When Prince broke up the Revolution in 1986, guitarist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist Lisa Coleman, friends since childhood, decided to team up for a new musical project. The two had grown up together in Los Angeles, where both of their fathers were session musicians and encouraged their musical development from a young age. Coleman joined the Revolution in 1979 for Dirty Mind, and Melvoin signed on in 1984; in addition to their instrumental skills, the two also provided some of Prince's arrangements. Wendy and Lisa played almost all of the instruments on their self-titled debut. After backing Joni Mitchell on Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm in 1988, the duo added Melvoin's twin sister Susannah and recorded Fruit at the Bottom , a song cycle about the ups and downs of romance. Several more family members joined up for the widely varied Eroica , which mixed Wendy & Lisa's disparate influences (funk, jazz, dance, pop, rock); k.d. lang also contributed vocals. The duo then persued on a new career path and started scoring music for films such as Dangerous Minds and Soul Food . They returned in 1998 with the album Girl Bros . Ten years later saw the self-release of their 5th studio album, White Flags Of Winter Chimneys .

A common misperception about Wendy & Lisa's music often gets their music filed under the funk genre; however, Wendy & Lisa are Adult Alternative artists similar to that of Coldplay or Elbow. But the amazing thing about Wendy & Lisa is that they have built a sound all their own, deeply referencing the best sounds from the 70s and today’s ethereal alternative rock.

They are currently (2006-2009) scoring the hit NBC TV show "Heroes" as well as scoring other television shows (Nurse Jackie for Showtime and Virtuality for Fox) and films.