Mark Radice is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and producer. Since the early 1970s he has worked with a variety of different artists while also achieving success with his own material. He is a multi-instrumentalist and is credited with writing more than 5,500 songs.

Early life

Mark Radice was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Nutley, where he was inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame in 2019. His father Gene Radice was a well-known

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

who worked with

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

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Lovin' Spoonful Loving may refer to: * Love, a range of human emotions * Loving (surname) * '' Loving v. Virginia'', a 1967 landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case Film and television * ''Loving'' (1970 film), an American film * ''Loving'' ( ...

Janis Ian Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...

, the Four Seasons,

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, Mamas & the Papas,

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, and many more. Mark Radice began writing songs, after teaching himself guitar while listening to Beatles albums, at the age of seven.

Career

In 1964, at age of seven, Radice was signed to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. His single "Natural Morning" was later covered by

Frankie Valli Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. ...

. In 1967 while signed to

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

he released "10,000 Year Old Blues", which featured the 20-year-old

Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...

. His first full-length self-titled LP was released in 1971 on

Paramount Records Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Early years Paramount Records was formed in 19 ...

. The song "

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" was later covered by Dion and

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. In 1973 Radice was invited by

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

to move to England, where he would contribute to Donovan's album ''

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'' album and the associated tour. In

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

, Radice released his second solo album ''Ain't Nothin' But A Party'', featuring

Brass Construction Brass Construction was an American funk group formed in Brooklyn, New York, United States, in 1968. They were originally known as Dynamic Soul, and went on to record a string of hit singles and albums through to 1985. Career Signed in 1975 by S ...

. The album included the hit single "If You Can't Beat 'Em Join 'Em." As a writer for

EMI Publishing EMI Music Publishing Ltd. is a British multinational music publishing company headquartered in London, owned by parent company Sony Corporation of America. In May 2018, Sony Music Publishing agreed to increase its stake in EMI to 90%, pending ...

in the 1970s, he collaborated with artists such as

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
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Helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helices, ...

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, Deodato,

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, Box of Frogs,

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, Shark Island,

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, and

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. In a chance encounter in a Los Angeles hotel lobby, Radice ran into

who asked him to tour with

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on keyboards and backing vocals. Radice appeared on Aerosmith's 1978 live album ''

Live! Bootleg ''Live! Bootleg'' is a double live album by American hard rock band Aerosmith, released in October 1978. While most of the performances were drawn from concerts in 1977 and 1978, "I Ain't Got You" and "Mother Popcorn" were taken from a radio b ...

''. In the mid-1980s Radice toured with Cheap Trick and appeared on their album '' Standing on the Edge''. In the 1990s he toured with blues musician

Matt "Guitar" Murphy Matthew Tyler Murphy (December 29, 1929 – June 15, 2018), known as Matt "Guitar" Murphy, was an American blues guitarist. He was associated with Memphis Slim, The Blues Brothers and Howlin' Wolf. Early life Murphy was born in Sunflower, Missi ...

. Radice was introduced to

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

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and wrote 50-plus songs for

franchise over eight years, including for the film '' Elmo's Christmas Countdown.'' From 2005 to 2011 Radice wrote 160 songs for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'', including rearranging the original theme in 2008. Radice was nominated for three

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

Awards for his work on ''Sesame Street''. In 2012 he moved to Tennessee where he became involved with the Children's Media Studio and wrote 27 songs, one for each letter of the alphabet plus a "new" alphabet song, for the ''Sing and Spell Learning Letters'' project. In 2019, that project became an animated television show currently showing regionally in various test areas. Radice has also been employed DigiTrax Entertainment in

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

since 2013. In 2016 Radice released the limited-edition ''Audio Quicksand'' compilation spanning his songwriting career.

Solo discography

Albums

*''Mark Radice'' (1971) *''Ain't Nothin' but a Party'' (1976) *''Intense'' (1977) *''Store in a Cool Dry Place'' (1993) *''Generation Why'' (2004) *''Stay Tuned'' (2007) *''Generation Why'' (2008) *''Sing and Spell Learning Letters'' (2013) *''Audio Quicksand'' (2016)

Singles

* "Natural morning" / "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" (1968) * "10,000 Year Old Blues" / "Three Cheers (for the Sad Man)" (1968) * "Richest Man in the World" / "Girl by the Meter" (1969) * "Save Your Money" / "Wooden Girl" (1972) * "Your Love is Like Fire" / "Hey My Love" (1972) * "Hey My Love" / "Your Love is Like Fire" (1972) * "New Day" / "Take Me to the Park" (1972) * "If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em" / "The Whole Wide World Ain't Nothin' But a Party" (1976) * "The Answer is You" / "Monkey See Monkey Do" (1976) * "It's You My Love" / "Love is Free" (1977) United Artists 5C 006-60377

References

External links

Mark Radice on iMDBReverbnationThe Longneck GoodbyeWDVX interviewMARK RADICE DISCOGRAPHYRemembering Mark Radice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radice, Mark 1957 births Living people American male singer-songwriters Record producers from New Jersey American rock keyboardists Musicians from Newark, New Jersey People from Nutley, New Jersey People from Sevierville, Tennessee Sesame Street music Singer-songwriters from New Jersey Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Record producers from Tennessee Singer-songwriters from New York (state)