Mike Rashkow
Encyclopedia
Michael Rashkow was an American songwriter
and record producer
. He wrote "Mary in the Morning" with Johnny Cymbal
. It was recorded by Elvis Presley
, Glen Campbell
, Al Martino
, Dire Straits
's Guy Fletcher
, and many other artists. He formed Pineywood Productions with Ellie Greenwich
in the late 1960s. Among the artists they wrote for and produced were Dusty Springfield
, The Daily News, The Definitive Rock Chorale, The Fuzzy Bunnies, The Whatnauts
and The Other Voices as well as Ellie Greenwich
. Their publishing arm, Pineywood Music, published their own material and songs by other writers including Steve Tudanger and Paul Levinson
, a member of The Other Voices.
Rashkow came to the music business without any background or credentials in the industry, having been a golf professional and a golf equipment manufacturer's rep from 1960 through 1965. His entree was via the recording studio and he became a recording engineer who worked at Bell Sound, Studio 76, Sounds On Broadway, National Recording and Broadway Recording. His first songwriting partner was Mikie Harris, a noted NYC background singer of the 1960s who was later assistant to John Hammond
.
Rashkow and Harris married in 1966 and had two children, Randy and Roger (Duke). Though signed as staff writers to Pamco Music, the BMI
wing of ABC-Paramount Records, they were not successful as a writing team.
/Teddy Randazzo
firm. They soon wrote "Mary in the Morning," which became a worldwide hit. It has sold in excess of 10,000,000 recordings, and in 2010 attained BMI's Two Million Performance status for radio airplay. Rashkow and Cymbal wrote numerous other songs including "Julie On My Mind" which, as recorded by Adam Wade, became a hit in the Caribbean Islands and is today still well known among reggae enthusiasts.
During this period, under the name "Mike Lendell," Rashkow wrote, produced and sang lead on a novelty tune "Please Phil Spector" which was not released in the U.S., but received airplay overseas. That recording was subsequently included in a BBC documentary film about Phil Spector
and more recently a tribute compilation CD titled Phil's Spectre on ACE Records. Contractual issues stalled the Cymbal/Rashkow writing partnership shortly thereafter, although in 1983 Cymbal and Rashkow reunited and wrote a number of songs for the Nashville market.
In 1967, Rashkow formed Pineywood Productions and Pineywood Music with Ellie Greenwich. This was Rashkow's most productive period. In addition to the artists mentioned above, Rashkow and Greenwich signed Steve Tudanger as a writer and producer. Tudanger was a founder of the seminal doo-wop
group The Four Evers and had been a voice in the Archies. As an artist, Tudanger had releases on Mercury Records
and Wes Farrell
's Chelsea label; though well-received, these were not successful. His song "Let Me Be Forever," as recorded by Steve Feldman, became a #1 hit in several South American countries. The Definitive Rock Chorale was a studio group and a vehicle for the Rashkow/Greenwich writing team, and utilized the vocal talents of NYC "A List" background and jingle singers, including Ron Dante
, Toni Wine
, Jimmy Radcliffe
, Tony Passalaqua, Cashman, Pistilli and West and Ellie Greenwich herself. Their release "Variations On A Theme Called Hanky Panky" charted and became a minor cult classic. Rashkow and Greenwich also wrote and produced music for The Hardy Boys
, an animated TV series.
and film personality Jason Holliday in spoken-word/comedy format, as well as Jesse Henderson, a Newark-based soul artist.
Shortly thereafter, Rashkow left the music business and went into advertising as a copywriter and creative director. In 1981, he formed his own advertising/graphic design firm, Two Minute Communications, specializing in marketing for the race horse industry.
Within two years, T:MC became universally recognized as the outstanding marketing agency of its type. During that period, they represented numerous major farms and equine syndication organizations in both the US and Canada.
Their work in that field led to other areas of commerce. Changing the agency name to Group T:MC as they expanded, Rashkow revised the focus of the firm and developed a broad range of business-to-business clientele. Among their clients during the next decade were AT&T, ABB, Community Bank of New Jersey, Merrill Lynch, Maser Engineering, Schoor/DePalma and Langeveld Bulb Company.
In 1985, Rashkow was among the founders of New Era Bank, Somerset, New Jersey. He was elected to the Board of Directors and continued on that Board until 1993 when the bank was sold. For five of those years, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Board and also directed the marketing for the bank's credit card division.
In 1998, Rashkow sold the advertising agency, and for the next four years he and his second wife, Barbara, became full-time RV-ers.
They are now retired and reside in the Blue Ridge foothills of North Carolina. He is a regular contributor to the Spectropop music website and newsgroup.
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and record 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 wrote "Mary in the Morning" with Johnny Cymbal
Johnny Cymbal
Johnny Cymbal was a Scottish born American songwriter, singer, and record producer who had numerous hit records, including his signature song, "Mr...
. It was recorded by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Glen Campbell
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.During his 50 years in show...
, Al Martino
Al Martino
Al Martino was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid 1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners", and also became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in The...
, Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
's Guy Fletcher
Guy Fletcher
Guy Wilson Fletcher is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his position as the keyboardist in the British rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his involvement in nearly every part of Mark Knopfler's solo work to date.-Biography:Fletcher was born into a...
, and many other artists. He formed Pineywood Productions with Ellie Greenwich
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Be My Baby", "Christmas ", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and "River Deep, Mountain High", among many others...
in the late 1960s. Among the artists they wrote for and produced were Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, The Daily News, The Definitive Rock Chorale, The Fuzzy Bunnies, The Whatnauts
The Whatnauts
The Whatnauts were an American soul group from Baltimore, Maryland founded in 1969. The group had several hit singles in the early 1970s, including the socially conscious single "Message From A Black Man" in 1970 on A&I International, "Please Make The Love Go Away" also in 1970 but on Stang, and...
and The Other Voices as well as Ellie Greenwich
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Be My Baby", "Christmas ", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and "River Deep, Mountain High", among many others...
. Their publishing arm, Pineywood Music, published their own material and songs by other writers including Steve Tudanger and Paul Levinson
Paul Levinson
Paul Levinson is an American author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. Levinson's novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into twelve languages....
, a member of The Other Voices.
Early years
Michael Rashkow was born July 18, 1941, in New York City. As a child and young man, he grew up in New York and Florida, and he served in the U.S. Air Force as a psychiatric medic.Rashkow came to the music business without any background or credentials in the industry, having been a golf professional and a golf equipment manufacturer's rep from 1960 through 1965. His entree was via the recording studio and he became a recording engineer who worked at Bell Sound, Studio 76, Sounds On Broadway, National Recording and Broadway Recording. His first songwriting partner was Mikie Harris, a noted NYC background singer of the 1960s who was later assistant to John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
.
Rashkow and Harris married in 1966 and had two children, Randy and Roger (Duke). Though signed as staff writers to Pamco Music, the BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
wing of ABC-Paramount Records, they were not successful as a writing team.
"Mary in the Morning"
Rashkow began writing with his friend Johnny Cymbal, whom Rashkow had brought to ABC from Cymbal's previous staff position at South Mountain Music, the Don CostaDon Costa
Don Costa was an American pop music arranger and record producer, best known for his work with Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
/Teddy Randazzo
Teddy Randazzo
Teddy Randazzo was a NYC born pop songwriter who composed 1960s hit songs such as "Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", and "Hurt So Bad"...
firm. They soon wrote "Mary in the Morning," which became a worldwide hit. It has sold in excess of 10,000,000 recordings, and in 2010 attained BMI's Two Million Performance status for radio airplay. Rashkow and Cymbal wrote numerous other songs including "Julie On My Mind" which, as recorded by Adam Wade, became a hit in the Caribbean Islands and is today still well known among reggae enthusiasts.
During this period, under the name "Mike Lendell," Rashkow wrote, produced and sang lead on a novelty tune "Please Phil Spector" which was not released in the U.S., but received airplay overseas. That recording was subsequently included in a BBC documentary film about Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
and more recently a tribute compilation CD titled Phil's Spectre on ACE Records. Contractual issues stalled the Cymbal/Rashkow writing partnership shortly thereafter, although in 1983 Cymbal and Rashkow reunited and wrote a number of songs for the Nashville market.
Partnership with Ellie Greenwich
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
group The Four Evers and had been a voice in the Archies. As an artist, Tudanger had releases on Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
and Wes Farrell
Wes Farrell
Wes Farrell was an American musician, songwriter and record producer, who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s...
's Chelsea label; though well-received, these were not successful. His song "Let Me Be Forever," as recorded by Steve Feldman, became a #1 hit in several South American countries. The Definitive Rock Chorale was a studio group and a vehicle for the Rashkow/Greenwich writing team, and utilized the vocal talents of NYC "A List" background and jingle singers, including Ron Dante
Ron Dante
Ron Dante is an American singer, songwriter, session vocalist, and record producer...
, Toni Wine
Toni Wine
Toni Wine is an American pop music songwriter, who wrote songs for such artists as The Mindbenders , Tony Orlando and Dawn , Elvis Presley, and Checkmates Ltd. in the late 1960s and 1970s...
, Jimmy Radcliffe
Jimmy Radcliffe
James "Jimmy" Radcliffe was an American soul singer, composer, arranger, conductor and record producer.-Biography:James Radcliffe was born in New York City...
, Tony Passalaqua, Cashman, Pistilli and West and Ellie Greenwich herself. Their release "Variations On A Theme Called Hanky Panky" charted and became a minor cult classic. Rashkow and Greenwich also wrote and produced music for The Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives who appear in various mystery series for children and teens....
, an animated TV series.
Later years
Alone, Rashkow produced the radio personality and author Jean ShepherdJean Shepherd
Jean Parker Shepherd was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep....
and film personality Jason Holliday in spoken-word/comedy format, as well as Jesse Henderson, a Newark-based soul artist.
Shortly thereafter, Rashkow left the music business and went into advertising as a copywriter and creative director. In 1981, he formed his own advertising/graphic design firm, Two Minute Communications, specializing in marketing for the race horse industry.
Within two years, T:MC became universally recognized as the outstanding marketing agency of its type. During that period, they represented numerous major farms and equine syndication organizations in both the US and Canada.
Their work in that field led to other areas of commerce. Changing the agency name to Group T:MC as they expanded, Rashkow revised the focus of the firm and developed a broad range of business-to-business clientele. Among their clients during the next decade were AT&T, ABB, Community Bank of New Jersey, Merrill Lynch, Maser Engineering, Schoor/DePalma and Langeveld Bulb Company.
In 1985, Rashkow was among the founders of New Era Bank, Somerset, New Jersey. He was elected to the Board of Directors and continued on that Board until 1993 when the bank was sold. For five of those years, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Board and also directed the marketing for the bank's credit card division.
In 1998, Rashkow sold the advertising agency, and for the next four years he and his second wife, Barbara, became full-time RV-ers.
They are now retired and reside in the Blue Ridge foothills of North Carolina. He is a regular contributor to the Spectropop music website and newsgroup.