Stacey Lynn Swain known by her stage name Stacey Q, is an American pop singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Her best-known single, John Mitchell’s “Two of Hearts”, released in 1986, reached number one in Canada, number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in five other countries. After graduating from high school in 1976, Swain joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where she performed as a showgirl in her first year, and as an elephant rider in her second year. Her first singing project was a Los Angeles radio spot where she introduced and announced programs while impersonating members of The Go-Go’s. In 1981, Swain was introduced to Jon St. James, the proprietor of Fullerton’s Casbah Recording Studio, which hosted recordings for the bands Berlin and Social Distortion.Jon was a big fan of synth bands like Kraftwerk and M; when he met Stacey Swain in 1981, he knew right away that this impossibly stylish former Ringling Bros. elephant girl and veteran of the Disney Main Street parade possessed star qualities perfectly compatible with electronic music, a genre Stacey also adored. She was enamored of the obscure Japanese band The Plastics and The B-52’s, and simply could not get over David Bowie. As a student of style, Swain could literally turn rags into a fashion statement. On one occasion she went to the renaissance fair in Agoura dressed simply in two large pieces of soft leather she bought from a shop in Anaheim. St. James was developing a synthpop group called Q, named after the James Bond character. The band consisted of St. James on guitars, and Dan Van Patten and John Van Tongeren on vocoder and synthesizer. She served as the assistant producer on the band’s four tracks for The Q EP when St. James realized they needed a vocalist for their first track “Sushi”, which Swain provided as she had previously recorded demos at his studio She then became the lead singer for Q, although at that time, she still considered herself more of a dancer than a singer.In 1981, Q (the original project) was Jon, Dan and myself hence Jon Q, Dan Q and Stacey Q. Q, the original name of the project, references James Bond and the scientist responsible for all his high-tech gadgets 1985–1987: Breakthrough, Stacey Q and Better Than Heaven In 1985, Swain signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. Using Stacey Q as her moniker for solo works, she released her debut single “Shy Girl”. Her eponymous album later was distributed in cassette format to limited release. The album contained an early version of “Two of Hearts”, which originally was released and performed by Sue Gatlin. After her singles collectively sold several thousand copies, she signed with Atlantic Records She recorded the album Better Than Heaven in three weeks. Its title track was co-written by Berlin, “He Doesn’t Understand” was written by Rusty Anderson, and “We Connect” was written by Willie Wilcox of Utopia “Two of Hearts”, its lead single, received substantial radio airplay, along with its music video on MTV, in the latter half of 1986. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the top 10 in several other countries The album reached number 59 on the US album chart, and was certified gold in Australia. “Two of Hearts” briefly was considered for a “Weird Al” Yankovic parody, but the songwriters declined. She went on a U.S. and European club tour. The success of “Two of Hearts” led Swain to television appearances on talk shows as well as guest panel appearances on game shows The Gong Show and The New Hollywood Squares She appeared as the character Cinnamon in the episode “Off-Broadway Baby” of the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life where she performed “Two of Hearts”. In a follow-up episode, “A Star Is Torn”, she performed “We Connect”. Cast regular George Clooney made his farewell appearance when his character decides to join Cinnamon as a roadie Nights Like This was her third and final album with Atlantic. Released in 1989, it also marked SSQ’s last participation. Its first single was “Give You All My Love,” and “Heartbeat”, its second single, featured backing vocals by Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles. Its title track featured backing vocals by The Weather Girls. The musical style involved more experimenting with instruments such as Kawai keyboards. She promoted the album with another national tour at various clubs. On television, she appeared in an episode. Stacey Q appears at the Hollywood Show June 6 & 7 at the Airport Marriott in Burbank, CA.