David Jay Weiss, known as David Was, is an American musician, music producer and journalist. With his stage-brother Don Was, he was the founder of the 1980s pop group

Was (Not Was) Was (Not Was) is an American pop rock group founded in 1979 in Detroit, Michigan, by David Weiss and Don Fagenson, who adopted the stage names David Was and Don Was. Their song catalog features an eclectic mix of pop and rock styles, often ...

Career

Was was born in Detroit, Michigan to a Jewish family. A graduate of Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, Michigan, and later the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, Was left his native Detroit for California, and found employment as the jazz

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or govern ...

for the now-defunct Hearst daily the ''

Los Angeles Herald Examiner The ''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'' was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. It was formed when the afternoon ' ...

'', where he forged friendships with

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

and

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for " The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an ...

. With his childhood friend Don Was he went on to form

, composing the lyrics and music and playing various instruments, primarily flute, keyboards and harmonica. Reviewed by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1980 as "the funkier art- funk band," Was (Not Was) used members of Funkadelic, alongside

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

musicians like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave; and singers

and

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

. They released five albums and enjoyed four

Top 10 A top ten list is a list of the ten highest-ranking items of a given category. Top Ten or Top 10 may also refer to: Media *Top 10, a common record chart for the ten most popular songs of the week in the musical chart of a country *''America's Top ...

singles worldwide. Their most recent album, '' Boo!'', was issued in 2008 and ranked among that year's top ten releases on many critics' lists. Their 1989 release, ''

What Up, Dog? ''What Up, Dog?'' is a 1988 album by Was (Not Was). It became the group's breakthrough album worldwide and was ranked #99 on the ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s. The cover illustration was credited to Christop ...

'' featured two top 10 singles, the latter of which, "

Walk the Dinosaur "Walk the Dinosaur" is a song by Was (Not Was), released in 1987, from their album '' What Up, Dog?'' Song info The tune features a tight, funky sound, punctuated by horns and a cowbell. When released in the UK in 1987, the song reached No. 10 o ...

," has been re-recorded by

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album '' All Hail the Qu ...

for the animated feature, '' Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs'' and has been licensed for use in a half-dozen other feature films. In other projects, Was

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

two soundtrack albums for the '' X-Files'' TV show and feature film, as well as music supervised features for

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. He joined network music composers on CBS's '' The Education of Max Bickford'', starring

Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including '' American Graffiti'' (1973), '' Jaws'' (1975), '' Close Encounters of th ...

, and also did the music for ABC's ''That Was Then''. His theme music introduced Fox Sports' "NFL Pregame Show" for many years, and another composition precedes every NBA, NHL and MLB game on Fox Sports outlets. As a record producer, he has worked with

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, Rickie Lee Jones, Roy Orbison, k.d. lang,

Wayne Kramer Wayne Kramer may refer to: * Wayne Kramer (filmmaker) (born 1965), South African film writer and director * Wayne Kramer (guitarist) (born 1948), American guitarist {{Hndis, Kramer, Wayne ...

(of MC5 fame) and the

Holly Cole Holly Cole (born November 25, 1963) is a Canadian jazz singer and actress. For many years she performed with her group The Holly Cole Trio. Background Cole was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father, Leon Cole, was a noted radio broadcaster ...

Trio of Canada. Was has been a regular contributor to

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from othe ...

's '' Day to Day'' and ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

,'' where he writes and records culturally themed features. As a journalist, he has had bylines in the ''New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, Seattle Post, Entertainment Weekly, Golfweek, Golf'' and ''Travel & Golf''. He writes a column for ''Newsweek ''and contributes to ''Men's Journal'' and the ''LA Daily News''.

References

* Record producers from Michigan Living people Musicians from Detroit University of Michigan alumni Was (Not Was) members Year of birth missing (living people) {{music-producer-stub

Career

See also

References