Steve Lindsey (born Steve Clark Lindsey; May 6, 1956) is an American record producer, songwriter music publisher and music industry executive.
Early life
Steve Lindsey, born in
New York City, to
Mort Lindsey and his wife Judy. He had a connection to music from an early age and began playing piano at the age of five. Lindsey's father, Mort, was a conductor and composer who worked with Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Merv Griffin.
Lindsey's family moved to
Malibu, California, when he was fifteen. He attended
Santa Monica High School, and during his time there, played in local bands. He befriended session musicians, including David Paich and Bob Glaub, from the Los Angeles studio scene.
Career
In his mid-20s, Lindsey built a studio at his Ocean Park home, and began making demos for artists such as
Allee Willis,
Brenda Russell
Brenda Russell (née Gordon; born April 8, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist. Russell has a diverse musical range which encompasses R&B, pop, soul, dance, and jazz. She has received five Grammy nominations.
Li ...
, and
Julie Brown.
Lindsey's first professionally released song which he wrote and produced was "
Trapped in the Body of a White Girl
''Trapped in the Body of a White Girl'' is a studio album by American comedian Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown (born August 31, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, and television director. Brown is ...
" for Julie Brown, on
Sire records, followed by "Hot Dog" for
Martini Ranch. Within a few years Lindsey was an in-demand session keyboard player, writer and producer, and became the full-time associate producer for
Richard Perry from 1986 to 1991. Under Perry, he worked on albums by
The Pointer Sisters,
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
,
Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...
,
Randy Travis
Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor.
Active from 1978 until being incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, he has recor ...
,
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...
, and
Ray Charles. Moonlighting under Perry, Lindsey produced
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
's last top 10 single "
My Last Chance
"My Last Chance" is a song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. Gaye originally recorded this song as a demo during the making of the '' What's Going On'' period, initially as an instrumental. Two years later, he added vocals. Eventually h ...
" as well, as songs for
The Temptations and Alexander O’Neal.
Producer, publisher and songwriter
He left Perry to produce Leonard Cohen's album
''The Future'', and four
Aaron Neville albums at
A&M, including ''The Grand Tour'' and ''Soulful Christmas''. He later produced a song “Just Walk Away”, from
Celine Dion's album, ''
The Color of My Love
''The Colour of My Love'' is the third English-language and twelfth studio album by Canadian singer Celine Dion. It was released by Columbia Records/550 Music on 9 November 1993. The songs were produced mainly by David Foster, Ric Wake, Guy Roche ...
''. He executive produced Leonard Cohen's ''Tower of Song'' album, for A&M, which included performances by
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...
,
Willie Nelson,
Trisha Yearwood, Aaron Neville and
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
. For Elton John’s ''Duets'' album, he produced songs "Born To Lose" by Elton John and Leonard Cohen, as well as “I'm Your Puppet" by Elton John and Paul Young. In 1997, he produced Guster’s album ''Goldfly'', and in 2005, produced Chris Botti’s breakthrough album ''A Thousand Kisses Deep''.
In 1994, he started Blotter Music with Windswept, a publishing company in Los Angeles California. Through Blotter, he published, signed and developed an array of talent, including
Bridget Benenate (
"Breakaway" sung by
Kelly Clarkson),
Mickey Avalon,
Mike Elizondo and
Benji Hughes
Benji Hughes is an American musical artist from Charlotte, North Carolina. His first album, '' A Love Extreme'', was released in 2008.
''A Love Extreme''
On July 22, 2008, Benji Hughes released his debut album, entitled '' A Love Extreme'' on Ne ...
. During that time, Lindsey also taught
Dr. Dre piano and
music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
for four years.
In 2004, he started West Side Independent publishing, one of the four sides of the Independent Publishing Group, with Cameron Strang. They signed and developed J.R. Rotem,
Bruno Mars and Brody Brown. Brown and Mars later wrote the songs
"Grenade" and
"Fuck You". Cameron Strang has since become Chairman and CEO of Warner Chappell Music with whom Lindsey has exclusive joint ventures: Thou Art The Hunger and Mod Junkie. To date, Lindsey has sold over 100 million records as a publisher.
Lindsey wrote and produced the song, "Welcome to Burlesque", performed by Cher in the Screen Gems movie ''Burlesque'' (2010).
Music supervision and teaching
Lindsey supervised the Aaron Ryder films, ''
My One and Only'', ''
House at the End of the Street'' and ''
M.U.D.''
He taught a music supervision class at
UCLA, and is a professor at
Loyola Marymount University. He also lectures at the Musician's Institute, in
Los Angeles.
He resides in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...
.
References
External links
Steve Lindsey , Biography, Albums, Streaming LinksSteve LindseyNews Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsey, Steve
Record producers from New York (state)
Living people
1956 births