Singer Harriet Wheeler is the main ingredient in the sound of the British jangle-pop band

the Sundays. Her high, lilting voice floating over boyfriend David Gavurin's guitars

enabled the group to stand apart from the hordes of alternative-rock bands first making

chart headway in the early '90s.

Wheeler was born 36 years ago today in Maidenhead, England. Before forming the

Sundays, she sang with London band Jim Jiminee. In 1988 she formed the Sundays

with Gavurin, whom she met at Bristol University and with whom she had been

romantically involved for several years.

After writing a few songs together, the pair added bassist Paul Brindley and drummer

Patrick Hannan. After a London club gig generated a lot of word-of-mouth attention, the

Sundays were the subject of a bidding war among several record labels, with Rough

Trade ultimately signing the band. For U.S. distribution, the group chose DGC Records.

The Sundays enjoyed a UK hit with their first single, 1989's "Can't Be Sure." A year later,

their critically lauded debut LP, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, was released. It

became a top-five hit in the UK. The album also was popular in the U.S., where "Here's

Where the Story Ends" became a modern-rock hit. With their 1990 world tour, the

Sundays reinforced the critical consensus that they were headed for major commercial

success.

But then Rough Trade went bankrupt and the Sundays took a long time writing and

recording a follow-up. Still, Blind (1992) was a modern-rock hit on both sides of

the Atlantic, scoring with popular singles such as "Love" and "Goodbye." It also featured

a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," which was later used in a commercial.

After another global tour, the Sundays retreated from the music scene -- Wheeler and

Gavurin had a daughter. Though some fans thought the band might be through, the

Sundays returned in 1997 with Static & Silence, featuring such cuts as

"Summertime" (

music/Sundays,_The/Summertime.ram">RealAudio excerpt) and "Homeward."

"I don't mean to say that we're not ambitious," Gavurin said. "We're happy with how many

records we've sold, and we'd like to reach more people -- but not at the cost of who we

are. ... We'll never put out something we didn't believe in just to have something in the

marketplace."

Other birthdays: Billy Davis Jr. (ex-Fifth Dimension), 59; Georgie Fame, 56; Rindy Ross

(Quarterflash), 48; Mick Jones (ex-Clash, Big Audio Dynamite), 44; Patty Smyth, 42; Terri

Nunn (Berlin), 40; Mark Decloedt (EMF), 32; and Colin Greenwood (Radiohead), 30.