years_active label name background instrument birth_date genre article_title birth_name occupation
1978 -- 1984 ze records cristina solo_singer vocals 2 january 1959 no wave cristina -lrb- singer -rrb-
 cristina monet-palaci musician
cristina -lrb- singer -rrb-

cristina monet-palaci -lrb- born 2 january 1959 -rrb- , known professionally as cristina , is a singer and writer , best known for her no wave recordings made for ze records around 1980 in new york .
a harvard drop-out , and the daughter of a french psychoanalyst and an american illustrator-novelist-playwright , she was working as a writer for `` the village voice '' when she met michael zilkha , who later became her husband .
a wealthy heir to england 's mothercare retail empire , zilkha was just starting ze records with michel esteban .
zilkha persuaded her to record a song called `` disco clone '' , an eccentric pastiche dance record written by ronald melrose , a classmate of hers at harvard .
the original recording , released as ze001 , was produced by john cale and was the first to be issued on the ze label .
a later version featured the uncredited kevin kline trying to seduce the breathy cristina .
`` disco clone '' was a cult success and encouraged ze to release a full-length album in 1980 , which was produced by august darnell of kid creole & the coconuts .
the album was later reissued as `` doll in the box '' .
cristina also issued , on a 12 '' single , a poker-faced cover of peggy lee 's `` is that all there is ? ''
with new lyrics which led its authors , leiber and stoller , to sue and get it withdrawn for many years .
later , she released a cover of the beatles ' `` drive my car '' -lrb- also released as `` baby you can drive my car '' -rrb- .
she also released a track , `` things fall apart '' , produced by was -lrb- not was -rrb- , on ze 's `` christmas record '' , in 1981 .
cristina 's second album , `` sleep it off '' , was produced by don was and released in 1984 with a sleeve design by jean-paul goude -lrb- a year before he used the same idea for grace jones -rrb- .
her lyrics dryly detailed a world of urban decadence , but the record flopped , and cristina retired to domestic life in texas .
she and zilkha divorced in 1990 and she returned to new york .
she has more recently contributed learned essays and reviews to publications such as london 's times literary supplement , while battling a debilitating illness .
her two albums for ze were reissued in 2005 .
