 1980s they kept changing the setting around the same two people, with Interior Design closing the decade in 1988. After six years away they returned in 1994 with Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, a turn to techno and Europe that became their most successful album in Germany. Plagiarism in 1997 re-recorded older songs with guests, including a new orchestral version of This Town arranged and conducted by Visconti, and a collaboration with Faith No More that reached number 40 in the UK as a single. Balls followed in 2000 and did not chart in Germany, the UK or the US.

Then came a sharp turn. Lil' Beethoven, released in 2002 on their own imprint, dropped drum loops and samples and built each song from as many as 75 tracks of vocals and orchestration. Its opener, The Rhythm Thief, set the tone. Hello Young Lovers followed in 2006. In 2008 a 21-night run in London had them play each of their earlier albums in full, in order, before the premiere of Exotic Creatures of the Deep, and in 2009 came The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, a commission from Swedish Radio.

The later years

In 2012 they toured as a duo for the first time, under the name Two Hands, One Mouth. In December 2014 they played Kimono My House in full at the Barbican with the Heritage Orchestra, and in 2015 they made an album with Franz Ferdinand as FFS. Hippopotamus in 2017 and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip in 2020 each reached number seven in the UK.

2021 was the biggest year of their career. Leos Carax directed Annette, a film for which Sparks wrote all the songs; it premiered at Cannes and won the Cannes Soundtrack Award, then a Cesar and a Lumiere for its music. Edgar Wright's documentary The Sparks Brothers premiered at Sundance the same year. The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte came out in 2023 and Pitchfork called it a new high-water mark for 21st-century Sparks. Mad! in 2025 reached number two in the UK, their highest album placing. Admirers include Bjork, Morrissey, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and Johnny Marr. Joy Division cited one of their songs while working on Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Members

Records

Songs

Todd Rundgren, Franz Ferdinand, Faith No More, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Morrissey

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Fan sites and communities

  • FanMael A revived Dutch fan club site with discographies, reviews, lyrics and old magazine issues.

Sources

  1. Sparks (band), Wikipedia
  2. Ron Mael, Wikipedia
  3. Russell Mael, Wikipedia
  4. Kimono My House, Wikipedia
  5. Lil' Beethoven, Wikipedia
  6. The Sparks Brothers, Wikipedia
  7. Sparks: No. 1 in Heaven, Pitchfork (2021-05-23)
  8. Trend Upsetters: 10 Essential Sparks Songs, Pitchfork (2015-06-24)
  9. Sparks: The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte, Pitchfork (2023-05-30)
  10. 'We have a hostility to being boring': Sparks, still flying in their 70s, The Guardian (2021-07-16)
  11. Sparks - Live In London, Nov 27, 1999, Internet Archive
  12. Sparks - Live at the Capitol Theater, Passaic NJ (1976), Internet Archive (2023-02-18)
  13. Sparks - Live At The London Forum: Hello Young Lovers, September 30th, 2006, Internet Archive
  14. Halfnelson Demo Album (1969), Internet Archive
  15. Sparks - The Urban Renewal Project Acetates, Internet Archive