MARIANNE FAITHFULL,
1946-2025

Marianne Faithfull, who gained fame as a teenage Rolling Stones muse and sometime collaborator before reinventing herself as a cutting-edge solo artist in the late ’70s and ’80s, died Thursday (1/30) in London. The 78-year-old artist had been struggling with the lingering effects of a nearly fatal COVID infection in 2020.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” reads a statement from her representative. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family.”

Faithfull, who was descended from Austro-Hungarian aristocrats, became known as an “it girl” of swinging London in 1964, at age 17, when “As Tears Go By,” her debut recording and the first song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, became a hit in the U.K. and U.S.

After she scored several more mid-'60s hits, Faithfull’s career was derailed by heroin addiction. She bravely chronicled her experience in the lyrics to “Sister Morphine,” which she co-wrote with Jagger and Richards. Her version of the song was released in 1969, two years before The Stones included their rendition on Sticky Fingers without crediting her. After a drawn-out legal battle, Faithfull received her credit on the 1994 reissue of the LP.

Faithfull made an audacious reemergence with the landmark 1979 album Broken English, whose dark but electrifying songs—including a harrowing cover of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”—were further intensified by her coarsened voice, which seemed to embody the hard life she’d lived. The LP received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

She continued her solo career in single-minded fashion for the ensuing four decades with albums including 1987’s Hal Willner-produced covers album Strange Weather and 2008’s Easy Come, Easy Go, which included her edgy renditions of songs by Randy Newman, Judee Sill, Traffic, Smokey Robinson, Brian Eno and Merle Haggard. Negative Capability, released in 2018, would be her final album.

Faithfull also wrote three memoirs: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams & Reflections (2007) and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014).