Mink De Ville

As a teenager, DeVille had a band named Billy and the Kids. He moved to London looking to form a band, but was unsuccessful finding like-minded musicians. Eventually, he landed in San Francisco, where he formed a band with bassist Rub?n Sig?enza and drummer Tom "Manfred" Allen. The band played under the names Billy DeSade & the Marquis and the Lazy Eights before settling on the name Mink DeVille. Later, DeVille took the band to New York City...

The typical DeVille song ? if any of his songs can be called "typical" ? is filled with romantic conviction and yearning. Latin rhythms, blues riffs, strains of country music, and echoes of early-1960s uptown soul can be heard in DeVille's work. "Spanish Stroll" was a hit in the U.S. and the UK in 1977; "Storybook Love" (nominated for an Academy Award in 1987) is the theme song of the movie The Princess Bride; DeVille's "Just to Walk that Little Girl Home" (co-authored with Doc Pomus) can be heard in the movie "The Pope of Greenwich Village"; and his "It's So Easy" can be heard in the movies "Cruising" and "Grindhouse: Death Proof." His song "Assassin of Love" was used in the British film version of Martin Amis' novel The Rachel Papers in 1989, which helped make him known in the UK.

Why DeVille isn't as popular as, for example, Bruce Springsteen, and why DeVille isn't as popular in America as Europe, will always be a mystery to his fans. DeVille suffered from drug addiction for many years, which stifled his career. Among musicians and songwriters, he is highly respected. Songwriter Doc Pomus said about Deville, "He knows the truth of a city street and the courage in a ghetto love song." Robert Palmer wrote, "Certainly his music had an authenticity, a kind of New York soul, that few of his fellow travelers on the punk-rock circuit even aspired to.