With a musical family background that includes legendary performer Eddie Cantor and popular composer Jimmy McHugh, its no surprise that Lee Newman is a natural at writing and performing music. His critically acclaimed debut album, Relatively Singing, is a tribute to his celebrated musical family. His version of I Cant Give You Anything But Love Baby can be heard in the film Wilbur Falls starring Danny Aiello.
Lees second release on SLK Records, Lee Newman, Happy Together: The Pop 60s Songbook, is a collection of classic pop songs from the sixties. Produced by Lauren Wild (Carly Simon, Rod Stewart), the record is filled with timeless tracks, including Daydream Believer, Never My Love, Theres A Kind of Hush (All Over The World), Happy Together, and a never before heard version of the Beatles song Help that John Lennon wanted to re-record.
There are a lot of great stories surrounding the making of this album, says Lee. We hadnt considered doing any Beatles songs as Ive always felt that to be sacred territory and didnt want to touch it. A close friend of John Lennons, who consulted on my album, suggested that I record Help in the way that Lennon had wanted to re-record it long ago. She brought a demo of him singing the song as a ballad. It was then that I decided to record the song. What came out of those sessions was a surprise to all of us.
Lee began work on the album late last year, first putting together an amazing group of musicians (Mike Thompson, Chris Golden, Lee Thornburg, John Ferraro, Doug Webb), all having played on the Grammy Award winning Rod Stewart record and Carly Simons most recent Grammy nominated release. Six months later, the thirteen track CD was finished.
The idea for making this album just came to us one night. I was sitting outside a restaurant on Sunset Blvd. with a group of friends and a guy walked by with a guitar. I asked to borrow the guitar, and began singing Happy Together. It wasnt long before we had the entire restaurant singing with our table, even the wait staff was into it. Thats when Lauren and I came up with the concept to make an album in this vein, great songs from the 60s that everyone knows and loves.
Lees background in performing extends beyond music. Growing up in California, he went to Hollywood High School, and graduated from UCLA. Soon thereafter he studied at the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City with Oscar winning actress Beatrice Straight. Three years later, Lee came back to Los Angeles and worked with his idol Harry Nilsson when Lee was cast to play the role of Oblio in the L.A. stage production of the Harry Nilsson musical The Point! Harry has been my biggest influence and working with him was definitely one of the high points in my career. I have dedicated this album to his memory.
We're now accepting submissions for our next mixtapes, please submit your info at www. coast2coastsubmissions. com for your chance to get a spot on the next mixtape!
Lee Newman..you are a great Actor and one of the greatest of Modern Pop Singers..thanks for the help on the "Suzuki Beane TM" Sound-track and the Hilarious Interview on my Blog!
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Lee,
We JUST opened the box( Christmas present you know).
Thanks so much for everything.
We will pop in your cd tomorrow.
Thanks again!!
Happy Holidays, Happy New Year.
YAY! You got your picture and music up! I hope you are doing well. We should see each other soon. I want to see how your doing and what you've been up to.
