Daniel Bud Sembello (January 15, 1963 – August 15, 2015) was an American
songwriter
A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
,
record producer
A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
and multi-instrumentalist.
He produced recordings by artists including
George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...
and
Pebbles, and he had his compositions recorded by
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...
,
Jeffrey Osborne
Jeffrey Linton Osborne (born March 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and lyricist. He is the former drummer and lead singer of the American R&B/soul group L.T.D. (band), L.T.D., with whom he began his musical career in 1970.
B ...
,
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began ...
(the hit single "
Stir It Up"),
Irene Cara
Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and for recording the film's title song " Fame", which reach ...
,
René & Angela, and
The Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American female vocal group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. They have had a repertoire with many genres, they have sold around 50 million records throughout their ...
(the hit single "
Neutron Dance
"Neutron Dance" is a song written by Allee Willis and Danny Sembello which was introduced by the Pointer Sisters on their 1983 album '' Break Out''. The song became a Top Ten hit in 1985, its success augmented by being prominently featured on th ...
"). In 1986, he won a
, for his contributions to the
''Beverly Hills Cop'' soundtrack. He was the brother of
Michael Sembello.
Danny Sembello drowned in the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...
near
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, on August 15, 2015. He was first reported missing after he went for a swim during a music festival in
Manayunk.
References
External links
Danny & Michael Sembello Official Website
*
1963 births
2015 deaths
Musicians from Philadelphia
American male composers
American composers
American people of Italian descent
American rhythm and blues musicians
Record producers from Pennsylvania
American multi-instrumentalists
Deaths by drowning in Pennsylvania
Grammy Award winners
{{music-producer-stub