Susan Christie is an American singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known for a minor hit folk song “I Love Onions” (1966) and for her critically acclaimed solo psychedelic-folk album Paint A Lady (2006). Her song "Rainy Day" from Paint A Lady is featured in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
Early career
Susan Christie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts along with future music producer and director John Hill, who she had met in junior high school when they were involved in a play. Most of her future music was produced in collaboration with Hill, with whom she was also romantically involved. While at Berklee, they came to the attention of Cameo-Parkway record producer Dave Appell, which inspired both Christie and Hill to begin seriously pursuing music as a career. Their first collaboration was a folk group called The Highlanders, who performed live at various folk festivals during the mid 1960s.
Although Susan Christie is not credited as a songwriter, several songs were written specifically with her in mind, most notably by John Hill, David Cochrane, and Bill Soden. In 1966, Christie and Hill recorded two folk-pop songs, “When Love Comes” and “No One Can Hear You Cry” which they unsuccessfully tried selling to various record labels. The songs were eventually released through the Chante label as a single but failed to chart, and were subsequently pushed aside in favor of new projects. Some forty years later they were included as the final two tracks on the album Paint A Lady, where they earned much critical praise.
"I Love Onions"
Susan Christie's first taste of success came with the release of the novelty-folk song “I Love Onions” on April 11, 1966. The song, written by John Hill and David Cochrane, cost the couple $700 to produce and was picked up by Columbia Records. Described as having a catchy, quirky sound reminiscent of the 1920s, Christie's breathy vocals are featured with a chorus of kazoo, harmonica, and backup singers. The last verse is recited in an Elmer Fudd type of voice.
The song was well received, but only peaked at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Released internationally, “I Love Onions” charted highest in Canada, where it came in at #19 on the RPM 100 national singles on August 1, 1966. It was featured in episodes of Captain Kangaroo, and later adapted for several television ads, including a 1980 Turtles Chocolate commercial. The original single of “I Love Onions” features a second Hill - Cochrane song, “Take Me As You Find Me” on the b-side.
Paint A Lady
Following the success of “I Love Onions”, Susan Christie and John Hill attempted to market two more pop-novelty singles through Columbia Records: “Tonight You Belong To Me” with b-side “Toy Balloon” released April 24, 1967 and “All I Have To Do Is Dream” paired with b-side “Anywhere You Are”, released October 17, 1967. Unfortunately, neither single made the charts, and Christie was also growing tired of the breathy pop style with which she was becoming associated. Bootlegs and vinyl rips of these songs circulated the internet for years before they finally received an official re-release as part of the Columbia Singles album on March 16, 2018.
Their success started to turn around however, when the pair were offered an album deal through ABC-Paramount. “This wonderful opportunity came for us to do things the way we would like to do them,” Christie would later say. They carefully selected a mixture of country, folk, and psychedelic songs and created unique, original renditions of each for an album to be released under the title Paint a Lady. But after the first few tracks were completed, ABC-Paramount pulled the deal, declaring the album to be un-commercial. Only three privately-pressed vanity copies were produced (circa 1970 - 1971) which the disappointed couple saved along with the master tapes.
Following the failure to complete Paint A Lady, Christie abandoned her dreams of recording as an independent artist, working instead as a jingle singer and focusing on personal and family life. “I had decided against being a normal singer because jingle work was easier to fit around the children. I sang about bladder control, detergents, Diet Pepsi and Maxwell House coffee,” she said during a 2008 interview.
Paint A Lady languished in all but forgotten obscurity in Christie's basement until, in the early 2000s, she was approached by a record company executive named Keith D’Arcy who specialized in rare and unusual recordings. She gave him one of the three copies, which he then shared with English DJ Andy Votel, owner and founder of Finders Keepers Records.