Maria McKee
American singer-songwriter

Maria Luisa McKee (born August 17, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her work with Lone Justice, her 1990 song "Show Me Heaven", and her song "If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)" from the soundtrack of the film Pulp Fiction.
Early life
Maria McKee was born in Los Angeles in 1964. She grew up in a bohemian family and is the half-sister of Bryan MacLean (1946–1998), the guitarist of the band Love.
Music
McKee was a founding member of the cowpunk and proto-Americana band Lone Justice in 1982, with whom she released two albums. In 1983, she sang the song "Never Be You" for the soundtrack of the movie "Streets of Fire" (1984). Several compilations, of both previously released and unreleased material, and a BBC Live in Concert album, have been released since the group disbanded in 1987. Bob Dylan wrote the song "Go Away Little Boy" for the band's debut album, Lone Justice, which later appeared as a B-side. The band opened for such acts as U2 and Tom Petty. During this period of her career, she was managed by Jimmy Iovine.
“Maria McKee” enters the record as american singer-songwriter. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maria, McKee and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Maria McKee” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Maria, McKee and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q269549. VIAF identifies the subject as 32186537. The Library of Congress control number is n91122673. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1990, 1946 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maria McKee” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.