Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Randall.
Hi Robin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Hollywood, yes, “THE” world-famous Hollywood, and grew up in the Hollywood Hills, nestled between the Beachwood and Bronson Canyons. I was born into a “Golden Age Of Hollywood” family. My grandfather, Al Schwartz, was a successful comedy writer for Bob Hope, among others, along with his younger brothers, Sherwood and Elroy. I guess writing was in the blood, but I gravitated towards songwriting early on in my mid-teens. I started taking piano lessons at age 10 and carried on for a dozen years with an amazing teacher named Guy Holtz. I got into acting in middle school, then called junior high, at Le Conte Jr High, where I won Actress of the Year in 9th grade. But my calling changed. When I entered Hollywood High School, my interest changed into 100% music. I got into the Stage Band in 11th grade, and my teacher, Jerry Grant, who really was an amazing mentor to me, ran the band and taught music theory. Those were some great years, so much to learn. In my mid-teens, I started collaborating with my lyricist mother, Judithe Randall. My mother did not raise me, as she was ill in those years, and I was raised by my Grandparents. So, when we started writing together, it was strangely more like sisters as she did not take on that parental role. We wrote together for about 25 years until she died. We also collaborated with others together and separately and developed a whole community of writers, singers, and musicians. My mother, Judithe, was a true powerhouse and thrived on discovering new talent. She never wanted anything for it but loved to help artists achieve their dreams, and boy, did we find some amazing singers for our songs and like-minded co-writers, who we would invite over to our Hollywoodland home, and that’s where most of the writing took place. That’s why I called our Anthology “Hollyridgeland” as it was in those hills that great songs were created, and our street was called Hollyridge Drive.
When regular college did not seem the fit for me, I attended the Grove School of Music for 2 and a half years, and ended up teaching there for 7 years and when the school sadly closed down, I was invited by Tom Bartlett, the head of education, who had gone to the Grove School, to move over to Musicians Institute in 1992, and I am going on my 32nd year there.
It always seemed that I was a teacher along with being a songwriter and musician, and still am now. I enjoy mentoring people, enlightening them, and just plain helping them. I am a music theory nerd, for sure, and I love to spread the word!
I also became an author in 1998, writing “The Lead Sheet Bible” on MI Press, Hal Leonard Publishing. It’s a book about notation and music theory.
I had songs recorded by artists such as the Starship, Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA) Roxus from Australia, Marcie Free, FM, and also placed songs in TV and Film, and most notably, wrote original songs with my mother for the TV show “Baywatch”.
I’ve had the privilege of being a judge for the Emmy Awards for 27 years in the music Peer Group. I am a piano teacher for kids and adults and have been a pianist on not only my music tracks but played for others, and paid my dues in cover bands for everything from weddings, condo openings, holiday parties, even Canada Day, where a drunk Margot Kidder, the original Lois Lane, got up and sang “Oh Canada” with my lead vocalist… Good times!!!
In the mid-90s, my good friend Diana DeWitt and I started a band called “Venus & Mars,” where we recorded an indie album and then got signed to Alex Trax Records in Japan for another record. Diana moved to Nashville and followed her new direction there, and I stayed here, so Venus & mars went their separate ways, but I will always remember those times, along with our super producer, Guy Marshall.
I could go on and on about my wild ride in the 1980s and 90s music world in Los Angeles, but I will leave those stories for another time.
My Anthology, as a tribute to my mother, was released in Sept 2021 on MelodicRock Classics. An 8 D set that is also streaming on all platforms. It is a compilation of demos and songs that never saw the light of day, highlighting these great vocalists and musicians, and awesome co-writers I had the wonderful fortune of getting to work with and record with through the years.
I also am a huge animal lover. Crazy, I grew up with a lot of allergies and could not have pets in the house but took a lot of allergy shots and most likely grew out of it a little, but now have 3 dogs and 2 cats, all rescues! I live with my adult son, Oliver, and admit to being a huge fan of “General Hospital,” which I started watching with my Grandma Mimi back in the day. And my lifelong friend Linda and I enjoy our guilty pleasure, following “The Bachelor” Franchise. I also am a big streaming fan of Virgin River and 911.
My neighborhood has a beautiful bike path and I clear my mind walking with my dogs twice a day, it brings me down to Earth to be in nature.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The thing about the music business is, it’s not just how good of a songwriter one is, or how strong the songs are, it’s a matter of timing, luck and who you know a lot of the time. For example, timing: One of my best friends Marcie Free (Formally Mark Free) is hands down, one of the greatest rock singers ever on this planet. I’m not alone in saying that. Marcie had 3 major record deals, one being with the band King Cobra, which definitely had sales and a fan base but did not last long. Next, 2 great records made with her band Signal, then Unruly Child. Had these albums come out just a few years earlier, they would’ve been huge. They were released when the tide of the melodic rock sound was turning into grunge music, and Seattle bands took over. But the quality of the work was awesome. Timing, in this case literal timing, as my mom, my friend Jeff Law, and I had a song put into the 1st Top Gun film by supervisor Joel Sill, only to be taken out because the tempo was too fast.
Luck: my co-writer of our song “Tomorrow Doesn’t Matter Tonight,” Steven Cristol, happened to go to a song pitch through an invite through our PRO via LASS, Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase, which was a great organization that connected writers with the industry. The Starship’s producer, Dennis Lambert, heard our song and kept it for consideration, and it got recorded as the 3rd single on Knee Deep In The Hoopla. Had he not gone that night, that would’ve never happened. That changed our musical lives for sure! Then there’s the “bad” sort of luck. My mom and I and Claude Gaudette wrote a theme song through an invite by Danny Goldberg to write the theme song to a little indie film. We came through with flying colors with vocalist Diana DeWitt at the vocal helm, who knocked it out of the park. But something happened where the producers and Danny parted ways, and we had no in road anymore to that film, which was…wait for it…Dirty Dancing. Yeah, that was a real rough road. We always used to say it’s not final till it’s vinyl. In other words, don’t be telling people, “I got this song placed, that song placed” and if it does not happen, you feel like a fool. I learned that lesson long ago: shut your mouth…
Who you know: My grandfather, Al Schwartz, used to write jokes for comedian Henry Youngman. So, when Henny’s son Gary was working on an indie film, my grandfather recommended my mother, Judithe, and I to work on some songs for it. We ended up, along with Claude G, doing the theme song and placed some others in some scenes. The film starred a very young Bradley Whitford and eventually got distribution as “Dead As A Doorman,” and I still see it’s out there. That never would’ve happened if we did not know Gary.
My uncle Doug Schwartz co-created the TV show Baywatch, and my mom and I got a chance to write original songs for the show. We could not have known they needed them or had that chance without Doug. But it’s interesting because there were music supervisors, Fremantle execs, etc., too, that we had to prove ourselves to be good at what we did. There was obviously no social media then in the 90s, so when letters and calls started pouring into the Baywatch Production office, people asking how they could get a copy of a song they saw, we knew the songs were working well within the montages of the show.
The networking you make in the industry is so important because if opportunities arise, they will possibly think of you when in need of songs; they call them “briefs” now, I believe. But again, the “who you know” helped when a publisher friend got a song of ours to Liza Minelli. She cut it, it all looked fine. Then, the band, the Pet Shop Boys, took over her project, and our recording was thrown out. The rough road takes its toll when that “almost” becomes a “no”; yeah, it’s hard to accept rejection. But what choice do you have? You gotta get back up on the horse and try again. Pat Benatar cut a song of ours I loved, but it did not make the cut onto the album, and I never heard that one. Dennis DeYoung held a song for a year and ultimately did not record it. There’s a lot of those situations.
And for me personally, having a name like “Robin” is very much mistaken for being a guy. Being a woman in the music business is difficult at times, and especially back then in the 80s and 90s, to be taken seriously. But I stood my ground. And also, being a teacher, it was hard too. I remember the 1st class I taught. I was really young, 24 years old, and a guy student yelled out, “So this chick’s the teacher, eh?” I immediately put him in his place, and he never talked to me like that again. Respect and confidence is what I’ve always strived for and struggled with at times.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a songwriter, and I am a teacher. I write mostly pop songs. In the 80s, I was known for writing melodic rock songs and AOR music. In the 90s, I was in a pop rock band called “Venus & Mars” with amazing vocalist/songwriter Diana DeWitt. I’m also known for co-writing the songs on Marcie Free’s solo album “Long Way From Love.” I am known for writing songs for Baywatch, along with my mother, Judithe Randall. I wrote an instructional music book called “The Lead Sheet Bible,” along with my friend, Janice Peterson, about music notation and theory. It’s hard to say what I am “most proud of.” I guess it depends on the chapters in my life and what happened in each. I am most proud of my son, Oliver Randall. I raised him as a single mom, and he’s really a good person, and like me, he loves animals, he’s kind and helpful and smart. Professionally, I am proud of many of the projects I worked on, like the Marcie Free “Long Way From Love” album and the work with Diana on “Venus & Mars.” The Baywatch songs, especially the songs Bless A Brand New Angel” sung by Diana DeWitt, and “If I Could Touch You One More Time” sung by Steve Zell, and all the productions I’ve done with producer Guy Marshall. Most recently I released an 8 CD Anthology on MelodicRock Classics label owned by Andrew McNiece. He approached me in 2017 to do it. It was a huge undertaking and took years to put together. I must give a shout-out to my lifelong friend Linda Barrett, who greatly helped me compile all the liner notes, bios, and pics of every artist and much more! And singer-songwriter and rock star Robert Tepper, who digitized all these old DAT tapes and CDs, even dusty cassettes on old bookcases!!! And Bill LaFleur, a collaborator of mine, who helped much with the new productions, and coming to the rescue to fix every note, and bad 80s glitch on a track! He does magic. And Jeff Silverman, a long-time best friend of my mom’s who also did new production, and umpteen mixes, and mixes, and took much time. It took a village really. I am proud that Linda and I got 8 CDs of music streaming, and I never did that before. I’m older now, so new tech is way challenging.
The other life I have is one of a teacher. 7 years at the Grove School, and going on 32 years at Musicians Institute, crazy that much time has gone by! I also taught at the Songwriting School of Los Angeles for 10 years and at LACHSA High School for 4. I am proud of my students, and I am always excited to see them do well. At LACHSA, my former student Phoebe Bridgers is really doing well in the industry, and I am excited to see that. I enjoy helping people and I make it a mission to communicate as best I can. I also teach kids and adults piano. I will always love the piano and solicit myself for holiday parties where I can play all the great Christmas carols and holiday tunes.
What sets me apart from others? I can tell you this right straight away: I am OCD about fashion and what I wear. Sometimes I wake up, and it’s a blue day or Green Day (great name for a band). Purple Day is my favorite. It’s usually monochromatic and, yes, quirky, but that’s me and always will be. Even if I am seeing no one except those that pass me on the bike path when I walk my dogs, it’s just the way I am. What sets me apart musically, I think, tends to be my melody writing, so I’m told. My mom was the wordsmith, and she ruled on that. I can surely write lyrics, but it’s my melodies and harmony that stand out I believe. I got a nickname in music school of “Chord Queen.”
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I believe I have many of them, but if I had to pick one, it have to be going to the Magic Castle for my Birthday Party. It was so fun and mysterious. A creepy guy tapped me on the shoulder during lunch, and I ran all the way out to the front door! I came back, of course. The piano played by the ghost named Irma fascinated me and does to this day.
Contact Info:
- Website: robinrandallsongs.com
- Youtube: @robinr1564
Image Credits
Timothy White
