Libby Titus, Singer Who Co-Wrote ‘Love Has No Pride’ and Recorded in 1970s Before Marrying Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, Dies at 77

Libby Titus, a singer who recorded two albums within the late Sixties and ’70s earlier than retiring from the music scene, later turning into the spouse of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, died Sunday at age 77. No reason for loss of life was given.

Fagen introduced her loss of life on Steely Dan’s web site. “My lovely spouse, Libby Titus Fagen, handed on October thirteenth surrounded by household,” he wrote. “Thanks for retaining us in your ideas, and for respecting our privateness presently.”

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Titus was the mom of singer-songwriter Amy Helm, whose father was Levon Helm, Titus’ accomplice within the late ’60s and ’70s.

Titus’ most well-known and oft-recorded track was “Love Has No Delight,” co-written with Eric Kaz. It was lesser recognized for the model she launched in 1977 than from the track’s plentiful covers, together with recordings executed in fast succession by Bonnie Raitt in 1972, Linda Ronstadt in 1973, and Tracy Nelson and Rita Coolidge in 1974. The tune has additionally been coated by Rod Stewart, Billy Bragg, Rita Wilson, Jane Monheit and plenty of others.

Titus’ quick profession as a recording artist encompassed two albums, each of them self-titled. The primary, on the impartial Sizzling Biscuit Disc Firm label in 1968, included covers of songs like “The Idiot on the Hill” and “You Didn’t Should Be So Good” and didn’t draw a lot consideration. The second album got here out on Columbia practically a decade later, in 1977, and was a way more high-profile affair, with 4 songs co-written by Titus and an all-star record of producers that included Paul Simon, Robbie Robertson, Carly Simon and Phil Ramone.

She appeared because the musical visitor on “Saturday Night time Stay” on Oct. 15, 1977, through the present’s third season.

As a songwriter, Titus co-wrote songs with Burt Bacharach for his “Girl” album within the late ’70s and contributed to Carly Simon albums.

Titus helped type the Rock & Soul Revue with Fagen and carried out with the ensemble in its early days, earlier than Steely Dan reunited, though she didn’t seem on the only album launched by the collective.

The Woodstock, NY native’s first marriage was to Barry Titus, adopted by her relationship with Helm after which her marriage ceremony to Fagen in 1993.

She was credited for small roles within the films “Awakenings” and “Heartburn.”

A 2000 profile of Steely Dan in Rolling Stone because the duo reunited for a reunion album had Titus recounting a few of her position in that, in addition to her historical past together with her husband. The singer stated she first met Fagen in 1987 after they each went backstage to hold with Dr. John. Fagen had recalled seeing her — however not but assembly her — at Bard, the place she stated he remembered her from a distance. “I used to be carrying a fur coat and had a brief, quick skirt and was all executed up, and he stated he thought I regarded like bohemian royalty,” she stated. In ’87, after the encounter through Dr. John, “we went to dinner and acquired into this dialog that by no means ended. He took me out to dinners, and we stored speaking till the spring of ’89.” She instructed the journal she had been producing small reveals for “SNL” veteran Tom Schiller at a restaurant in Manhattan. “One evening it will be, say, Dr. John plus Carly Simon, and it was by invitation solely. One other evening I had Duke Ellington’s bass participant, Aaron Bell, and that evening Donald got here, and he actually liked it. In Could of 1989 he did a present for me with Dr. John at Elaine’s, of all locations, and it was the primary time he had carried out in years.

“After that we determined to do our personal present,” she continued. “We acquired varied artists to do Jerry Ragovoy songs. Donald didn’t need to carry out, however I stated, ‘It’s a must to, or nobody’s going to come back.’ We did our reveals as soon as a month or as soon as each two months then – it grew to become the New York Rock and Soul Revue – till the start of ’92. And it introduced Walter to New York. He had come again to provide Donald’s album ‘Kamakiriad,’ after which he was enjoying guitar onstage with Donald” — lastly resulting in the Steely Dan reunion excursions of the mid-’90s.

Titus and Fagen made headlines in New York in 2016 when police responded to a name and he was accused of pushing her right into a window of their condo throughout an argument. She was quoting as telling a New York Submit reporter over the telephone that she was “drained and divorcing my husband,” however any such impulse was apparently short-lived, and police dismissed the case earlier than the month was up. The couple stated in a brief assertion subsequently given to the Submit, “Regardless of deceptive reviews within the press, we’re fortunately married. Now in our twenty third 12 months of marriage, we’re trying ahead to many, many extra.”

Titus additionally had a son, Ezra Titus, from her first marriage, who died in 2009.

Amy Helm has spoken in interviews of her mom’s impression in addition to her father Levon’s. “She additionally influenced me rather a lot,” she instructed Relix in 2021. “She made certain to spherical out my musical training by turning me on to Laura Nyro and Brenda Russell and Joni Mitchell, the singer-songwriters whose poetry was so fierce and whose singing was so completely different from the soul music I had been listening to. I fell in love with Aretha Franklin and by no means regarded again, however she made certain to open up my ears to different singers, too.”

Carly Simon wrote the 1976 track “Libby” about her, with lyrics together with:

However Libby, we’ll fly anyway, hey
And go away behind our blues
Half-sung melodies
Commerce all of them in for a Paris breeze,
Libby we’ll fly

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