BEBE BUELL STOPS FOOLING AROUND
Blondes really do have more fun. Just ask Bebe Buell, girlfriend to the stars, who’s taking time out from her career as rock’s favorite pin-up princess to tackle a singing career. That’s right—this year’s model is making an album, tentatively titled (what else) Cover Girl.
The CREEM Archive presents the magazine as originally created. Digital text has been scanned from its original print format and may contain formatting quirks and inconsistencies.
BEBE BUELL STOPS FOOLING AROUND
And Makes A Record
FEATURES
Patrick Goldstein
by
Blondes really do have more fun. Just ask Bebe Buell, girlfriend to the stars, who’s taking time out from her career as rock’s favorite pin-up princess to tackle a singing career.
That’s right—this year’s model is making an album, tentatively titled (what else) Cover Girl. Having already cut a demo, including a breathy version of “My Little Red Book,” and a positively pornographic remake of Iggy’s “Funtime,” Bebe’s in the thick of negotiations with several major record labels. A pair of Buell chums, Rick Derringer and Ric Ocasek, produced the first four songs, so she seems to be in good studio hands.
“I would’ve made a record long ago,” said Buell, “but I wanted to do it when people would accept me as a singer instead of somebody’s girlfriend.” The wholesomelooking Buell is perhaps best known for her widely photographed liasons with Todd Rundgren, Rod Stewart, and Elvis Costello, though rumor has it that her first real boyfriend was Paul Cowsill—Bebe claims they met when he was doing a TV commercial for milk.
Though Bebe’s been crooning along with the car radio for years, her formal debut took a little encouragement. “Elvis heard me singing to an old Smokey Robinson song that was on the radio one day and he said I was incredible,” Bebe explained. “That was good enough for me.”
photos by
She wasn’t exactly born to rock ’n’ roll. When Bebe went to New York at age 17, it was to be a high-priced fashion model. Her figure and long, tangled web of dark blonde locks won her a batch of plum modelling assignments like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s/Queen.
Though she’s more interested in landing some film work, Bebe still lugs her old Eileen Ford folio around with her, which is loaded with heart-throbbing pictures of Bebe in various sultry outfits, including a curvy pantsuit that Bebe tops off with a McDonald’s short-order cook cap.
Buell hadn’t been a model for a long time when she met Todd Rundgren. It was love at first sight. “Todd took me to Miami,” Bebe gleefully recalled, “and I lost my virginity in the Playboy Plaza Hotel.” Suddenly Bebe was spending far more time at Max’s Kansas City than at her Revlon photo sessions.
Since then, Bebe’s been seen with a Heinz-ish variety of rock stars, though she swears most of the close encounters have been just friendships. “I can’t help it if I want to hang around with musicians,” she says. “I just respect people who have artistic outlets. Most of the men I went out with were just extensions of my alter ego, people I wanted to learn from. ”
Bebe giggled again. “Let’s just say I went to rock ’n’ roll high school and I guess I had some good professors.” Though Bebe isn’t exactly the kiss ’n’ tell sort, she managed to offer some revealing behind-closed-doors insights about her very public boyfriends.
*0n Todd Rundgren, who fathered Liv, Bebe’s three-year-old daughter: “Todd was my first real boyfriend. He had the dumpiest apartment I’d ever seen in my life. To get in, you had to throw pennies at the window because he didn’t have a doorbell.”
*On Rod Stewart: “I’m not proud of that relationship. I was very weak and vulnerable—I felt deserted because Todd left me for another girl and Rod came to my emotional rescue, like a knight in shining armor. He just swept me off my feet when my morale was low.
“Unfortunately it didn’t end well because I didn’t want to be just another one of his blondes, one of his Afghan hounds. I’m sure if I saw him again I’d give him a shot of whiskey and a kiss—after I threw a pie in his face.”
*On Elvis Costello: “Believe it or not, Elvis is one of the kindest, most considerate men I’ve ever met. He’s not surly, he’s just shy, and he’s had a hard time dealing with success. He was so used to being rejected that he didn’t know how to deal with people when they started to like him.
“We were like a rock ’n’ roll Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—all mad love and respect, the debutante and the rock ’n’ roll geek. Elvis treated me like a princess— breaking up with him was the biggest hurt I’ve ever had.”
*On her public profile: “People always make such a big deal out of my relationships. I haven’t had sex with half the guys I’ve been out with—I believe in courtship. It takes a long time to get into my pants.”
