Sixpence None the Richer

In 1998 there was not a radio station in the world that did not play "Kiss Me". That light whisper, with a floating guitar and the voice of a grown-up girl, was the pop kiss of an entire generation: it played in teen films, in television series, in every end-of-century first love. What almost nobody knew was that behind that song there was a Christian band from a small town in Texas, with a very strange name taken from a book of theology. And that name, once you understand it, explains their whole story.

The name

They are called Sixpence None the Richer, and the phrase comes from "Mere Christianity", the book by C.S. Lewis, the same man who wrote Narnia. Lewis tells a parable: a boy asks his father for a sixpence in order to buy the father a present. The father, of course, ends up "sixpence none the richer" —he has been given a gift bought with his own money. But he is pleased all the same, because what matters is not the money, it is the gesture.

It is an image about humility and about offering, which is exactly what the band understood about their own music: everything you have to give was already given to you, and giving it is valuable even so. Naming your band after a phrase that means "not a penny richer" is a lovely statement of principles, especially for a group that ended up selling millions. The greatness starts there, in choosing a name that reminds you that you are not the source of anything.

The voice and the craft

Sixpence were, at heart, two people: Leigh Nash, a sweet, unmistakable voice able to hold up a song on a thread, and Matt Slocum, the one who wrote and played guitar and cello, the silent architect behind the sound. That combination —a voice that seems fragile and is not, and careful, almost chamber-like writing— is what made "Kiss Me" sound like nothing else of its time. At the height of late grunge and noisy pop, they made something delicate, and it won.

They also had the good taste to rescue other people's jewels: their version of "There She Goes", by the English band The La's, is one of those rereadings that compete with the original. They knew how to recognise a perfect song and treat it with respect.

The success that arrived alongside the collapse

And here is the cruel, beautiful irony that defines them. Just as "Kiss Me" was turning them into a worldwide phenomenon, their record label began to fall apart. The band had the next album ready and spent years trapped in a legal limbo, unable to release anything, while their song played all over the planet. Famous and stranded at the same time. The biggest hit of their lives coexisted with not being able to put out anything new.

Think about it in the light of their name. A band called "not a penny richer" had the success of their lives and, because other people collapsed, was left unable to capitalise on it. As if the name had been a prophecy. But what Lewis said still stands: the value was not in the money, it was in the gesture. And the gesture —that song, that voice— stayed forever.

What to remember

Sixpence None the Richer were a Christian band from a small town in Texas who made, without meaning to, the pop kiss of an entire generation. Their name comes from a C.S. Lewis parable about giving what was already given to you. They had an unrepeatable voice in Leigh Nash and a songwriter of fine craft in Matt Slocum. And they lived their greatest success just as their label was collapsing, famous and trapped at once.

Remember it this way: the next time "Kiss Me" plays somewhere, there is a band that named itself "not a penny richer" and turned out to be right: what they gave did not make them rich, but it stayed, which is the only thing that lasts.

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Sources

Sixpence None the Richer, American band formed in New Braunfels, Texas, in 1992, with Leigh Nash (vocals) and Matt Slocum (guitar, cello, songwriting) as its core. The name comes from a passage in "Mere Christianity" (C.S. Lewis), about a boy who buys his father a present with the father's own money, leaving him "sixpence none the richer" despite the value of the gesture. The band was associated with Christian rock labels and genres. "Kiss Me", released in 1997 and popularised in 1998-1999, achieved great international success and featured in film and television, with recognitions such as the Billboard award for best soundtrack single (1999). In 1999 they released a version of "There She Goes", originally by The La's. After signing with Squint Entertainment in 1997, the label's collapse left the band in a legal limbo for years; their album "Divine Discontent" was not released until 2002. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Songfacts, DOC Radio and other coverage.