she still considered herself more of a dancer than a singer. The Q EP received little airplay except on college radio. Its success led St. James and Swain to develop more songs. In 1982, the group added drummer Karl Moet and synth player Rich West, but had to change their name because of copyright issues when producer Quincy Jones reportedly had "established use of the 'Q' moniker". They renamed the band SSQ, which was inspired partly by a fishing endeavor where St. James "was fishing in a lake 'no bigger than a bathtub' and made a joke that the boat was the 'S.S. Q,'" and also that "SS" stood for Stacey Swain. SSQ released their debut album Playback in 1983 under Enigma Records, which featured the single "Synthicide" that was also made into a music video. 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 with St. James as manager and the other members of SSQ as backup musicians. 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