Andy Paley

Andy Paley is a noted record producer and musician who has been active since the late 1960's. His work includes stints as a producer for such noted musicians as Madonna, the Ramones, Jonathan Richman, Debbie Harry, Brian Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis.

He is also a musician and singer. He began performing around 1969 as drummer with Boston band Catfish Black, which also included future Modern Lovers members Jerry Harrison (also later of Talking Heads) and Ernie Brooks. Around 1971, the band renamed themselves The Sidewinders, and the following year recorded and released their only album, produced by Lenny Kaye and featuring songs written and sung by Paley.^[1] The Sidewinders broke up in the mid-1970s. Paley then played on Elliott Murphy's album Night Lights, and also performed with Jonathan Richman after the break-up of the original Modern Lovers.^[2] In 1976 Andy Paley and his brother Jonathan formed The Paley Brothers. The band toured extensively and released a self-titled album in 1978, and also contributed a track to the soundtrack of The Ramones' movie Rock 'n' Roll High School. They were also groomed for teen heartthrob stardom, and featured extensively in teen magazines such as Rock Scene and 16.

He next turned his attentions to record production. In 1977, as he was just starting out as a producer, he was hired by the reformed Shangri-Las to go into the studio with them. According to Paley, he got the job not so much for his production skills, but rather because in his interview, he said that his favorite Shangri-Las song was "Out in the Streets"...which also happened to be the favorite of the group themselves. Although none of the tracks recorded during their sessions would surface, Paley said that the trio enjoyed themselves in the studio again. He also led the band that backed the Shangri-Las up at their spur-of-the-moment CBGBs show that summer.^[3]

In 1979 Paley played guitar on Jonathan Richman's album Back in Your Life, and continued to perform on and off with Richman and later incarnations of the Modern Lovers, and produce many of their recordings, through the 1980s. In 1988 he produced Brian Wilson's comeback solo album, and continued to work with Wilson on unreleased material in the 1990s. Later he collaborated as producer with Madonna, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others.

He was a producer, performer and composer for parts of the soundtrack to the movie release of SpongeBob SquarePants. He produced the soundtracks for Dick Tracy (1990) and A Walk on the Moon (1999) and wrote the original music for Traveller (1997, starring Bill Paxton). In 2009 he contributed to the soundtrack of World's Greatest Dad directed by Bobcat Goldthwait and starring Robin Williams.

He also wrote the musical score for Season One of Showtime's The L Word.

Currently, he also leads the three-piece Andy Paley Orchestra, which provides musical accompaniment for The Thrilling Adventure & Supernatural Suspense Hour, a theater group in Los Angeles which performs original stage productions in the style of old radio melodramas.

References

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