"To make my list, a song has to affect me very deeply," Andrea Marcovicci told Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press in 1987. "Often as not, I'll realize that it was a song I heard when I was very young and that I have an attachment to already. But a new song can come into my life as long as it is very emotional and has a great lyric. I wanted to be a torch singer like my mother (Helen Stuart). But I grew up in the '60s when it was all folk songs and rock'n'roll."
In 1966, Andrea sang for guests at a Christmas party. Martin Gabel and Arlene Francis were so impressed they organized for her to appear on the 'Merv Griffith Show'. Andrea recounted, "When I returned to school after the appearance, I knew that I would only finish my freshman year and then try for a career (in show business)." Andrea was born in 1948.
On reflection in 1995, "One of the reasons I sing the songs I sing is to constantly humanize, constantly remind people of romantic love. Unabashed, hopeless romanticism is very healing and I keep the balance between the real and imaginary very much alive. It’s both sides of romance and the humor in-between that makes us notice what we're after."
Back in 1989, Annie Denison told Mary Kamps of 'The Milwaukee Journal', "A singer has to have a good sense of time and expression, a sense of pitch and good control over her instrument, breathing and expression-wise. If she wants to hit something real soft, she needs to be able to do that. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's the little experiments that don't work that, strangely enough, can keep things exciting.
"Even Carmen McRae goes flat once in a while. I've got an album of hers where this one tune is one big faux pas. But it's great. It's human. It works for her." Andrea added, "It isn't a question of having the greatest voice in the world. Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday – they had flawed voices. But they used them to speak truth, often painful truth. They put the experiences of living into their songs."
Andrea made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 as the nun Betsy Chernak on 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing'. Andrea told Cheryl Lavin of 'Chicago Tribune' in 1985, "When I was in my early 20s, I felt very troubled and dark. The parts that came along called for me to be troubled and dark. The more I played them, the more troubled I became.
"I first got laughs on 'Taxi', when I did a satire not the usual crybaby I played. Once I got laughs, I was hooked. I got happier and developed a comic attitude about life." In 1985, Andrea played "the next Alexis Carrington" or "the new Joan Collins" on the prime time soap, 'Berrenger's', "wearing long fingernails and $2,200 worth of clothing a day" (courtesy of first Travilla then Jean Pierre Dorleac).
Andrea told the press in 1971, "I perform in coffee houses just for the experience, but I wouldn't ever want to play in a nightclub. Besides, those people would never appreciate what I'm trying to say with my songs. They are meant for a young audience."
She also mentioned to Jill Johnson Piper of 'Scripps Howard News Service' in 1990, "I have this weird vision of what a night in a cabaret ought to be, but I don't expect other performers to share that. It's not a night of songs. I think of it as a conversation. I'm always prepared to expose my romantic yearnings, thrills and dissatisfactions. I don't pay as much attention to the sound of my voice as the words I'm saying. My hope is that you lose your awareness of me as a singer."
On the day Andrea was expected to perform, she said she would save her emotional energy. "All day I store up energy. I have this kind of natural thermostat that says, 'Wait til later'. When I get up to sing there's this emotional reservoir ready to go. Since the essential technique is to take the energy of the room and mirror it, even if I'm dry I can still work. If I feel really dead I will pick out the person I can draw the most strength from and focus on them."
On 'Berrenger's', Sam Wanamaker played Andrea's on-screen father-in-law, the equivalent of Jane Wyman on 'Falcon Crest'. Sam insisted he could identify with Simon Berrenger "partly because he's 3-dimensional. He's a man who's come up from circumstances typical of the self-made man. He's made the business into a success. He's a first-generation American, as I am. He struggled coming up and he expects his children to struggle, but they're raised in luxury. They're not the tough fighter he was and he can't understand it. I like him. I think he's a hell of a guy."
