Song:The Way You Look Tonight
Album:A New Standard
For years Steve Tyrell was a behind the scenes figure in the music business, most significantly at Scepter Records in the 60s. But a second career as a jazz singer fell into his lap when his recording of The Way You Look Tonight appeared in the 1991 film Father Of The Bride. He was born Stephen Louis Bilao III Dec. 19, 1944 in Palo Pinto County, TX. At age 18, he moved to New York City and became a house producer at Scepter Records. He produced hits for Dionne Warwick and Chuck Jackson. As he worked closely with songwriters Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Tyrell also produced the Oscar winning hit Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by BJ Thomas. Tyrell continued to work with Thomas in the 70s. In the 80s, Tyrell worked with his wife Stephanie Tyrell producing music for films and TV shows. They wrote and produced songs for the 1988 film Mystic Pizza. So they were working on the 1991 film Father Of The Bride with composer Alan Silvestri and Tyrell recorded a demo of The Way You Look Tonight to see if the song was needed in the film. Of course the song was written by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern and was performed by Fred Astaire in the 1936 film Top Hat. Director Nancy Meyers and husband Charles Shyer wanted to use Tyrell's version in the film. That was a big shock to Tyrell as he had never sung on record before. The recording was on the soundtrack. But Disney was getting requests for a Steve Tyrell CD. He had no plans to record and produced music for the TV show The Heights and the show's star Jamie Walters. With his wife, he wrote Walters' hit How Do You Talk To An Angel. After more of Tyrell's recordings were used in Father Of The Bride II, Tyrell was convinced to record a CD and A New Standard was released in 1999. Tyrell produced the CD with guitarist Bob Mann and guests included Harry "Sweets" Edison, Plas Johnson, Joe Sample, Clark Terry and Toots Thielemans. Sadly, Stephanie Tyrell died of colon cancer on Oct. 27, 2003. But Steve Tyrell continues to be one of today's top selling jazz artists. His latest CD I'll Take Romance was released by Concord last year. He also produced Rod Stewart's rebirth as a crooner and he produced the debut CD by America's Got Talent winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. Here is The Way You Look Tonight by Steve Tyrell as it appeared at the end of the 1991 film Father Of The Bride.
No comments:
Post a Comment