Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is an American country singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 25 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man". Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. It's Not Big It's Large was released in 2007, where it debuted and peaked at number 2 on the Top Country Albums chart. A new studio album, Natural Forces, was released on October 20, 2009 by Lost Highway Records. The last studio album on his Curb Records contract, Release Me, was released in February 2012.
James Richard "Jim" Steinman (born November 1, 1947) is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for many hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist and singer. His work has included songs in the adult contemporary, rock and roll, dance, pop, musical theater and film score genres. Beginning his career in musical theater, Steinman's most notable work in the area includes lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind and music for Tanz der Vampire.
His work includes such albums as Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and producing albums for Bonnie Tyler. His most successful chart singles include Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", The Sisters of Mercy's "This Corrosion" and "More", Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em and Weep" (originally released by Meat Loaf), Celine Dion's cover of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (originally released by Steinman's project Pandora's Box) and Boyzone's "No Matter What". The album Bad for Good was released in his own name in 1981.
Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.
Natalie Merchant was born October 26, 1963, in Jamestown, New York, the third of four children of Anthony and Ann Merchant. Her paternal grandfather, who played the accordion, mandolin and guitar, emigrated to the United States from Sicily; his surname was "Mercante" before it was Anglicized.
When Merchant was a child, her mother listened to music (primarily Petula Clark but also the Beatles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin) and encouraged her children to study music, but she wouldn't allow TV after Natalie was 12. "I was taken to the symphony a lot because my mother loved classical music. But I was dragged to see Styx when I was 12. We had to drive 100 miles to Buffalo, New York. Someone threw up next to me and people were smoking pot. It was terrifying. I remember Styx had a white piano which rose out of the stage. It was awe-inspiring and inspirational." "She [her mother] had show tunes, she had the soundtrack from West Side Story and South Pacific. And then eventually... she'd always liked classical music and then she married a jazz musician, so that's the kind of music I was into. I never really had friends who sat around and listened to the stereo and said 'hey, listen to this one', so I'd never even heard of who Bob Dylan was until I was 18." During 1988–1989, Natalie claimed she still didn't have a TV: "I grew up in a house where no one watched the news on television and no one read the paper. I've been discovering these things as I get older, and the news has affected me more than it ever has before."
Merchant started working in a health food store at 16. She considered a career in special education after taking part in a summer program for disabled children, but in 1981 started singing for a band, Still Life, that became 10,000 Maniacs.
Her latest solo album was released May 6, 2014 on Nonesuch Records and was named Album of the Week by The Daily Telegraph. The album debuted at #20 on Billboard's Top 200 albums and #2 on Billboard's Folk Albums charts for the week of May 24, 2014. She toured from July 3, 2014, kicking off in Kingston, NY, concluding at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on July 25, 2014.
Ted Templeman (born October 24, 1944, in Santa Cruz, California) is an American record producer. He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to guitar and vocals. In 1967 the group released the album, Feelin' Groovy (Warner Bros.), which included some material by Randy Newman that later appeared on the songwriter's 1972 album Sail Away. Harpers Bizarre disbanded in 1970.
That same year, Templeman recorded what is now considered a cult classic. Using doubletracking, he appeared as "The Templeton Twins" backed by "Teddy Turner & his Bunsen Burners", recording contemporary hits of the time such as "Hey Jude" and "Light My Fire" in a pseudo-1920s style.
Much of his work has been done collaborating with recording engineer Donn Landee at Sunset Studios in Hollywood, California. In 1970 Templeman (at the suggestion of Waronker) began working as an Engineer for Warner Bros. Records. That year he produced the unheralded eponymous The Doobie Brothers debut album, followed the next year by the Doobies' Toulouse Street album which achieved platinum record status on the strength of the hit single "Listen to the Music". Templeman continued a long professional relationship with The Doobie Brothers, producing many more hit singles and albums for the group.
In 1973 Templeman produced another classic and eponymous album, Montrose, which was released in November of that year. The group was founded by guitarist and group leader Ronnie Montrose (who had worked with singers such as Van Morrison and Edgar Winter), and an up and coming singer, Sammy Hagar, who brought songs like 'Bad Motor Scooter' and 'Make It Last' to the guitarist.
In 1976 he produced Carly Simon's sixth studio album, Another Passenger, for which he arranged both the Doobie Brothers and Little Feat to serve as Simon's backing band. The album was not as commercially oriented as her previous work with producer Richard Perry, and its first single, a cover of the Doobies' "It Keeps You Runnin'", did not quite crack the Top 40. However, the album received critical praise and many of its songs received airplay on album-oriented FM radio stations.
In 1977 Templeman saw a performance of a relatively unknown group, Van Halen. He convinced Mo Ostin, Warner Bros. Chairman, to sign the group to the label, and Templeman produced their eponymous first album. The group utilized Templeman's production talents through their first six albums and established themselves as one of the world's biggest-selling acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is also the voice that pleads "Come on Dave, gimme a break!" in the song "Unchained", to which Dave (David Lee Roth) replies "One break, coming up!". Templeman also produced the first two solo projects of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth: Crazy from the Heat and Eat 'Em and Smile, the latter being the first album Roth recorded after he left Van Halen.
Other artists produced by Templeman include:- Van Morrison (Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic's Preview, It's Too Late to Stop Now); Captain Beefheart (Clear Spot); Little Feat (Sailin' Shoes); Michael McDonald (If That's What It Takes); Aerosmith (Done with Mirrors); and Eric Clapton (Behind the Sun); Buddy Tyler.
Since the late 1980s Templeman has worked more sporadically. Recently he has produced two albums by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and in 2008 he worked with the Doobie Brothers again on a new album.
Instead of posting videos, here is a list of albums he worked on....go listen to them.
Gregory A. "Greg" Hawkes (born October 22, 1952) is a musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band The Cars.
Hawkes, a native of Fulton, Maryland, attended Atholton High School where he played in a band called Teeth. He then attended Berklee College of Music for two years, majoring in composition and flute. He left to play in various bands, including Martin Mull and his Fabulous Furniture, where he played flute, saxophones and clarinet. He also played in a band called Richard and The Rabbits, which included future Cars bandmates Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. He was the last member to join The Cars.
Hawkes' most notable involvement is with The Cars. Hawkes pushed the limits of available technology and sequencing helping to forge the sound of the 1980s. While The Cars were known commercially as a rock and new wave band, he had the biggest impact on the synthpop and new wave sound of The Cars hits such as Drive. His signature sounds include the Prophet-5 "touch sync" sound heard on "Let's Go" and "Hello Again" as well as arpeggiated and syncopated synth lines such as on "Shake it Up" and "Heartbeat City".
In 2010, Hawkes reunited with the surviving original members of The Cars to record their first album in 24 years, titled Move Like This, which was released May 10, 2011.
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