Patti Scialfa

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Vivienne Patricia Scialfa (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref name=WP2004/> born July 29, 1953)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.

Early life and education

Scialfa grew up in Deal, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore.<ref name=WP2004>Stewart, Allison. "Patti Scialfa's Glory Days; With 'Lullaby,' the Boss's Wife Steps Into the Spotlight", The Washington Post, June 20, 2004. Retrieved July 18, 2012. "Scialfa (pronounced SKAL-fah) grew up in the affluent suburb of Deal, N.J., and attended the prestigious jazz program at the University of Miami before moving to New York."</ref> She was the middle child of Joseph Scialfa and Patricia (née Morris) Scialfa.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her father was of Sicilian ancestry and her mother is Irish; from Belfast, Northern Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She also has half-siblings from her father's second marriage. Her father was a successful local entrepreneur, who started a television store and became a real estate developer.<ref name="peopleromancing">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Scialfa began writing songs at an early age.

She attended Asbury Park High School, where she graduated in 1971.<ref name="peopleromancing" /> Following high school, she first began working as a back-up singer for New Jersey bar bands.

She began college at the University of Miami's jazz conservatory at the Frost School of Music,<ref name="peopleromancing" /> and later transferred to New York University, where she earned an undergraduate degree in music.

In 1994, she told Lear's magazine that she had little talent for anything but music and that she attended college as a way to further her ambitions as a performer while also satisfying parental expectations.

Career

While in college at the University of Miami and later at New York University, Scialfa began writing original music for other artists. However, none of her songs were recorded.

File:PattiScialfa2004.jpg

Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell at Asbury Park Convention Hall in September 2004

After her college graduation, she worked as a busker and waitress in Greenwich Village. Together with Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell, she formed a street group known as Trickster. For many years, she struggled to make her way in the songwriting and recording industry in New York City and New Jersey before playing at Folk City and Kenny's Castaways in Greenwich Village and The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Scialfa had a brief role in The Stone Pony's house band Cats on a Smooth Surface.<ref name="peopleromancing" /> These gigs won her notice and, eventually, recording work with Southside Johnny<ref name="peopleromancing" /> and David Johansen.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1984, Scialfa joined the E Street Band, three or four days before the opening show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. In 1986, she appeared on the Rolling Stones' Dirty Work album, leaving her vocal mark on "One Hit (To the Body)" as well as other tracks. She worked with Keith Richards on his first solo album Talk Is Cheap. Steve Jordan, who co-produced the Richards record, was a friend of Scialfa's from her Greenwich Village days.<ref>The Acoustic Storm Interviews acousticstorm.com</ref>

Scialfa's music industry friendships with Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell are long-standing, pre-dating their mutual work as background vocalists and musicians on the 1987 Buster Poindexter album, featuring a Soca song by Arrow, "Hot Hot Hot". Lowell and Tyrell have since worked on various Springsteen-Scialfa recording projects and Tyrell, a violinist, has recorded and toured with Springsteen and the E Street Band.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scialfa has recorded three solo albums, 1993's Rumble Doll, 2004's 23rd Street Lullaby and 2007's Play It as It Lays. Her first two albums received four-star reviews from Rolling Stone, while the third received three and a half stars. Her records are a mix of confessional songwriting, impressive vocal range, and traditional country, folk and rock music. Springsteen and fellow E Street bandmates, like Nils Lofgren and Roy Bittan, have contributed to her albums. Following the release of Scialfa's second album, she played a series of club dates on the East Coast and was the opening act of the post-final night of the Vote for Change tour.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2009 and again in 2011, Scialfa confirmed that she had written most of the songs for her fourth album and was trying to find the time to record it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

File:Stone Pony Asbury Park NJ1.jpg

The Stone Pony, a live music club and bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where Scialfa first met Bruce Springsteen in the early 1980s

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Scialfa performing with Springsteen and the E Street Band at Hartford Civic Center in October 2007

Scialfa first met Bruce Springsteen in the early 1980s at The Stone Pony, a music venue and bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where Springsteen and his band regularly played.<ref>Interview with Patti Scialfa, "Red-Headed Woman", page 42-44, Q, 1993</ref> In 1984, Scialfa postponed recording her solo record to join Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. Tour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After the tour, Scialfa started a short-term relationship with actor Tom Cruise.

In August 1988, Springsteen's first wife Julianne Phillips filed for divorce, and Scialfa and Springsteen started living together afterward in New Jersey and later in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles, where they started a family.<ref name="reader">Template:Cite book</ref> Springsteen and Phillips's divorce was finalized in 1989.<ref name="reader" /><ref name="wordsmusic120">Template:Cite book</ref>

On July 25, 1990, Scialfa gave birth to the couple's first child, Evan James Springsteen.<ref name="reader" /><ref name="wordsmusic120" /> Scialfa and Springsteen married on June 8, 1991, at their Los Angeles home in a ceremony attended by family and close friends.<ref name="reader" /><ref name="wordsmusic120" /> Their second child, Jessica Rae Springsteen, was born December 30, 1991,<ref name="reader" /><ref name="wordsmusic120" /> and their third child, Samuel Ryan Springsteen, was born January 5, 1994.<ref name="reader" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The family returned to New Jersey in the early 1990s and now lives in Colts Neck, New Jersey.<ref>Associated Press, "Springsteen scraps Halloween display", Kentucky New Era, October 30, 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2011. "The 59-year-old rocker and his wife say too many visitors to their Rumson neighborhood raised concerns for the safety of children and parents."</ref> They also own homes in Wellington, Florida, near West Palm Beach, and Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On July 17, 2022, Scialfa and Springsteen became first-time grandparents with the birth of their granddaughter Lily Harper Springsteen, daughter of their son Sam.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September 2024, Scialfa revealed that she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Discography

• Rumble Doll (1993)
• 23rd Street Lullaby (2004) – (#152, US Billboard 200)
• Play It As It Lays (2007) – (#90, US Billboard 200)
• Contributed a song called "Children's Song" to the charity album Every Mother Counts, the song is a duet with her husband, Bruce Springsteen (2011)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "Linda Paloma" (from the album Looking into You: A Tribute To Jackson Browne), a duet with Bruce Springsteen (2014).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:IMDb name
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• Patti Scialfa at MySpace