Song Chronicles

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 3 of Song Chronicles. Our guest today is singer and songwriter Billy Valentine, who just released a new album called "a masterclass in soul interpretation" by Record Collector. Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth was chosen as the first record for the relaunch of Flying Dutchman, the iconic imprint known for releases by Duke Ellington, Gil-Scott Heron, and Leon Thomas.

Billy was born in West Virginia as one of thirteen children and later moved to Columbus, Ohio where his parents owned a nightclub. His brother Alvin introduced him to the path of professional entertainer. At 15 years old, Billy booked his first paying gig after sitting in with his brother Alvin during a performance at Leon’s Cocktail Lounge in Patterson, NJ. After a stint in the original touring company of The Wiz, Billy and his brother John formed The Valentine Brothers. Together they recorded four albums and had a breakout Reagan-era protest single "Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)."

The Valentine Brothers

After the duo split, Billy began a songwriting collaboration with Bob Thiele, Jr and Phil Roy. The trio’s songs were recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Pops and Mavis Staples, The Neville Brothers, and his hero Ray Charles. We talk about the "pinch me" moment of hearing Ray’s recording of his song, the title track of the album My World.

Ray Charles's 1993 album My World

Billy’s incredible vocal interpretations made him a sought-after demo singer for songwriting greats like Burt Bacharach & Hal David and Gerry Goffin. Bob Thiele, Jr. says it was Billy’s voice that made the songs they wrote together irresistible, making Billy "the secret weapon of nearly every songwriter in LA." We talk about how Billy came to sing on the soundtrack of Boston Legal.

Burt Bacharach and Billy Valentine

Recording during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 brought Billy back to the '60s, being brought up in Ohio during the Kent State and Vietnam War protests. He chose to reinterpret iconic protest songs by Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder for his new record Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth. We talk about the permanence of protest songs in our cultural landscape.

After many decades in the business, Billy says he is finally feeling good in his own skin and proud of how he made these songs sound. We talk about how hard artists are on themselves and how pleasing yourself is the hardest part. He has an ageless quality about him and describes himself as having a "young heart."

Enjoy this conversation with a storied interpreter of songs.

Season 2: Episode 9

Jon Platt

 

Welcome to Episode 9, Season 2 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest is Jon Platt, the Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing – a man Jay-Z proclaimed as the “the Obama of the music industry.”

 

 

Jon took a quite unusual path to becoming one of the most powerful and influential (music) publishers of the past 25 years," according to Variety. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Oakland, Jon was a high school student in Denver when he took his first step into the music industry. While working in a sporting goods store, he befriended a local DJ named Thomas Edwards, who showed Jon the deejaying basics and he soon became a popular club DJ.

 

Jon with Chuck D. photo by Desiree Navarro/Wire Image

 

Jon's next life-changing moment came when Jon was MC’ing a Public Enemy/Ice Cube concert. He got to talking with Public Enemy’s front-man, Chuck D, who told Jon not to settle for just being a DJ. “My music dream started the next day from that day,” Jon reveals in our conversation.

 

with Jay-Z

 

Inspired by Chuck D's words, Jon began managing some songwriters and producers in Los Angeles. In 1995, he got a low-rung job in EMI’s A&R department and quickly struck gold by signing Marqueze Etheridge, co-writer of the TLC’s smash, “Waterfalls,” one of the year’s – and the decade’s – mega hits. He credits his “DJ instincts” for his talent for breaking records like “Waterfalls” as well as his role behind the making of the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys smash single, “Empire State of Mind.”

 

Jon (on the right) with Sean Combs, Jay-Z, and Clarence Avant, one of Platt's mentor figures. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Image

 

At EMI Music Publishing, Jon signed Kanye West, Jay-Z, Diddy, Beyoncè, Drake, and Usher, while working his way up to being President of North America, Creative in 2011. He later moved Warner/Chappell, where he was appointed Chairman and CEO in 2015. Then in 2019, he took the same positions at Sony Music Publishing, the world's No. 1 global music publisher with a catalog of over three million songs.

 

 

 

Highly respected inside and outside the music business, Jon has received such honors as SESAC’s Visionary Award, Morehouse College’s Candle Award in Music, Business and Entertainment, and Black Radio Exclusive Magazine’s Man of the Year, and has been a perennial presence on Billboard’s prestigious Power 100 list.

 

with Pharrell Williams. Photo by Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

 

Jon’s most cherished honor, however, is the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award - because the event raised more than $6 million for the hospital. He wholeheartedly believes in the importance of helping people because you can help. This belief is underscored in the story he shares about assisting in getting Kanye West onto Usher’s Confession tour along with his many philanthropic endeavors – such as starting the Big Jon Platt Scholarship Program in 2005 to help Denver high school students go to college.

 

Jon with his wife, Angie, Usher, and Rita Ora

 

He’s extremely proud too for being able to assist songwriters during the pandemic. Jon, who has championed songwriters throughout his career, helped to have Sony’s COVID Global Relief Fund donate over $2 million to songwriters – and not just Sony Music Publishing songwriters -worldwide. We also discuss the Music Modernization Act, which he believes is a step in the right direction for songwriting compensation. It’s important, Jon says, “to do the right thing by songwriters.”

 

Photo by Mary Beth Koeth

 

Please enjoy this very special conversation with Jon Platt as he offers his perceptive personal insights along with talking about his unique place in the music business, and his love for music and music-makers.

 

 

Episode 5.

Gail Ann Dorsey

Song Chronicles is proud to present its fifth episode, a conversation with singer-songwriter, bass player extraordinaire, and dear friend Gail Ann Dorsey. 

"I think... since I was a little kid... I wanted to get out of Philadelphia. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to do these things. Honestly, the odds were not in my favor, from my background, of me achieving what I've achieved, regardless of... talent and things. But. I think I've always [had] a good daydreaming, uh, imagination thing, you know, a law of attraction thing. You think you see it, you see it, you see it, and then... it comes."

 

 I first met Gail in the early '90s in London. I reached out to her to see if she wanted to write some songs and perhaps start a duo project. The band name was going to be South of Venus. She came over and we started a song called "Femme Fatale" and then ended up demoing some other songs together in the English countryside (with recording engineer Andrew Jackson, who I'd met recording at Astoria Studio, David Gilmour's houseboat on the Thames). We were hoping to write more songs and play some gigs when she got a call from Bryan Ferry. He wanted her to go on a European promotional tour for television. I was happy for her and thought our plans would simply be delayed; but soon after, Roland Orzabal, who I'd occasionally see in the coffee shop around the corner from me, wanted her to play with Tears For Fears, so it looked like our duo plans had bitten the dust. The next thing I knew, she'd put my name in the hat to play guitar on the Bryan Ferry TV tour and I got the gig. This was the beginning of a long and cherished friendship.

 

Happy times with David Bowie

 

 

 

Louise & Gail recording for "South of Venus" in London

While traveling in Europe, we had dinner with filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and actors Rossy de Palma and Beverly D'Angelo in Madrid and went to Copenhagen, Paris, and other major cities. We made a dark Berlinesque video for Bryan of his cover of "I Put A Spell On You" and then back in London, I focused on songwriting and played some shows with an expanded line up and called it South of Venus. My hair was short then anyway, but then I dyed it blonde for a minute. Somewhere in that period of time Gail and I were called into the studio to sing backgrounds together on a Gang of Four album called Mall. I was already friends with Andy Gill. He was a beloved friend and he loved to cook and also knew all the best East End markets and wine bars. He produced some songs for me too that were never released. That was a snapshot in time, of changing busy lives going off into different directions. I was in London only another eighteen months before getting a gig opening for Swing Out Sister and decided at the end of it to stay in LA, ending my ten-year chapter as a Londoner and eventually ending up back on Lookout Mountain in Laurel Canyon. Gail, meanwhile, had done two tours with Tears For Fears, played on their records, and Roland Orzabal was mentoring her on her own solo record when she got the call from David Bowie. 

Over the years, we'd find time to meet up in LA, Woodstock & Nashville, and always we'd get right back into our groove. Gail was always fascinated with Hollywood and filmmaking, and in fact, had won a scholarship to Cal Arts and had attended film school well before her career as a signed recording artist (first for CBS and then Island) and her star side-woman singer-bassist-performer extraordinaire status with icons — none more famous than David Bowie, with whom she shared a lengthy residency from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016.

 

with David Bowie

 Gail sang lead vocals on live versions of "Under Pressure" and dueted with Bowie on other songs, including "The London Boys," "Aladdin Sane," "I Dig Everything," and a cover of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman."

 

 

 

 

Behind the Scenes at the video shoot for Bryan Ferry's "I Put A Spell On You": Gail Ann Dorsey, Rossy de Palma and Louise Goffin 

 

 

Episode 4.

Kathy Valentine

Song Chronicles is proud to present its fourth episode, a conversation with American musician, songwriter and author Kathy Valentine.

Kathy was a member of the first, and to date, only all-female band that wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top Billboard charts at #1, having one of the most successful debuts of all time. The Go-Gos sold over 7 million records. When they went on tour opening for The Police, they soon rose up the charts surpassing the headliner, with Sting breaking open a bottle of champagne for them to celebrate. 

The Go-Gos

To be in a band of young women frought with both tension and love, who stuck together through the rigors of the road and high profile promotion, defying stereotypes, brought intense challenges. The only way its band members could survive to lead healthy and successful lives was to leave behind the band that had brought them together. 

 

 Kathy’s memoir, titled All I Ever Wanted, is an inspiring and honestly told story. She’s found her way to discover her own voice as both a writer of prose and a lead vocalist, playing multi-instruments on her own songs, which she’s used to create a soundtrack to her book.

The music stands on its own as a body of work. It’s a great soundtrack!

 She tells her story without the affectations of someone trying to sound “writerly.”  

Kathy and I knew one another throughout the years at a distance but became friends when we both found ourselves expecting within months of one another. We both have 17-year-olds so we’ve known each other a while and she’s awesome.  

I'm honored to be able to present to you the first Song Chronicles stay-at-home interview ever...

 with the bad-ass, magnificent Kathy Valentine.

 

Episode 3.

J.D. Souther

Song Chronicles is proud to present its third episode, a conversation with songwriter J.D. Souther.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013, Grammy-nominated Souther has penned countless hits for The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, James Taylor, Don Henley, George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, and Brooks and Dunn, and found success as solo artist. J.D.’s latest album Tenderness, produced by Larry Klein, connects “LA’s ‘70s golden age with the Great American Songbook,” writes Uncut, with songs that sound “like standards themselves.” 

 

J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt

 

J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne

Louise first met J.D. when she was a teenager living with her mom, spending a summer in Malibu. Two years later, Louise made her debut album Kid Blue, produced by Danny Kortchmar, at the iconic Sunset Sound Factory at the peak of the California singer-songwriter multi-platinum-selling era. J.D. Souther, Don Henley and Stevie Nicks sang background vocals!

In this conversation that took place July 13, 2019 at John David’s ranch in Nashville, TN, J.D. talks about his early inspiration for his classic songs; his musical upbringing; his latest album, Tenderness; and what it’s like to tour as a solo performer. The conversation feels more like reminiscing between friends than an interview, with wonderful personal stories of many '70s golden era heavyweights: Linda Ronstadt, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, Emmy Lou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Asher, Waddy Wachtel, Warren Zevon, Don Grolnick, David Sanborn, and more. 

  

early days with Glenn Frey

 

 

 

A passionate animal lover and advocate, J.D. is also involved with Best Friends Animal Society.

 

 

with Joe Walsh - photo by Barry Shultz

 

His classic albums John David Souther, Black Rose, and Home by Dawn have been released as expanded reissues (Omnivore Recordings). As an actor, he has appeared in the TV shows Thirtysomething and Nashville, among others.

 

 

 

 

 

 *Song Chronicles is a brand new podcast series hosted by Louise Goffin. The complete 32 episodes of The Great Song Adventure podcast hosted by Louise Goffin & Paul Zollo can be found on thegreatsongadventure.com.

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

Episode 2.

Desmond Child

 

It is with great pleasure that Song Chronicles presents Grammy-Winning Producer, Recording Artist and Songwriter Desmond Child.

 

*Song Chronicles is a brand new podcast series hosted by Louise Goffin. The complete 32 episodes of The Great Song Adventure podcast hosted by Louise Goffin & Paul Zollo can be found on thegreatsongadventure.com.

     

Desmond Child, the son of Hungarian father Joseph Marfy and of Cuban songwriter Elena Casals, is a highly driven genre-defying songwriter and producer, who can easily be introduced to those not in-the-know as a "hitmaker to the stars". His credits appear on more than eighty Billboard Top 40 singles spanning five decades, including “Livin’ On A Prayer,” “You Give Love A Bad Name,” “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” “Waking Up In Vegas.” and many more.

February of 2020, Nashville TN, in a Charlotte Avenue storefront building filled with instruments and books, Desmond sat down with Louise Goffin and talked about some of the songs he's been a part of writing, artists he's collaborated with, and how real-life circumstances inspired some of the songs that became part of the zeitgeist of popular culture. In this engaging conversation, Child reveals his great love of his family, his passion for working towards a better future for songwriters and not least, leading the way forward toward a more open-minded world for his two sons. Desmond has no shortage of gratitude for his creative and varied life, partnered alongside his loving husband ("people like me because they like him!") and it's easy to see how his spontaneity and truthful read of those around him gifts him with a knack for drawing out the archetypal themes wanting to be written in the room, collaborating with artists who are searching to find something they truly want to sing about. 

A graduate of New York University, once upon a time, Child and Maria Vidal, along with Myriam Valle and Diana Grasselli, formed Desmond Child & Rouge, recording two albums for Capitol. Next moves led him to collaborate with Paul Stanley of KISS and create two of the band's most enduring hits: “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” and “Heaven’s On Fire.” A winning streak had begun.

From Aerosmith to Zedd, his songs have been recorded and performed by a wide variety of both entertainers and collaborators, defying genre limits, with superstars as diverse as Bon Jovi, KISS, Cher, Joan Jett, Alice Cooper, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bolton, Ricky Martin, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, Meat Loaf, Cyndi Lauper, Christina Aguilera, Sia, Mickey Mouse and Kermit the Frog.

 

 

with Joan Jett

Songwriters Hall of Fame

 

"Desmond is a slave-driving slut" - Alice Cooper

 

 

with husband Curtis Shaw

 

 

left to right: Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi Jr.), Cher, Desmond Child, Steven Tyler  

 

 "Lady Liberty"

performed by

Barbra Streisand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)

 

 

 ^KISS

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Ezrin's Studio, Nashville TN

Desmond Child and Louise Goffin (reflection of Alice Cooper in glasses)

photo by Kyler Clark

 

 

Bob Ezrin, Alice Cooper, Desmond Child, Louise Goffin

photo by Kyler Clark 

 

 

 

 Episode 1.

SAM HOLLANDER

 

 

Song Chronicles is proud to present its first episode with songwriter-producer, Sam Hollander.

*Song Chronicles is a brand new podcast series hosted by Louise Goffin. The complete 32 episodes of The Great Song Adventure podcast hosted by Louise Goffin & Paul Zollo can be found on thegreatsongadventure.com.

     

Sam Hollander has a career that any aspiring songwriter or producer would envy and happily step in the shoes of for even a day. He's written and/or produced over 20 US Top 40 Pop Hits and had numerous worldwide top-charting songs including Panic! at the Disco's worldwide #1 "High Hopes". Visiting the YouTube channels of the bands and artists he's worked with, one quickly sees that his songs have been streamed by not just millions, but by billions. In 2019 he held the #1 position on the Billboard Rock Songwriters chart for nine weeks, a year-end record.

 

In September of 2019, in a relaxed and intimate conversational setting, Sam sat down to talk with Louise Goffin about his life before and after his success and revealed an inspiring story of perseverance and likable-guy determination. Listen and find out more!

 

Once an academically-challenged teenager who couldn't understand what he'd read, and who felt like a misfit in school, Sam Hollander spent his his youth trying to find a way to engage with the world with his love of music, surrounded by a family of high-achieving creative parents. His story is an inspiration for the many kids in schools who are mischaracterized as "failing" when they simply find it hard to engage in school systems or are unable to demonstrate their gifts through standardized testing. Sam was determined to either work with the artists who would be chart-toppers or to create them himself by developing and helping unknown talent, writing their hit songs. His genuine love of music and the music business, along with his talent for production and rhymes, eventually led to a transformation of his situation as he began writing and producing worldwide hits for the likes of Fitz and The Tantrums, Panic! at the Disco, One Direction, Carole King, Ringo Starr, Sugar Ray, Gym Class Heroes, Tom Jones, Chiddy Bang, Weezer, We The Kings, Sugar Ray and more.

 

 

 

Louise Goffin & Sam Hollander 

September 2019  Hollywood, California  

 

"High Hopes" from the Panic! at the Disco video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Fitz and The Tantrums 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weezer

 

"CheckYes Juliet" 

 

                          

Carole King "Love Makes The World"

                     .                  

Panic! at the Disco "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" 

#1 US ROCK SONGS, #3 US HOT AC, #5 US ALTERNATIVE, #6 US TOP 40. RIAA certified PLATINUM, 2019 TEEN CHOICE AWARDS ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR.