Letters To Cleo

The pop/rock group Letters to Cleo formed in 1990 in Boston, where many young bands begin to grow a fan base by taking advantage of airplay on local college radio stations. Guitarists Greg McKenna actually started Letters to Cleo as another group. When he went in search of a background singer for his lineup, he found vocalist Kay Hanley. The original band fell apart a few months later. McKenna and Hanley stayed on, and that's when they came up with the name Letters to Cleo and switched to more of a power pop band. The duo added another guitarist to the mix, Michael Eisenstien. After some time went by, drummer Stacy Jones joined, and then bassist Scott Reibling. The talented five seemed to click, personally and musically. Letters to Cleo saw its first recording, Aurora Gory Alice, hit the market in 1993. It was released under the local Cherry Disc Records label. The debut album did better than expected, and soon the band had the full attention of the major-label Giant Records. Giant did a re-release of Aurora Gory Alice in 1994. It was followed by the sophomore recording Wholesale Meats and Fish a year later. The group also put out a couple of notable singles in 1995, "Awake" and "Here & Now." A music video was shot for the latter and gained good exposure on MTV. The tune was even used on the popular show Melrose Place for its hit soundtrack. For all the things that seemed to be going right, the second album, Wholesale Meats and Fish, didn't do well. It would be two years before the next album, Go, appeared. It was released under the Revolution Records label. By this time, drummer Stacy Jones had parted ways with Letters to Cleo to join the group Veruca Salt, and Tom Polce had taken the spot left vacant. The group gave it another try in 1998 with Sister. Some of the tracks fans can enjoy from these last two recordings are "Secret Agent," "Dreams," "Never Tell," "Anchor," "Because of You," and "I Got Time." Along the way, the group toured continuously, Kay Hanley married Michael Eisenstein, Stacy Jones rejoined the team shortly, and a good time was had by all. But on May 4th of 2000, Letters to Cleo played its last gig, fittingly enough it happened in Boston, where the band started. The next month, the local newspaper, the Boston Globe, made the announcement official. The group did work together for a while longer at least, because of a signed contract that had them obligated to complete work on Molly-O, an animated series for television. After that, most of the members were looking forward to testing out their skills as solo artists, in one form or another.