Pandora's Box was a female
pop group, assembled by
Jim Steinman
James Richard Steinman (November 1, 1947 – April 19, 2021) was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, mus ...
in the 1980s.
Some of its members had previously worked with Steinman, in the ensemble
Fire Inc.
''Streets of Fire'' is a 1984 American neo-noir rock musical film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It is described in the opening credits and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable" and is a mix of various movie genres wi ...
, on the album ''
Bat Out of Hell
''Bat Out of Hell'' is the 1977 debut album by American rock singer Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman. It is one of the best-selling albums in history. The album was developed from a musical, ''Neverland'', a futuristic rock version of '' ...
'', on live shows and on other studio recordings. They produced one
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
, ''
Original Sin'', released in 1989.
Line-up
The listed members, whose photos were put on the album, were Elaine Caswell,
Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley (born 1951) is an American singer and actress who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom '' Night Court'' for one season. In music, she has released five solo albums but is best known for her colla ...
, Gina Taylor, Deliria Wilde and
Jim Steinman
James Richard Steinman (November 1, 1947 – April 19, 2021) was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, mus ...
, who was listed as a keyboardist.
The album credits two more artists with lead vocals on songs: Laura Theodore and
Holly Sherwood
Holly Sherwood is an American rock music, rock singing, vocalist, best known for her work with Jim Steinman, providing both lead and backing vocals.
Acting career
At the age of three, Holly Sherwood began her professional career as the star of P ...
. Additionally, backing vocals were performed by
Rory Dodd
Rory Dodd (born Port Dover, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian rock vocalist who has performed many songs written by Jim Steinman. He is probably best known for singing as the duet voice (the "Turn around, bright eyes" lyrics) on Bonnie Tyler's vers ...
,
Eric Troyer
Eric Lee Troyer (born 10 April 1949) is an American keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and occasional guitarist, best known as a member of ELO Part II and its successor The Orchestra. Troyer was a founding member of ELO Part II, having been rec ...
and
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...
.
Foley had worked with Steinman on ''
Bat Out of Hell
''Bat Out of Hell'' is the 1977 debut album by American rock singer Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman. It is one of the best-selling albums in history. The album was developed from a musical, ''Neverland'', a futuristic rock version of '' ...
'' and ''Neverland''. Holly Sherwood was a member of his group
Fire Inc. Caswell has worked with Steinman on many projects, including
The Dream Engine
The Dream Engine is the name of a music performance group created by Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff, first publicly presented in 2006. They only performed songs written or co-written by Steinman. TDE did live performances, and worked on studio re ...
. In 2005 and 2006, she performed "
It's All Coming Back to Me Now
"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is a power ballad written by Jim Steinman. According to Steinman, the song was inspired by ''Wuthering Heights'', and was an attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" he could ever create. ''The Sunda ...
" at shows called Over the Top and
The Dream Engine
The Dream Engine is the name of a music performance group created by Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff, first publicly presented in 2006. They only performed songs written or co-written by Steinman. TDE did live performances, and worked on studio re ...
, respectively, at
Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub, one of the six performance spaces within The Public Theater, is a music venue and restaurant that hosts live performances across genres and arts, ranging from cabaret to modern dance to world music. It is located at 425 Lafayette St ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Gina Taylor is also known as Gina Taylor Pickens, and was previously a stage actress off-Broadway and member of the band
Musique. She previously worked with Steinman as part of the background vocals on the track "
This Corrosion" by
the Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasin ...
.
Jim Steinman says that
Pandora's box
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...
is one of his favourite mythologies.
Elaine Caswell stated in interview (in 2018) that Pandora's Box was "four women; three that existed and
..Deliria Wilde who was somewhat mythical, someone
teinmankind of created".
References
External links
MusicMoz
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1989
American pop music groups
American girl groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1990