User:Bobbimarcuspr/sandbox

Oliver Leiber
Born	Oliver Jeremy Leiber (1961-02-12) February 12, 1961 New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist
Musical career
Genres	Pop rock blues soul
Instruments	guitar drums keyboards
Years active	1979–present
Labels

Oliver Leiber (born February 12, 1961) is an American songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is the son of acclaimed songwriter Jerry Leiber and actress, theater director and journalist Gaby Rodgers. In a career spanning three decades, Leiber has written and/or produced recordings for Paula Abdul, Aerosmith, Aretha Franklin, Kesha, The Corrs, Adam Lambert, Sheena Easton, BBMak, Bif Naked, Steven Tyler and Beth Hart. Other musical artists he was worked with professionally include Chaka Khan, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Lulu and Johnny Hallyday. He has also performed with the musical groups Ta Mara & the Seen and most recently, The Bayonets.

Early Life and Career

Leiber was born in New York City and grew up in an apartment on 74th Street on the West Side of Manhattan. As the lyricist half of the songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller, his father co-wrote numerous iconic pop hits such as “Hound Dog,” “Kansas City,” “Stand By Me,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “On Broadway” “Love Potion Number Nine” and “Yakety Yak.” His mother starred in the film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) among others, while also working in television and the theater. Given his parent's prominent position in the arts and entertainment communities, Leiber's early years were spent in the company of many cultural icons that include Allen Ginsberg, Jasper Johns, Dizzy Gillespie, Basil Rathbone and Dustin Hoffman, among many others.

Leiber began playing drums at age eight and first started making music with his brother Jed, who studied piano. By age 10, Leiber had begun to learn the guitar as well. He began performing professionally around New York in his late teens, including a gig with David Hodo, best known as the “construction worker” in the Village People. Leiber’s first professional recording session was for Elkie Brooks' 1979 album, Live and Learn, produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and also featuring contributions from noted session musicians such as drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Fred Tackett. Following studies in philosophy at Vassar College, Leiber relocated to Minneapolis in the early 1980s, just as Prince and the “Minneapolis Sound” were gaining popularity. He became a touring guitarist with Prince protégé Alexander O’Neal, co-wrote the single “Rich Man” with another Prince protégé, Paul “St. Paul” Peterson and also played guitar with Ta Mara & The Seen, a group produced by Jesse Johnson of The Time.

Commercial Breakthrough

In 1987, Leiber wrote a song titled “The Way That You Love Me.” The demo was played for Paula Abdul, who at the time was a successful choreographer for film, TV and pop music, with several high-profile music videos by Janet Jackson and others to her credit. Abdul was planning to make her debut as a singer and recording artist, and expressed an interest in the song. She flew to Minneapolis and recorded the song with Leiber producing, and subsequently went on to record two more songs he’d written, “Forever Your Girl” and “Opposites Attract,” with Leiber once again producing.

“Forever Your Girl” was chosen as the title track for Abdul’s 1988 debut album, which sold 12 million copies worldwide. The single spent two weeks at Number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . “Opposites Attract” reached number one on Billboard’s pop and r&b charts and “The Way That You Love Me” peaked at number two on the Billboard 100. On the strength of this success, Leiber became in-demand as a songwriter and producer of r&b dance pop, working with high profile artists such as Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton and others.

During this period, Leiber also broke into feature film soundtrack work, writing the song “Obsessed” which appeared in the 1988 Michael J. Fox movie Bright Lights, Big City and was also featured on the film’s soundtrack album. That caught the ear of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. He later worked with Hans Zimmer on the 2000 film Mission: Impossible 2, starring Tom Cruise, co-writing the soundtrack song “Suka Nana” with Zap Mama and David Gamson. Leiber also produced and played all the instruments on many of the film’s cues, including versions of the iconic theme song from the original Mission: Impossible television series by composer Lalo Schifrin.

Relocation to L.A. and Stylistic Diversification

In 1990, Leiber relocated from Minneapolis to L.A., partially to be with his then-girlfriend Sheena Easton. He produced several songs on Easton’s 1991 album What Comes Naturally. That same year, he wrote and produced a track “Mary Goes Round,” from Aretha Franklin’s 1991 album What You See Is What You Sweat. During this period he was still mainly known for his work in R&B and Dance-pop. But in the late 1990s he was approached by Lava/Atlantic label chief Jason Flom, an old friend of Leiber’s from grade school, who asked if Leiber was interested in producing up-and-coming artists in different genres.

One of these was the Celtic pop group The Corrs. Leiber contributed songwriting and production to several songs on the sibling quartet’s 1997 sophomore album Talk on Corners. He also produced the group’s cover of the Fleetwood Mac hit “Dreams,” which would give The Corrs their breakout single in the UK, peaking at number six. The track was included on the 1998 reissue of Talk on Corners. The album went six-times platinum in The Corrs’ native Ireland and sold over a million in several other territories.

The other act Flom asked Leiber to produce was blues rock singer/songwriter Beth Hart. Leiber produced her single “L.A. Song (Out of This Town)” in 1999, giving Hart her only Top 10 single to date. It was the start of a collaboration that would lead to the 2017 Fire on the Floor album, which reached the number one slot on Billboard's Blues Albums chart.

During this period, Leiber took a hiatus from writing and producing to serve as Rod Stewart’s guitarist. He toured with Stewart and played on the rock icon’s 1998 album When We Were the New Boys, which was recorded in part at Leiber’s own Ollywood recording studio in Hollywood. Leiber also brought The Corrs in to play on Stewart’s remake of the Faces song “Ooh La La,” on the album.

Recent Work

Leiber co-wrote and produced the song “Stephen” from Kesha’s 2010 debut album, Animal, in collaboration with David Gamson, Kesha and Kesha’s mother, the Nashville tunesmith Pebe Sebert. This track was also partially recorded at Ollywood. Gamson has become one of Leiber’s frequent songwriting and production collaborators. The duo also co-wrote the track “Sure Fire Winners” from Adam Lambert’s 2009 debut album For Your Entertainment.

The Bayonets

In 2011, Leiber joined forces with Paul McCartney guitarist Brian Ray to form the indie rock group The Bayonets. Their first two singles “Sucker for Love” and “Smartphone” were both accorded “Coolest Song in the World” honors on the Little Steven’s Underground Garage satellite and terrestrial radio program . “Sucker for Love” also peaked at number nine on the Classic Rock radio charts . The Bayonets are currently at work on an album with the single “Like She Does” slated to be the first release. The project will include guest appearances by Steven Tyler, bassist Davey Faragher from Elvis Costello’s band, Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, and bassist Samuel "Larry" Taylor from Canned Heat.