About
Commercial
I spent about 15 years firmly embedded in the jingle business…music for advertising. I learned more about my craft than I thought possible. I was able to work with musicians whose artistry I had revered for years.
When I was in my 20s, I tried to woo the record companies into a deal, and presented them with tapes of songs so varied in style, that they were unable to see where I would ever fit into the scheme of things. That very musical schizophrenia was my ace-in-the- hole when it came down to writing commercials. If it needed to be rock, country & western, jazz, classical, world music…I was there. I loved it all and was only too willing to delve headfirst into each and every genre. I worked with bluegrass musicians like Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, and in the same month got to conduct a portion of the London Symphony for a Greyhound bus ad…(*I told them that if the random waving of my arms bothered them, they’d need only to look away, or down at the page!)
I had to convince Linda Ronstadt’s manager/producer that she would indeed be able to sing a ’swing’ track. (this, after being told repeatedly that Linda doesn’t ’swing’…)
I often made the offer to eat the cost of a session if what I was doing ended up to not be the right idea for the project.
I informed certain agency producers that they could NOT wake up Dominic, the accordion player as he snoozed between takes, as he was not only getting on in years, but was irreplaceable for what was needed. (Mr. Cortese had graced the soundtracks of both Moonstruck and Broadway Danny Rose with his notes…and they wanted to wake him between takes!!)
I also informed a certain agency producer that although I agreed the mid-song chord modulation (an oft used device for the added heartstring tug) was indeed effective, we still could not “start with the modulation,” for what I’d (mistakenly) assumed were obvious reasons.
I received a vocalist’s demo (among the many I’d receive daily) from a guy named Felix who included three short snippets of songs on an old cassette tape; original versions of “Groovin,” “It’s a Beautiful Morning,” and “People Got to be Free”!!
I worked at Crushing Enterprises in NYC with some great writers including, Joey Levine, the mastermind of Crushing, who had already established his sui generis place in pop music culture and Robin Batteau, without whose songs for Chevrolet, (Heartbeat of America), AT&T, and McDonalds, to name just a few, would have reduced my workload considerably.
When I started making records later on, I was encouraged to downplay this particular segment of my history, as there was a stigma attached to it. But truthfully, I am as proud of my time spent in those studios as anything I’ve ever done and I’m more than willing to speak of it with any and all.
