Willy DeVille

Willy DeVille was born in Stamford, Connecticut to William Paul Borsey (1919-2000), a carpenter, and Marion Elizabeth Meritt (1921-2004).

He grew up in the working-class Belltown district of Stamford.

His maternal grandmother was a Pequot, and he was also of Spanish and Irish descent.

As he put it, "A little of this and a little of that; a real street dog."

DeVille said about Stamford, "It was post-industrial. Everybody worked in factories, you know. Not me. I wouldn't have that. People from Stamford don't get too far. That's a place where you die."

DeVille said about his youthful musical tastes, "I still remember listening to groups like the Drifters. It was like magic, there was drama, and it would hypnotise me."

DeVille quit high school and began frequenting New York City's Lower East Side and West Village.

"It seemed like I just hung out and hung out. I always wanted to play music but nobody really had it together then. They had psychedelic bands but that wasn't my thing."

In this period, DeVille's interests ran to blues guitarists Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and especially John Hammond.

"I think I owe a lot about my look, my image on stage, and my vocal riffs to John Hammond. A lot of my musical stance is from John," Deville said.

Willy DeVille (born William Paul Borsey Jr.; August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter.

Latin rhythms, blues riffs, doo-wop, Cajun music, strains of French cabaret, and echoes of early-1960s uptown soul can be heard in DeVille's work.

He credited Hammond's 1965 album So Many Roads with "changing my life."

As a teenager, DeVille played with friends from Stamford in a blues band called Billy & the Kids, and later in another band called The Immaculate Conception.

At age 17, he married Susan Berle, also known as Toots.

Mink DeVille was a house band at CBGB, the historic New York City nightclub where punk rock was born in the mid-1970s.

DeVille helped redefine the Brill Building sound.

DeVille struck out in 1971 for London in search of like-minded musicians ("obvious American with my pompadour hair"), but was unsuccessful finding them; he returned to New York City after a two-year absence.

His next band, The Royal Pythons ("a gang that turned into a musical group" ), was not a success either.

Said DeVille: "I decided to go to San Francisco; there was nothing really happening in New York. Flower power was dead. All the day-glo paint was peeling off the walls. People were shooting speed. I mean, it was real Night of the Living Dead. So I bought a truck and headed out west. I traveled all around the country for a couple of years, looking for musicians who had heart, instead of playing 20-minute guitar solos, which is pure ego."

During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, DeVille created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles.

He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary music, including Jack Nitzsche, Doc Pomus, Dr. John, Mark Knopfler, Allen Toussaint, and Eddie Bo.

By 1974 Willy DeVille (under the name Billy Borsay) was singing in a band with drummer Thomas R. "Manfred" Allen, Jr., bassist Rubén Sigüenza, guitarist Robert McKenzie (a.k.a. Fast Floyd), and Ritch Colbert on keyboards.

The band called themselves Billy de Sade and the Marquis, but changed the name to Mink DeVille the year after; at the same time lead singer Borsay adapted the name Willy DeVille.

The same year, DeVille persuaded the band members to try their luck in New York City after spotting an ad in The Village Voice inviting bands to audition.

Guitarist Fast Floyd and keyboard player Ritch Colbert stayed behind in San Francisco, and after arriving in New York, the band hired guitarist Louis X. Erlanger, whose blues sensibilities helped shape the Mink DeVille sound.

During three years, from 1975 to 1977, Mink DeVille was one of the original house bands at CBGB, the New York nightclub where punk rock music was born in the mid-1970s.

Their sound from this period is witnessed by Live at CBGB's, a 1976 compilation album of bands that played CBGB and for which the band contributed three songs.

In December 1976, Ben Edmonds, an A&R man for Capitol Records signed the band to a contract with Capitol Records after spotting them at CBGB.

Edmonds paired Mink DeVille with producer Jack Nitzsche who had apprenticed under Phil Spector and helped shape the Wall of Sound production technique.

Assisted by saxophonist Steve Douglas and a cappella singers the Immortals they recorded the band's debut album Cabretta (simply called Mink DeVille in the U.S.) in January 1976.

Cabretta, a multifaceted album of soul, R&B, rock, and blues recordings, was selected number 57 in the Village Voice's 1977 Pazz & Jop critics poll.

Its lead single "Spanish Stroll" reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart, the only Willy DeVille recording to ever hit the charts in the United Kingdom.

The band's follow-up album, Return to Magenta (1978), continued in the same vein as Cabretta, except that Willy DeVille and producers Nitzsche and Steve Douglas employed string arrangements on several songs.

On this album Dr. John played keyboards and, once again, Douglas played saxophone.

In 1987 his song "Storybook Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.

After his move to New Orleans in 1988, he helped spark the roots revival of classic New Orleans R&B.

His soulful lyrics and explorations in Latin rhythms and sounds helped define a new musical style sometimes called "Spanish-Americana".

DeVille died of pancreatic cancer on August 6, 2009, at the age of 58.

Although his commercial success waxed and waned over the years, his legacy as a songwriter has influenced many other musicians, such as Mark Knopfler and Peter Wolf.