Van Dyke Parks (1943-) established a recording career as artist, arranger, producer, and songwriter in 1963. In that year, he had his first professional job in movie music as arranger for "The Bear Necessities". In 1964, he signed his first contract with MGM Records as singer/songwriter, continuing through the sixties and into the nineties with eight of his own albums, and countless others, as arranger, studio musician, and producer. In 1969, Parks joined Warner Brothers Records as Vice President of Audio/Visual Services and in A&R. Parks recently has taken a hiatus from the Industry, objecting to its contract practices (with the observation "...it's fundamentally wrong to build wealth and comfort which is based on the deprivation of others"). With the re-emergence of his work for a new generation of music-lovers, Parks has resurfaced, and like Frank Sinatra and Brian Wilson (who preceded him in retirement), Van Dyke Parks is back. Van Dyke lives in Los Angeles with his Delta Queen.
