WORLD GOES ROUND, a supergroup which formed in the late 80s but whose recordings were never released — featuring four hot songwriters, singers, and musicians Frank Musker, Elizabeth Lamers, Jeff Hull and Marty Walsh, who wrote and recorded with everyone from Queen to Linda Ronstadt, Chaka Kahn, Sheena Easton, Quincy Jones, Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Supertramp, John Fogerty, Donna Summer, Neil Diamond, Jeffrey Osborne, Air Supply, and many more — will be releasing a never-before-heard track titled “Big House” on Viper Records on May 29. “Big House” is the lead single with forthcoming additional music to be released this year from WORLD GOES ROUND.
The four members of WORLD GOES ROUND decided to get together in 1989 and record an album produced by Tommy Vicari (Prince, Billy Idol), which ended up never seeing the light of day. For one reason or another, both personal and contractual, the recorded WORLD GOES ROUND tracks have languished unheard for more than 30 years.
Like so much of the legendary music created in the 70’s in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, California, WORLD GOES ROUND’s 10 track album was recorded at Musker’s home studio in the canyon (with a 150 foot California redwood growing out of the middle of it). In this idyllic, pressure free setting, the group came up with powerful pop tunes, which matched their creative and musical aspirations – to make a record that was musically inspired by their heroes; while being quirky, forthright and relevant.
Says Walsh, “About a year ago, the producer of World Goes Round, Tommy Vicari, asked me if I had a copy of the project. I dug out a cassette tape of the mixes, put it into my audio player, and recorded it into my studio workstation. As soon as I heard the first song, it was apparent that this project really was something special, even though it never saw the light of day. I sent the project to Tommy and followed shortly by sending it to the rest of the members of WGR, who I had been out of touch with for many years. Everybody was quite floored by the music we had not heard in decades, and a conversation ensued about the possibility of somehow releasing this music. Enter Viper Records.”
Many of the songs on the album dealt with social injustice happening back in the 90’s, and now the group realizes that the messages of their songs are still valid, and perhaps apply more so now than ever. Their lyrical themes still apply to today’s issues, yet the music captures the spirit of that momentous time. The prescient ecological anthem “Big House” was brought to life with a contemporary video by Musker’s former songwriting partner Dominic King (of Dominic Bugatti & Frank Musker).
Says Musker, who co-wrote “Big House” with Hull and Walsh, “I don’t have a specific memory of writing the song with Jeff and Marty, but I do think it was essentially concept/lyric driven initially. I had visited the Amazon about four times in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, and was amazed by its pristine beauty, the sheer size of everything and the animal life. When I read that an area of forest equivalent to a thousand football fields was being destroyed at some impossibly rapid rate, I was in despair, and needed to express it in some meaningful way – hence the line ‘In the time it takes to sing this song, Another thousand acres will be gone.’”
He adds, “It was also a couple of years before the Berlin Wall came down and I had become increasingly aware of the rumblings in the news of refugees fleeing from behind the Iron Curtain and the dangers they faced. They all want thegood life we enjoy in the west – and who could blame them? So all these environmental and social things were going on in my head at the time, but when I spoke about them to people in California and the UK, they seemed completely oblivious. Actually, I remember they thought I was a bit nuts, and it was clear they felt quite uncomfortable talking about it. It was all so far away. Why is it our problem? So I got the idea of a bunch of ridiculously hedonistic people living it up in a big mansion up on a hill while down below the world was burning and choking on filthy polluted air. Nero fiddling while Rome burns. As the lyric goes, ‘So we do the dance – take it for granted, you tell the truth – they don’t understand it.’”
Adds Walsh, “It is quite amazing and gratifying that this work we did back then, and put our heart and souls into, is being released. We are finally letting the world in on World Goes Round!”
About: Frank Musker is one of the most internationally successful and established British songwriter/lyricists in music. He has consistently transcended musical and international boundaries, writing lyrics in English, Italian and Spanish and producing an extraordinary wealth of successful songs from Air Supply’s “Every Woman in the World” (a million selling top five single in the U.S. for which he has won a BMI award for over two million radio plays) to “Senza Una Donna” recorded by Paul Young and Italy’s number one recording artist, Zucchero, which was a top five single in twenty countries, including the U.K. and “Too Much Love Will Kill You,” winner of the 1997 Ivor Novello award for best song musically and lyrically, sung by Freddie Mercury on Queen’s final album, “Made in Heaven,” which has sold more than eight million units around the world. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” was also a top three U.K. and international hit for Brian May on his solo album “Back to the Light,” and is included on Queen’s “Greatest Hits Vol. III” album.
Musker’s musical versatility has allowed him to collaborate with some of the world’s most important artists which include: Gypsy Kings, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Paul Young, Maxi Priest, Carly Simon, John Denver, Queen, Roger Daltry, Luciano Pavarotti, Josh Groban, Sister Sledge, Sheena Easton, Cher, The O’Jays, The Three Degrees, Patty Austin, Level 42, Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Bonny Tyler, Alan Parsons, Jeffrey Osborne, Jennifer Rush, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Randy Crawford, Claude Francois, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Miles, Zucchero, Hayley Westenra, Lucio Battisti, Milton Nascimento, Amici Forever, Russell Watson, Il Divo, Opera Babes, Macy Gray, BB King, Ronan Keating, Tom Jones, Johnny Halliday, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and more.
About : Elizabeth Lamers has had several wide-ranging careers in music but most of all she is a jazz singer. She has loved the music from early childhood and performed it whenever possible, even during times when she was involved in songwriting, voiceovers and background singing. She has made it the main focus of her career in recent years. Lamers has produced radio shows at KCSN in Los Angeles (where she hosted Listening To Movies), the jazz station KKJZ and classical’s KMozart. As a session singer, she has sung on countless commercials and is a busy voiceover artist, working in film and television and supplying voices to many Warner Brothers cartoons including Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, Histeria, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. As a background singer, Lamers has toured with Linda Ronstadt, Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, John Denver, Christopher Cross, Cab Calloway, K.D. Lang and the Gypsy Kings, among others. As a songwriter, Lamers collaborated with Frank Musker, and during that time, composed “Too Much Love Will Kill You” with Musker and Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May. Lamers also worked for several years in Southern California with the Hi-Fi Quintet, who recorded two albums during 2003-08. Ultimately, she found that she enjoyed leading her own bands. Lamers has played at virtually every club and venue in Los Angeles, including the Greek Theatre and The Hollywood Bowl, has had a steady night at the Cellar in San Clemente for a decade.
About Jeff Hull: Jeff Hull is a prolific producer / composer / arranger / musician and engineer with more than three decades of professional experience in the music industry. He has written and or produced a number of songs, including the original “Piano in the Dark,” a Grammy Nominated song for “Song of the Year,” and also BMI’s most performed song of the year. His hit for Flo Rida in a re-worked rendition of “Piano in the Dark” went to number 1 on the Billboard rap charts. He also put out a solo project called Beatnik eVolution on the EP E-CLEKTRONICA, which one of the tracks, “the Alamrmist” was nominated for best electronic track of the year. In addition to being a staff writer at E.M.I. for three years, Hull has also written and arranged for a long line of artists from Brenda Russell and Chaka Kahn to Heart and Suzanna Hoffs. Other work includes a track on the Lilith Fair record featuring Holly Cole, main title for the feature film “Molly“ (MGM) starring Elizabeth Shue; “Rush of Ushers” with then partner “Daniel O’Brien” which was released in Europe and Asia. He has also composed and arranged songs for Beatnik eVolution, Arnold McCuller, Brenda Russell, Chaka Kahn, Molly (MGM), Karyn White, Hope Floats, Holly Cole, Patti Labelle, Jane Weidlen, Wendy Moten, Jenifer Rush, The Cores, Heart, Chynna Phillips, Tom Jones, Brian May (Queen), Desiree’, 5 Starr, Rick Nowels, Lauren Wood, Suzanna Hoffs, Bobby Caldwell, Thelma Houston, Fame LA, “Soulman” soundtrack, Nick Kamen (Eng), Ricardo Silvera, Laura Harding, Simon Darlow (Eng), Bunny Hull, Toys R Us, Paulinho Da Costa, Julio Iglesias; in addition to corporations i.e. Liquid Plumber, Amy Sky, McDonald’s, Ford, 3 Muskateers, Mattel, National Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Denver Symphony, Anheuser-Busch, and more. His music production credits include:Molly (feature film / title song), What Tha Bleep Do We (Lord of the Wind films), Arnold McCuller (Back to Front), Brenda Russell (single – A&M records), Lauren Wood (Last of the Mohicans 2 soundtrack), and many more.
About Marty Walsh: Guitarist Marty Walsh is an assistant professor in the Ensemble and Music Production departments at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. A veteran of the L.A. studio music scene, he has worked as a guitarist with some of the biggest names in the business. The early 1980s found him on the hits “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton, “She Works Hard For The Money” by Donna Summer, and “Heartlight” by Neil Diamond, to name a few. He has also recorded with John Denver, Eddie Money, Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, and Julio Iglesias, among others. In 1985, Walsh did the guitar work on the Supertramp album “Brother Where You Bound”; then toured with the band in 1985-86, and again in 1988 after playing on their release “Free As A Bird.” Also in 1986, Walsh was a member of John Fogerty’s touring band for his first tour post CCR. Continuing to do recording sessions into the 1990s, he was a part of the live band on the Nickelodeon television show “Roundhouse” which was critically acclaimed and ran from 1992 through 1994. In the late 90’s, early 2000’s, Walsh was the guitarist on numerous Curb Records releases: three of LeAnn Rimes’ albums including “Sittin’ On Top Of The World”; her single “’I Need You,” whose title track spent 25 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and Steve Holy’s “Good Morning Beautiful” which topped the Billboard Country charts in 2002. Walsh recently released his first instrumental solo album titled ‘The Total Plan.”
About Tommy Vicari (Producer): Multi-Emmy and Grammy Award recipient, Tommy Vicari, is internationally recognized as one of Hollywood’s finest recording engineers and music mixers. During a 40 plus year career, he has recorded music for every aspect of the entertainment industry: Prince, Billy Preston, George Duke, Jeffrey Osborne, Philip Bailey, Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Pino Daniele, Sammy Nestico and the 2015 Grammy Award winning Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band are just a few of the musicians he’s teamed with. His television credits include: The Oscars, Six Feet Under, The Newsroom, Angels in America. His mix for HBO’s celebrated, Behind the Candelabra earned him both an Emmy and a Cinema Audio Society Award for excellence in sound mixing.
Vicari’s work on feature films ranges from the Brian DiPalma cult classic, Phantom of the Paradise, to the Pixar multi Academy Award™ winning classics, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Along with longtime collaborator, Thomas Newman, Vicari worked on Road to Perdition, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, Cinderella Man, A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Adjustment Bureau, Brothers, The Debt, Saving Mr. Banks, Get on Up, The Judge, Side Effects, The Help, He Named Me Malala, Bridge of Spies, Passengers, Thank You for Your Service and The Highwaymen. With composer Nicholas Britell, Vicari worked on Adam McKay’s The Big Short and his HBO series Succession, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award winning Moonlight and his subsequent feature If Beal Street Could Talk, and David Michôd’s Netflix feature, The King.
For more information about WORLD GOES ROUND, please visit: worldgoesround.info.
