Kiss Me

SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER

written by Matt Slocum

produced by Steve Taylor

​

I’m making this page June 27th, 2021, the 45th birthday of

Leigh Anne Bingham Nash, lead singer and frontwoman

of Sixpence. Happy Birthday, LN!!

​

Leigh was born and raised in Texas, and met the gent who would become SNTR’s main songwriter, Matt Slocum, who was born in Rhode Island, but too raised in Texas. They formed Sixpence in their late teens, as a Christian pop/rock group. It was Leigh’s first band. Matt had come from another Christian band, Love Coma, but saw more opportunity to co-found Sixpence. They named the band with inspiration from a story by C.S. Lewis.

​

Sixpence joined the roster of artists belonging with indie label R.E.X. Records, and released two albums, in the respective Aprils of 1994 and ’95. R.E.X. went under later in ’95, and Sixpence spent ’96 in record contract limbo. Matt continued writing songs, and Leigh continued singing them. And in ’97, they were back under contract with the help of a new Christian label called Squint. Sixpence did their part to keep Squint in business into (some of) the 21st century. But before that came their self-titled album.

​

I picked up a copy of this album in... oh, probably about 2001 or ’02, and didn’t realize until later that it must have been a first pressing. My copy has the original 12 tracks, including “Kiss Me”—which was the reason I got it—but what I didn’t know at first was that SNTR’s other hit from this era, “There She Goes,” was also recorded for the album, but not at first included. When it was re-released in 1999, “There She Goes” was placed in as track 13. The (12-song) album originally dropped in fall ’97, though its first single, “Kiss Me,” wasn’t released in single form until the following summer.

​

Sixpence was now a known name, as “Kiss Me” broke the top ten all over the world, and threw its album onto the charts, which hit US Christian #1. “There She Goes” too was singled (alongside two other tracks from the record), in spring ’99. They opened the millennium with the album Divine Discontent, an original song called “Breathe Your Name,” and a cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

​

As far as I can see, the band’s last releases were around 2012, and... perhaps that was really it for them. Sixpence does not actually seem to have an official website (anymore).

​

Have notes to add? Let me know!

​

YT:

full version

music video