Jay Landers

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Jay Landers is an American record producer, songwriter, A&R executive, music publisher and writer of liner notes best known for his work with Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and Hilary Duff. Landers has worked with Barbra Streisand for over 30 years and executive produced 31 of her albums. [1] [2] [3] Landers was co-writer and music supervisor of the Netflix Barbra Streisand documentary “Barbra: The Music ... The Mem’ries ... The Magic!” and appears in the film. [4]

Contents

Landers' A&R and executive producer projects have been nominated for more than 30 Grammy, Emmy and Academy Awards. [4] He has held the position of A&R at Columbia Records, Walt Disney Records, Universal Music Group and EMI. [4] [5] Landers has also worked on the soundtracks for the Disney films "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", "Finding Nemo", "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "The Princess Diaries". [1] [6]

Landers has written songs for Barbra Streisand, Big Time Rush, Bianca Ryan and Ruben Studdard.  He has written or added revised lyrics for Christmas songs including Bette Midler's “From A Distance (Christmas version)” and Kristin Chenoweth's “Home on Christmas Day”. [2]

Early life

Landers was born in Los Angeles, California. His father, Hal Landers, was a music publisher, record label executive and co-owner of Dunhill Records and Mums Records. Jay Landers describes how his father influenced the different roles in his career: "He taught me not to be limited by one title or job. I learned to follow whatever areas of the business which seemed to hold the most promise or which were the most interesting". [1]

Landers formed a rock band in high school and started a weekly music newsletter called "Disc-ussions". He started working part-time for Don Cornelius and Dick Griffey, stapling concert posters on telephone poles. Landers also worked at his father's publishing company as a song plugger. [1]

The Landers family lived in the Beverly Hills Post Office area in a World War II-era, Arts and Crafts style bungalow that was renovated by architect Steven Erhlich.  In 2004, Jay Landers bought the house back, living there with his wife until he sold it in 2018. [7]

Career

Work as publisher

Landers entered the music business as a music publisher, pitching songs to record producers including Russ Titelman, Lenny Waronker and Richard Perry. Landers pitched songs at The Entertainment Company which lead to recordings by Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Stephanie Mills, Angela Bofill, among others. [1]

In an interview with the Malibu Times, Jay Landers explained his experience as an A&R man working with artists including Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Sting, Julio Iglesias and Josh Groban:

“I’ve had (...) a front row seat watching some of the greatest artists in the world do their thing. To sit there and be able to hear their voice in its purity without any echo or instrumentation is a great thrill. Working in A&R means finding the right song for the right artist and also the right artist for the right project. For artists that don’t write their own songs, guys like me still have value because we help them find their material." [4]

Columbia Records

In 1986, Landers stepped into the role of Director A&R & Soundtracks at Columbia Records. In 1993, he became the A&R for Barbra Streisand's "Back to Broadway" album.

Upon his promotion to Vice President of A&R, Landers relocated to New York, continuing his work with Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, Peabo Bryson and others.

Landers brought the songs “Beauty and the Beast” from the Disney film and “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin” to Peabo Bryson after Barbra Streisand turned them down. Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson's “Beauty and the Beast” charted at #9 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1992. “A Whole New World,” by Bryson and Regina Belle reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1993. [8] Both songs won Grammy and Academy Awards. [1] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Landers was the music supervisor on the 1992 film "A League of Their Own", directed by Penny Marshall and starring Madonna and Tom Hanks, with the opening song written by Carole King. [13]

EMI

In 1992, Landers reunited with Charles Koppelman, then EMI Chairman, joining the company as Senior Vice President of A&R. Landers continued his role as executive producer of Columbia artists Streisand, Diamond and Julio Iglesias. Landers was A&R on Frank Sinatra's last studio album "Duets". [1] [14]

Walt Disney Records

Landers returned to Los Angeles in 2000. He took on the position of Senior Vice President of A&R at Walt Disney Records, working on varied projects including soundtracks, teen music, Broadway cast albums and theme park music. Landers' projects at Disney include "The Princess Diaries", "Finding Nemo", "Monsters, Inc.", "The Lizzie McGuire Movie", "That's So Raven", the "Hilary Duff" album, the "Aida" Broadway cast album and music for Disney Channel. [1] [14] [15] [16]

Work with Barbra Streisand

Since 1991, Landers has worked consistently with Barbra Streisand on all of her recordings in a multitude of roles including executive producer, A&R, music producer, songwriter and/or writer of liner notes. [2] [17] Engineer David Reitzas describes Landers' role on Streisand's projects as "the middle man between Streisand and the technical crew." [18]

He is co-writer of the songs "What's On My Mind", "Don't Lie To Me", "Better Angels", "Love's Never Wrong", "The Rain Will Fall" and "Take Care of This House" on her Walls album, [19] a politically themed record inspired by her feelings about Donald Trump. [2] [20] [21] [22] [23]

On her "Back To Brooklyn" live show DVD & PBS Special, Streisand performed the Cole Porter song “You’re the Top”, with additional new lyrics written by Jay Landers and Charlie Midnight in a wry style, in honor of Streisand performing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, her hometown. [24]

Work writing liner notes

Landers has written the liner notes for 15 Barbra Streisand albums, 3 Johnny Mathis albums and 3 Bette Midler albums. [2] In an interview with babranews.com, Landers said about his work as liner note writer: “I want to share with the listener what it was like to be at the session; it’s really that simple. Shedding light on the brilliance of her [Streisand’s] process, hopefully, enhances the enjoyment of the music. His goal is to “elevate the listening experience, by describing in facts and in more cerebral, impressionistic ways, what the artist and the music was like.” [25]

Songwriter

Landers has written songs for Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Kristen Chenoweth, Katharine McPhee, Big Time Rush, Bianca Ryan, Ruben Studdard, Disney soundtracks including Hannah Montana, Finding Nemo and The Princess Diaries.  He has written or added revised lyrics for Christmas songs including Bette Midler's “From A Distance (Christmas version)” and Kristen Chenoweth's “Home On Christmas Day”. [2]

Songs written by Landers for Barbra Streisand include the lead single “Don’t Lie To Me” from her “Walls” album. He co-wrote “Living In The Moment” end credit song for the film The Book Club. [26]

For Bette Midler's “Cool Yule” Holiday album, Landers added specially revised lyrics for “From A Distance (Christmas version)”. [27]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Top A&R Exec Jay Landers Has Great Success With Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban and Hilary Duff". Songwriter Universe | Songwriting News, Articles & Song Contest. 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Jay Landers | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  3. ↑ "ACE Repertory". www.ascap.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Tallal, Jimy. "Jay Landers, Executive Music Producer for Barbra Streisand, Appears at Malibu Film Society". Malibu Times. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  5. ↑ Morris, Chris (2011-12-15). "Foster named chairman of Verve Music". Variety. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  6. ↑ "Music producer Jay Landers looks to tune up a sale in Beverly Hills Post Office". Los Angeles Times. 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  7. ↑ "Music producer Jay Landers looks to tune up a sale in Beverly Hills Post Office". Los Angeles Times. 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  8. ↑ "Peabo Bryson". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  9. ↑ "35th Annual GRAMMY Awards". GRAMMY.com. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  10. ↑ "The 64th Academy Awards | 1992". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  11. ↑ "36th Annual GRAMMY Awards". GRAMMY.com. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  12. ↑ "The 65th Academy Awards | 1993". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  13. ↑ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Billboard Books. ISBN   978-0-8230-7677-2.
  14. 1 2 Billboard. 2000-02-19.
  15. ↑ Billboard. 2000-06-24.
  16. ↑ Billboard. 2004-01-31.
  17. ↑ Archerd, Army (2001-03-21). "Streisand complements new 'Snow White' DVD". Variety. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  18. ↑ Billboard. 1994-11-12.
  19. ↑ "Walls - Barbra Streisand | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  20. ↑ "How Anti-Trump Is Barbra Streisand's 'Walls'?: A Track-by-Track Guide". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  21. ↑ "New Barbra Streisand-Barry Gibb Collaborative Album, 'Guilty Pleasures,' to be Released as CD and DualDisc on Tuesday, September 20". www.sony.com. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  22. ↑ Waldman, Allison J. (2001). The Barbara Streisand Scrapbook. Citadel Press. ISBN   978-0-8065-2218-0.
  23. ↑ Billboard. 2003-10-04.
  24. ↑ Cerasaro, Pat. "Barbra Streisand Performs 'You're The Top' From BACK TO BROOKLYN DVD & PBS Special". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  25. ↑ "BarbraNews.com talks to Jay Landers". www.barbranews.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  26. ↑ "Katharine McPhee's Original Song 'Living in the Moment' from 'Book Club' Released | Film Music Reporter" . Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  27. ↑ "ACE Repertory". www.ascap.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
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