Marcia Hines

by Brendan Swift
 
Arriving in Australia at the age of 16 to perform in the Australian production of the musical Hair, Bostonian Marcia Hines went on to become one of Australia's most loved and successful dance performers of the '70s.
 
After Hair, she appeared as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar until the show ended in February 1974. Hines then joined the Daly-Wilson Big Band and toured Australia, the U.S.A., and Russia. A solo deal followed in July 1974 and album sales of over half a million saw her crowned Australia's Queen of Pop from 1976-1978.
 
She had several Australian Top Ten hits between 1975 and 1979, including James Taylor's &Fire and Rain&/&You& (number nine in May 1975), &From the Inside&/Jumping Jack Flash& (number eight in November 1975), Burt Bacharach/Hal David's &I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself&/&Trilogy& (number three in September 1976), &What I Did for Love&/&A Love Story& (number seven in June 1977), &You&/&In a Mellow Mood& (number one in November), and &Something's Missing in My Life&/&Moments& (number ten in April 1979).
 
Her albums were also successful, Shining (number four in December 1976) selling over 150,000 copies and the double-album Live Across Australia (number six in March 1978) over 100,000. Her other hit albums were Marcia Shines (number ten in November 1975), Ladies and Gentlemen...Marcia Hines (number five in September 1977), and Ooh Child (number 15 in June 1979). From 1978 to 1979 she appeared in her own TV series, Marcia Hines Music, and briefly reprised her role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar until throat and respiratory problems cut her tour short.
 
In 1980, Hines left the Wizard label and signed with Midnight (through WEA. She scored a minor hit with &Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees&/&Till It's Too Late& (number ten in August 1981) and her next album, Take It from the Boys, reached number 16 in October 1981. The compilation album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 fared better, reaching number two in February 1982. With the unsuccessful release of Love Sides in May 1983, Hines once again returned as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.
 
Hines spent the next decade raising her daughter Deni until 1993 when she appeared on stage in The Masters of Rhythm and Taste. In 1994, she released her first album in 12 years, Right Here and Now, which produced the singles &Rain (Let the Children Play)& (August 1994) and &Give It All You've Got& (October) and a national tour in March 1994.
 
In 1998, Marcia Hines traveled to the U.K. to work on a new album, the first single a cover of Irene Cara's &What a Feeling.& The next single, &Time of Our Lives,& hit number 31 in June 1999 and polled at number 29 on the Top 100 Most Played Tracks on Australian Radio for 1999.
 
Time of Our Lives hit number 17 in July 1999 and the third single, &Making My Way& was released in September. Her version of &The Lord's Prayer& appeared on the charity album Spirit of Christmas in December which was followed by the single &Woo Me& in January 2000. The Queen of Pop album was released on BMG in 2000 and in 2001, the anthology, DIVA, was released through Warner, supported by the single &(I've Got To) Believe.& A fully authorized biography, Diva: The Life of Marcia Hines, was published in October 2001.