BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Description: Record producer for Warner Bros. Records
Known For: 1989, he assumed presidency of Warner Bros, signing Elvis Costello
Music Styles: Pop/Rock
Location: United States of America
Date Born: 3rd October 1941
Location Born: Los Angeles, California, United States of America
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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is an American producer and music industry executive. As the president of Warner Bros. Records, and later, as the co-Chair of DreamWorks Records, Waronker was noted for his commitment to artists and his belief that “music, not money, was still number one.”
Waronker was born in 1941 and grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. His father, Simon Waronker, a classical violinist, performed with the 20th Century Fox Orchestra from 1936 through 1939, and served as the orchestra’s contractor at the studio from 1939 to 1955. When Waronker was 13, his father founded Liberty Records. With a roster that included Johnny Burnette, Eddie Cochran, Julie London, Bobby Vee, Jan and Dean, and the Ventures, Liberty became one of the most successful independent labels of the post-World War II period.
Liberty’s first release was an orchestral composition entitled “The Girl Upstairs” by Lionel Newman. Newman’s nephew Randy Newman and Waronker – raised in the same neighborhood – were close friends. They frequently visited the Liberty Records office, where they would watch recording sessions and study studio personnel. Waronker had little interest in becoming a musician, and gravitated instead towards production. “I remember going to Randy’s house and saying ‘why don’t we figure out the arrangement for some standard?’ And it was just amazing: He’d take any odd standard song and he’d sit down and mess with it and come up with a pop arrangement,” he said in a 1994 interview with Billboard.
He was an A&R rep, and was responsible for building much of the Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records, and DreamWorks Records rosters with talent including Little Feat, The Doobie Brothers, Curtis Mayfield, Neil Young, R.E.M., Rufus Wainwright, Elliott Smith, Nelly Furtado, and others. Waronker also ran Warner Bros. Records with Mo Ostin for many years.
He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, and others.
After leaving Warner Bros., Ostin and Waronker ran DreamWorks Records from 1996 until it was sold to Universal Music in 2004.
At Metric, Waronker pitched songs to Dick Glasser at Warner Bros. and Jimmy Bowen at Reprise. Impressed by his song demos, Bowen and Glasser recommended Waronker to Reprise label president Mo Ostin. Ostin subsequently hired him as a junior a&r representative for Reprise and for Warner Bros., which was then run by Joe Smith. Charged with developing artists who were originally on the roster of Autumn Records, a defunct label Reprise had acquired, Waronker produced the Mojo Men’s “Sit Down, I Think I Love You,” hiring Newman on piano and Van Dyke Parks as an arranger. He also produced Harpers Bizarre’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” which he hired Leon Russell to arrange. Both songs were hits.
At the time, Warner/Reprise was characterized by a roster which included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Sonny and Cher. The perception of the label shifted as Ostin and Smith signed artists including Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, the Grateful Dead, and Van Morrison, among many others, and Waronker signed and/or produced artists including Newman, the Beau Brummels, James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, Van Dyke Parks, Ry Cooder, Gordon Lightfoot, and Maria Muldaur.
In 1970 Ostin promoted Waronker to head of a&r. Waronker assembled an A&R staff composed of acclaimed producers and artists including Tommy LiPuma, Ted Templeman, Russ Titelman, Steve Barri, Gary Katz, Michael Omartian and John Cale, and by the early 1980s, Ostin, Smith and Waronker had transformed Warner/Reprise into a label known as a haven for artists. Rickie Lee Jones, who Waronker signed on the strength of a four-song demo, was an example of the success of the Warner Bros. artist-centric philosophy; her debut album, which Waronker co-produced with Titelman, went multi-platinum, and was considered by many to be one of the best debut albums of all time. Although the singles charts at the time was dominated by disco and arena rock anthems, Chuck E.’s In Love was a Top 10 hit. Jones won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1979 and Waronker was nominated for a Grammy in the Record of the Year category for his work as the record’s producer. (He was nominated in the same category in 1975 for Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight at the Oasis.”)
In 1982, Waronker determined that his a&r-focused role was limiting and “becoming tiresome.” He went to Ostin, seeking to become more active as an executive at the label. Waronker was subsequently installed as president. Although he remained significantly involved in signing artists, and produced tracks including Rod Stewart’s “Broken Arrow” and Eric Clapton’s “Forever Man,” he reduced the amount of time he spent in the studio, and instead worked closely with Ostin to run Warner/Reprise.
Personal life
Waronker lives in Los Angeles. He was married to Shindig! star Donna Loren, with whom he had three children, including songwriter and That Dog founder, Anna Waronker, and drummer, Joey, as well as a second daughter, Katie. His second marriage to jewelry designer, Cathleen Waronker, with whom he had two children, Lily and Grace, ended in divorce. He has five grandchildren.
Waronker serves on the board of directors of the USC Thornton School of Music.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia