Artist:Rufus Wainwright
Song:April Fools
Album:Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright
For most of his 25 year career, singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright has been critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing. His albums sell OK and he's a good concert draw. April Fools is from his 1998 debut album Rufus Wainwright. He was born July 22, 1973 in Rhinebeck, NY. His parents are singer songwriter Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folksinger Kate McGarrigle. His sister is singer songwriter Martha Wainwright. After his parents divorced, Wainwright grew up in Montreal with his mom. Wainwright has dual citizenship. He started playing piano as a child. And as a teen, he toured with his mom's group The McGarrigle Sisters and Family. His song I'm a-Runnin' from the 1988 film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler got him a Best Song Genie nomination and a 1990 Best New Artist Juno nomination. Wainwright identified as gay as a teen. He said his father knew it too but he never discussed it with his parents. While playing the Montreal club circuit, Wainwright recorded demos with producer Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan). Wainwright's dad liked them and sent them to his buddy Van Dyke Parks in Los Angeles. Parks sent them to DreamWorks Records exec Lenny Waronker. Wainwright signed with DreamWorks and he and Marchand moved to Los Angeles to record the 1998 album Rufus Wainwright with former 'Til Tuesday member Jon Brion. There was a video for April Fools but it was never released as a single. And that was Wainwright's history with DreamWorks. His albums did OK but it's like DreamWorks didn't know what to do with Wainwright. After DreamWorks closed, Wainwright was moved to Geffen, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon. All are Universal labels. This comp covers the Universal years. After leaving Universal in 2016, Wainwright signed a publishing deal with BMG. Since selling RCA to Sony, BMG is not a record company anymore. But they do release occasional albums. They just released Wainwright's new album Folkocracy last week. It's mostly covers of folk music standards with several guests. Wainwright's primary deal with BMG is publishing. So I don't think there is any pressure to sell records. He still has a pretty good fanbase and is a good concert draw. But he's never going to be a star. And that may have been the expectation when Waronker signed him to DreamWorks. Here's the video for April Fools by Rufus Wainwright.
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