David Lucas (composer)
Encyclopedia
David Lucas is an American rock and roll
composer
, singer, and music producer
. He has written a number of well-known commercial jingle
s, such as AT&T
's "Reach out and touch someone". In 1981, he received a Clio Award
for composing the music to Pepsi
's "Catch that Pepsi spirit". As a record producer, he worked with many new artists such as Blue Öyster Cult
. On the 1976 Blue Öyster Cult song "Don't Fear the Reaper
", which he co-produced, he sang backup vocals and came up with the idea for using a cowbell
, which became a catchphrase in 2000 when it was parodied by Christopher Walken
in a "More cowbell
" skit on Saturday Night Live
. In June 2011, Lucas was inducted into Buffalo's Music Hall of Fame.
. By the age of four, he was singing with his parents in the Buffalo area, both at venues and on local radio. He briefly attended Bennett High School in Buffalo, where he sang in the choir, and then in 1951 transferred to Miami Beach Senior High School, graduating in 1955.
At the age of nineteen, Lucas started promoting records, choosing artists such as the young Paul Anka
, Frankie Avalon
, Sam Cooke
, and The Everly Brothers
, and encouraging local DJs to play their music. He continued with record promotion until he was drafted into the United States Army
, after which he moved to Miami Beach
, where he was a social director and performer at the Attache Hotel. He made ends meet by selling vacuum cleaners during the day, and attending night school to learn about mutual funds. While in Miami, he met jazz drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich
, and joined him for a world tour, after which Lucas moved to Los Angeles
, where he worked as a songwriter and producer. In Las Vegas
, he sang at the Sahara Hotel, where he was noticed by popular singer Doris Day
, who was impressed, and signed Lucas to her record label, Arwin Records. Lucas then recorded "So Until I See You", a song by composer Al Lerner
which became the closing theme for Jack Paar
's The Tonight Show.
Lucas then moved to New York City
where he took various odd jobs, including becoming a sound engineer for his cousin, jazz musician and jingle-writer Don Elliott
, working with artists such as Laura Nyro
, Ravi Shankar
(produced by Timothy Leary
), Tim Rose
, Cass Elliot
, Jimmy Smith
, Bill Evans
, Mel Tormé
, and Terry Gibbs
. In 1964 he joined a quintet formed by Dave Lambert, "Lambert and Co." This quintet, though it never recorded any albums, was notable because it became the subject of a 15-minute documentary by D. A. Pennebaker
(later famous for working with Bob Dylan
), called Audition at RCA. The scenes in the documentary were some of the last images recorded of Lambert, who, in 1966, was killed in an auto accident.
melodies, such as Macleans Toothpaste
. He eventually passed off his engineer job at his cousin's studio to Jay Messina
, and opened his own company, David Lucas Associates, to write jingles fulltime. In 1969, Quincy Jones
introduced Lucas to Cy Coleman
, who signed him to Coleman's Notable Music Publishing Company.
Along with writing jingles, Lucas continued with other projects as well. He was hired by Ahmet Ertegun
as musical director for an early rock and roll
musical, Tom Sanky's The Golden Screw, which played at the Provincetown Playhouse
and won the 1967 Obie Award
for Sankey's concept, writing, and performing. Lucas also used an early Moog synthesizer
to compose music for William Claxton
's film Basic Black, a work that is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art
in New York. He produced the first recordings of the blues band Raven, enabling them to secure a contract with Columbia Records
. He composed the songs "Tell Me a Story" and "Blood" for The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (the first movie by actor Don Johnson
) and also composed the theme music for the 1970s children's series, Jabberwocky
, a show which remained in syndication for decades.
In 1973, Lucas formed a new partnership with Tom McFaul, and they took an unusual step for jingle writers, founding their own studio. Situated in an old spice warehouse, they called it the Warehouse Recording Studio, and it hosted such artists as Paul McCartney
and Charlie Brown
. They employed a dozen people, and Lucas composed and produced hundreds of jingles for many national brands, and McFaul created the "Meow" theme for Meow Mix
. Notable jingles Lucas wrote included AT&T
's "Reach Out and Touch Someone";
Pepsi
's "Catch That Pepsi Spirit" and "Pepsi's got your taste for life"; "You look like you just heard from Dean Witter
"; "Kentucky Fried Chicken Does Chicken Right";
Coca Cola's "You Can't Beat The Feeling" (co-written with Jayne Critelli); "Give Your Cold To Contac"; "Lipton puts Summer on Ice"; and a jingle for Mercury Cougar
. In 1979, New York Magazine referred to Lucas and McFaul as "Jingle Giants", two out of a handful of jingle writers, saying, "Two out of three major commercial jingles are written by the elite group."
as Blue Öyster Cult
. Lucas produced their first album at his Warehouse studio, and worked with them later as co-producer for their 1976 album Agents of Fortune
, including the song, "Don't Fear the Reaper". "Reaper" became a huge hit, and is listed at number 405 on Rolling Stone
s list of the top 500 songs of all time. In it, Lucas sang background vocals and came up with the idea for adding a cowbell
to the mix. This choice became legendary when it was parodied by Christopher Walken
in a Saturday Night Live
"More cowbell
" comedy sketch on April 8, 2000.
for The Miracle Project of Hollywood to benefit autism
.
Also an avid sailor, Lucas once owned a yacht built by David Macfarlane, the head of Alden Yachts, that was used in the company's advertisements. In 1985, Lucas refined a recipe of his grandfather's and developed a brand of cocktail mix, "Bob's No Problem, Bloody Mary
maker". The brand launched nationally in 2010.
Lucas has four grown children. Lisa Lucas
, a well-known and award-nominated child actress in the 1970s, played "Addie Mills" in several CBS holiday specials, and became a journalist as an adult. Jason Lucas is a composer and producer in Nashville, Cristopher Lucas is a composer and performer in Idaho, and David Lucas's youngest daughter, Lindsay Lucas, is a singer and performer in Boston, who as of 2011, is attending the Berklee College of Music
. According to his website, Lucas spends a great deal of time in Jamaica
, sailing and working on environmental projects, such as trying to save Winnifred Beach. He is also working on a musical with co-writer Jayne Critelli, a staff writer/singer from Lucas/McFaul in the 1980s.
for his composing music for commercials for AT&T
(1980, Best Television/Cinema), Pepsi Cola's "Catch that Pepsi Spirit" (1981, U.S. Radio, Clio Winner), and Coca-Cola
's "Masquerade on Skis" (Television/Cinema, Special Citation, 1969). In 2010, Lucas was recognized at the 35th annual Friends of Old Time Radio Convention, with an award for his contributions to the Golden Age of Radio. In June 2011, Lucas was inducted into the Buffalo, New York
Music Hall of Fame.
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, singer, and music producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. He has written a number of well-known commercial jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s, such as AT&T
AT&T Communications
AT&T Communications - East, Inc. was a holding company for the 23 subsidiaries that provide interexchange carrier and long distance telephone services owned by AT&T.-AT&T Long Lines:...
's "Reach out and touch someone". In 1981, he received a Clio Award
Clio Awards
The Clio Awards are annual awards bestowed to reward innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design and communication. The categories include work in nearly all types of media, and the judges are advertising professionals from around the world....
for composing the music to Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
's "Catch that Pepsi spirit". As a record producer, he worked with many new artists such as Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
. On the 1976 Blue Öyster Cult song "Don't Fear the Reaper
(Don't Fear) The Reaper
" The Reaper" is a song by the rock band Blue Öyster Cult from their 1976 album, Agents of Fortune. It was written and sung by the band's lead guitarist, Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and was produced by David Lucas, Murray Krugman, and Sandy Pearlman. It is built around Dharma's guitar riff that...
", which he co-produced, he sang backup vocals and came up with the idea for using a cowbell
Cow bell
A cowbell or cow bell is a bell worn by freely roaming livestock, so that they do not run away or wander off without being heard. While bells were used on various types of animals, they are typically referred to as "cowbells" due to their extensive use with cattle.A trychel is a large cow bell...
, which became a catchphrase in 2000 when it was parodied by Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
in a "More cowbell
More Cowbell
"More cowbell" is an American pop culture catchphrase originally derived from an April 8, 2000, Saturday Night Live comedy sketch which fictionalized the recording of the song " The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult...
" skit on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. In June 2011, Lucas was inducted into Buffalo's Music Hall of Fame.
Early years (1930s–1960s)
Lucas was born David Helfman on April 21, 1937 in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. By the age of four, he was singing with his parents in the Buffalo area, both at venues and on local radio. He briefly attended Bennett High School in Buffalo, where he sang in the choir, and then in 1951 transferred to Miami Beach Senior High School, graduating in 1955.
At the age of nineteen, Lucas started promoting records, choosing artists such as the young Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
, Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, and The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
, and encouraging local DJs to play their music. He continued with record promotion until he was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, after which he moved to Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
, where he was a social director and performer at the Attache Hotel. He made ends meet by selling vacuum cleaners during the day, and attending night school to learn about mutual funds. While in Miami, he met jazz drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
, and joined him for a world tour, after which Lucas moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where he worked as a songwriter and producer. In Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, he sang at the Sahara Hotel, where he was noticed by popular singer Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, who was impressed, and signed Lucas to her record label, Arwin Records. Lucas then recorded "So Until I See You", a song by composer Al Lerner
Al Lerner (composer)
Al Lerner is an American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor from the Big band era. He was a member of the Harry James band for many years, playing piano. He wrote music for several artists, including Allan Sherman and Liza Minnelli...
which became the closing theme for Jack Paar
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...
's The Tonight Show.
Lucas then moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he took various odd jobs, including becoming a sound engineer for his cousin, jazz musician and jingle-writer Don Elliott
Don Elliott
Don Elliott was an American jazz trumpeter, vibraphonist, vocalist, and mellophone player. His album Calypso Jazz is considered by some jazz enthusiasts to be one of the definitive calypso jazz albums. Elliott recorded over 60 albums and 5,000 advertising jingles throughout his career...
, working with artists such as Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
, Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
(produced by Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
), Tim Rose
Tim Rose
Timothy Alan Patrick Rose , best known professionally as Tim Rose, was an American singer-songwriter, who spent much of his life in London, England and had more success in Europe than in his native country...
, Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
, Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith (musician)
Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, and Terry Gibbs
Terry Gibbs
Terry Gibbs is an American jazz vibraphonist and band leader.He has performed and/or recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louie Bellson, Charlie Shavers, Mel Tormé, Buddy DeFranco, and others...
. In 1964 he joined a quintet formed by Dave Lambert, "Lambert and Co." This quintet, though it never recorded any albums, was notable because it became the subject of a 15-minute documentary by D. A. Pennebaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan Pennebaker is an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema/Cinéma vérité. Performing arts and politics are his primary subjects.-Biography:...
(later famous for working with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
), called Audition at RCA. The scenes in the documentary were some of the last images recorded of Lambert, who, in 1966, was killed in an auto accident.
Jingle writer (1960s–1970s)
In the late 1960s, Lucas began writing his own commercial jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
melodies, such as Macleans Toothpaste
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
. He eventually passed off his engineer job at his cousin's studio to Jay Messina
Jay Messina
Jay Messina is an American audio engineer, mastering and mixing engineer and music producer. He started out recording sessions for legendary arranger Don Ellion and quickly promoted to A&R Recording. He later moved to the Record Plant when it opened in 1968...
, and opened his own company, David Lucas Associates, to write jingles fulltime. In 1969, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
introduced Lucas to Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
, who signed him to Coleman's Notable Music Publishing Company.
Along with writing jingles, Lucas continued with other projects as well. He was hired by Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
as musical director for an early rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
musical, Tom Sanky's The Golden Screw, which played at the Provincetown Playhouse
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the former bottling plant into a theater in 1918. Much of the original building was torn down in 2009 as New York University School of Law planned a new building on the...
and won the 1967 Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Sankey's concept, writing, and performing. Lucas also used an early Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
to compose music for William Claxton
William Claxton (photographer)
William Claxton was an American photographer and author.-Biography:Born in Pasadena, California, Claxton's works included a book of photographs of Steve McQueen, and Jazz Life, a book of photographs depicting jazz artists in the 1960s. He was most noted for his photography of jazz musicians...
's film Basic Black, a work that is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York. He produced the first recordings of the blues band Raven, enabling them to secure a contract with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. He composed the songs "Tell Me a Story" and "Blood" for The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (the first movie by actor Don Johnson
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne "Don" Johnson is an American actor known for his work in television and film. He played the lead role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s TV cop series, Miami Vice, which led him to huge success. He also played the lead role in the 1990s cop series, Nash Bridges...
) and also composed the theme music for the 1970s children's series, Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky (TV series)
Jabberwocky was a daily children's TV show designed for 5-10 year-olds that eventually went into national syndication. The original series ran Monday through Friday for over two seasons, from 1972 to 1974, on WCVB in Boston; the nationally syndicated version ran weekly and was rerun in the wee...
, a show which remained in syndication for decades.
In 1973, Lucas formed a new partnership with Tom McFaul, and they took an unusual step for jingle writers, founding their own studio. Situated in an old spice warehouse, they called it the Warehouse Recording Studio, and it hosted such artists as Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Charlie Brown
Charles Brown (musician)
Charles Brown , born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s...
. They employed a dozen people, and Lucas composed and produced hundreds of jingles for many national brands, and McFaul created the "Meow" theme for Meow Mix
Meow Mix
Meow Mix is a variety of dry and wet cat food known for its advertising jingle. It is a product of Del Monte Foods.-Company background:The Meow Mix Company operates from a facility in Decatur, Alabama, and also produces Alley Cat brand cat food products. Originally a product of Ralston Purina,...
. Notable jingles Lucas wrote included AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
's "Reach Out and Touch Someone";
Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
's "Catch That Pepsi Spirit" and "Pepsi's got your taste for life"; "You look like you just heard from Dean Witter
Dean Witter Reynolds
Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to retail clients. Prior to its acquisition, it was among the largest retail firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives and was among the largest members of the New York Stock Exchange...
"; "Kentucky Fried Chicken Does Chicken Right";
Coca Cola's "You Can't Beat The Feeling" (co-written with Jayne Critelli); "Give Your Cold To Contac"; "Lipton puts Summer on Ice"; and a jingle for Mercury Cougar
Mercury Cougar
The Mercury Cougar is an automobile which was sold under the Mercury brand of the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division from 1967 to 2002. The name was first used in 1967 and was carried by a diverse series of cars over the next three decades. As is common with Mercury vehicles, the Cougar...
. In 1979, New York Magazine referred to Lucas and McFaul as "Jingle Giants", two out of a handful of jingle writers, saying, "Two out of three major commercial jingles are written by the elite group."
Blue Öyster Cult (1970s)
In 1971, Lucas produced a four-song demo for the band Stalk-Forrest Group, which led to them being signed by Columbia's Clive DavisClive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
as Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
. Lucas produced their first album at his Warehouse studio, and worked with them later as co-producer for their 1976 album Agents of Fortune
Agents of Fortune
Agents of Fortune is the fourth studio album released by Blue Öyster Cult, originally released in a gatefold sleeve in 1976.The platinum selling album peaked at #29 on Billboards Pop Albums chart, while the single " The Reaper" peaked at #12 on the Pop Singles chart, making it Blue Öyster Cult's...
, including the song, "Don't Fear the Reaper". "Reaper" became a huge hit, and is listed at number 405 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of the top 500 songs of all time. In it, Lucas sang background vocals and came up with the idea for adding a cowbell
Cow bell
A cowbell or cow bell is a bell worn by freely roaming livestock, so that they do not run away or wander off without being heard. While bells were used on various types of animals, they are typically referred to as "cowbells" due to their extensive use with cattle.A trychel is a large cow bell...
to the mix. This choice became legendary when it was parodied by Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
in a Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
"More cowbell
More Cowbell
"More cowbell" is an American pop culture catchphrase originally derived from an April 8, 2000, Saturday Night Live comedy sketch which fictionalized the recording of the song " The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult...
" comedy sketch on April 8, 2000.
Current projects (1990s–present)
In 1998, Lucas sold the Warehouse and moved back to Miami where he built a studio and is continuing to write songs and jingles. In 2010, Lucas wrote the song "Inside my Heart", which was sung by actress Kyra SedgwickKyra Sedgwick
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American actress.Sedgwick is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama The Closer. Sedgwick's role in the series won her a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010...
for The Miracle Project of Hollywood to benefit autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
.
Also an avid sailor, Lucas once owned a yacht built by David Macfarlane, the head of Alden Yachts, that was used in the company's advertisements. In 1985, Lucas refined a recipe of his grandfather's and developed a brand of cocktail mix, "Bob's No Problem, Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary (cocktail)
A Bloody Mary is a popular cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and usually other spices or flavorings such as Worcestershire sauce, Peri-Peri Sauce, Tabasco sauce, beef consomme or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olive, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and celery salt...
maker". The brand launched nationally in 2010.
Lucas has four grown children. Lisa Lucas
Lisa Lucas
Lisa Lucas is a former child actress, best known for her role as "Addie Mills" in the Emmy-winning Christmas television special, The House Without a Christmas Tree. It first aired on CBS-TV in December 1972, spawned three holiday-based sequels from 1973–1976 with the same cast, and was a...
, a well-known and award-nominated child actress in the 1970s, played "Addie Mills" in several CBS holiday specials, and became a journalist as an adult. Jason Lucas is a composer and producer in Nashville, Cristopher Lucas is a composer and performer in Idaho, and David Lucas's youngest daughter, Lindsay Lucas, is a singer and performer in Boston, who as of 2011, is attending the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. According to his website, Lucas spends a great deal of time in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, sailing and working on environmental projects, such as trying to save Winnifred Beach. He is also working on a musical with co-writer Jayne Critelli, a staff writer/singer from Lucas/McFaul in the 1980s.
Awards
Lucas has won Clio awardsClio Awards
The Clio Awards are annual awards bestowed to reward innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design and communication. The categories include work in nearly all types of media, and the judges are advertising professionals from around the world....
for his composing music for commercials for AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
(1980, Best Television/Cinema), Pepsi Cola's "Catch that Pepsi Spirit" (1981, U.S. Radio, Clio Winner), and Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
's "Masquerade on Skis" (Television/Cinema, Special Citation, 1969). In 2010, Lucas was recognized at the 35th annual Friends of Old Time Radio Convention, with an award for his contributions to the Golden Age of Radio. In June 2011, Lucas was inducted into the Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
Music Hall of Fame.
External links
- http://www.davidlucasmusic.com