Christine by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Album: Kaleidoscope (1980)

Charted: 24

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Songfacts®:

This song is about Christine Costner-Sizemore, whose struggles with multiple personality disorder were documented in the book The Three Faces Of Eve, which was written by her psychiatrists Corbett Thigpen and Hervey Cleckley. The story was then dramatized in a 1957 film also called The Three Faces Of Eve in which Joanne Woodward won an the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Two of Christine's identities, the Strawberry Girl and the Banana Split Lady, are mentioned in the lyrics of the song.
The band first became interested in the case of Christine Sizemore following the discovery (via a friend) of an article in a 1977 Observer magazine about the strange case history of Sizemore. Steve Severin got hold of the book I'm Eve, co-written by Sizemore and her cousin Elen Sain Pittillo. Inspired, Steve Severin wrote the lyrics that told of the 22 personalities that had at the time emerged throughout her life.
The B-side of the single, "Eve White/Eve Black," tells of the confrontation between the 2 major personalities and of the battle for possession of Christine's body.

Comments: 3

Darrell from EugeneI have a good friend named Christine who hates this song, along with the Stephen King "killer-car" (by the way, the California license number CQB241 and anything containing that combination will live forever as a symbol of automotive evil)novel and film and "Christine Sixteen" by Kiss, and her inflated self-righteousness tells her that these works of fiction may be disrespectful to her despite the only connections being the name.
Rayna from Pembroke Pines, FlAnd I thought it was a song about a teenage girl trying on different identities and different "selves" as she went through adolescence -- but then, i first heard the song when I myself was a teen.
Dennis from Newton, MaThis is a great site. Sensibly set up to enrich the appreciation of song lyrics. A challenge would be to discover from where the music, rhythyms, arrangement, tempo, intrumentation, vocals, etc. were inspired/developed/etc.

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