 |
Michael Penn | |
|---|---|
 Penn in 2007 | |
| Born | Michael Daniel Penn August 1, 1958 |
| Occupations |
|
| Relatives | Sean Penn (brother) Chris Penn (brother) |
| Musical career | |
| Genres |
|
| Instrument(s) |
|
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels |
|
| Formerly of | Doll Congress |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Website | michaelpenn |
Michael Daniel Penn (born August 1, 1958) is an American musician, singer and composer. His 1989 single "No Myth" was a top 20 hit in the US and successful in several other countries.
Penn was born in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. He is the first son of actor and director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn. He is of Lithuanian-Jewish (paternal) and Irish–Italian (maternal) descent. Penn began playing music in junior high school and attended Santa Monica High School. [1]
Prior to the release of his 1989 debut album March , Penn was a member of the Los Angeles band Doll Congress. Penn was one of two musical guests, as a solo artist on Saturday Night Live October 24, 1987, with his brother Sean hosting. Penn had also appeared as an extra on a few television series, including St. Elsewhere .
March, particularly the first single, "No Myth", brought Penn attention, as well as the 1990 MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Penn's follow-up albums Free-for-All (1992), Resigned (1997), MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident (2000), Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 (2005) and Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea (2007) weren't able to match the commercial success of March, although critics continued to praise his songcraft.
Penn's second album, Free-for-All, was praised by critics but was not as commercially successful as his debut. Rolling Stone called it "stunning" [2] and CMJ wrote that the album "exhausts any doubts" about whether March was a fluke. [3]
Penn collaborated with surrealist animators The Brothers Quay on "Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)", which was shown on MTV as well as in film festivals around the country.[ citation needed ]
He has worked extensively creating original music for film. He scored Paul Thomas Anderson's films Hard Eight (1996) and Boogie Nights (1997); he also appears in the latter in a cameo role as a recording engineer. During the editing of the film, Anderson directed a music video with Penn for "Try" from Resigned, which was filmed in one long shot (the video can be found on the Boogie Nights DVD). Other films scored by Penn include Alan Cumming's first two directorial efforts, The Anniversary Party and Suffering Man's Charity ; [4] American Teen , Sunshine Cleaning ; [5] the documentary The Comedians of Comedy ; and The Last Kiss . In 2003, he was nominated for a DVDX Award for Best Original Score in a DVD Premiere Movie for Melvin Goes to Dinner . [6]
Penn has produced recordings for Aimee Mann, The Wallflowers and Liz Phair.
In August 2005, Penn released Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 on his own Mimeograph Records label. Its songs are set against the background of post-World War II Los Angeles; Penn said he chose the year because of several notable events that took place then, including the passage of the National Security Act and the invention of the transistor. [7] The album was reissued by Legacy Recordings in April 2007 with bonus tracks from a KCRW session. [8]
The reissue came in conjunction with Legacy's release of Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection, a compilation that includes several alternate versions and previously unreleased songs. Penn said his goal in compiling, ordering tracks for and producing Palms and Runes was to "make it feel like an album" in its own right.[ citation needed ]
In late 2009, Penn composed the music for the film That Evening Sun . [9] In 2012, Penn began work as the composer for the HBO TV show Girls . [10] In January 2013, the Girls Vol. 1 soundtrack was released on iTunes. The album contained a new song by Michael Penn titled "On Your Way", which was featured in the finale of Season 1.
He also joined the crew of Showtime's Masters of Sex in 2013 as series composer. The show's pilot episode was initially set to be scored by Thomas Newman, but this did not come to fruition and Penn scored both the pilot and the rest of the series.
In 2018, he joined Good Girls on NBC and Here and Now on HBO as a composer. In 2020, Penn released a new single, "A Revival". It was his first non-soundtrack work in 15 years. [11]
| This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(February 2011) |
Penn met fellow singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and during the recording of her album I'm with Stupid (to which Penn contributed), the two struck up a friendship, which blossomed into romance and their subsequent marriage on December 29, 1997. Together with manager Michael Hausman they formed United Musicians, an independent music collective founded on "the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created and that this ownership is the basis for artistic strength and true independence." [12] Penn and Mann live in Los Angeles.
His niece is actress Dylan Penn.
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [13] | AUS [14] | SWE [15] | ||
| March | 1989 | 31 | 50 | 27 |
| Free-for-All | 1992 | 160 | — | — |
| Resigned | 1997 | — | — | — |
| MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident | 2000 | — | — | — |
| Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 | 2005 | — | — | — |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [16] | US Mod. Rock [17] | AUS [14] | BEL (FL) [18] | NLD [19] | |||
| 1989 | "No Myth" | 13 | 4 | 24 | 46 | 48 | March |
| 1990 | "This & That" | 53 | 10 | 86 | — | 74 | |
| "Brave New World" | — | 20 | — | — | — | ||
| 1992 | "Seen the Doctor" | — | 5 | — | — | — | Free-for-All |
| "Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)" | — | 14 | — | — | — | ||
| 1997 | "Try" | — | — | — | — | — | Resigned |
| "Me Around" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Out of My Hands" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000 | "Lucky One" | — | — | — | — | — | MP4 |
| 2020 | "A Revival" | — | — | — | — | — | |
Super Trouper is the seventh studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA, released on 3 November 1980. It features the No.1 singles "The Winner Takes It All" and "Super Trouper". The album became the biggest-selling album of 1980 in the UK.
Aimee Elizabeth Mann is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects. Mann's work with the producer Jon Brion in the 1990s was influential on American alternative rock.
Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo is the third album by the American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, released on May 2, 2000. Some songs were previously released on the Magnolia soundtrack (1999), which Mann wrote in the same period.
Arrival is the fourth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released in Sweden on 11 October 1976 by Polar Records. It became one of ABBA's most successful albums to date, producing three of their biggest hits: "Dancing Queen", "Money, Money, Money" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You". The track "Fernando", which had been recently released as a single in March 1976, was included on the Australian and New Zealand versions of the album. Arrival was the best-selling album of 1977 in the United Kingdom and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
ABBA: The Album is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in Scandinavia on 12 December 1977 through Polar Music, but due to the massive pre-orders the UK pressing plants were not able to press sufficient copies before Christmas 1977 and so it was not released in the UK until January 1978. The album was released in conjunction with ABBA: The Movie, with several of the songs featured in the film. Altogether the album contains nine songs.
Voulez-Vous is the sixth studio album by the Swedish supergroup ABBA. Released on 23 April 1979, the album yielded five hits, all of them big 1979 singles in Britain – "Chiquitita", "Does Your Mother Know", "I Have a Dream" and the double A-side "Voulez-Vous"/"Angeleyes". The title track showed the group embracing disco music, which at the time was at its peak. The album topped the charts in a number of countries and ranked among Britain's five best-selling albums of the year.
The Visitors is the eighth studio album by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 30 November 1981.
I've Been Expecting You is the second studio album by English recording artist Robbie Williams. It was released on 26 October 1998 through Chrysalis Records. The album spawned five singles, including lead single "Millennium", which became Williams' first UK number-one hit.
Face the Heat is the twelfth studio album released by the German hard rock band Scorpions in 1993.
Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to the 1999 film Magnolia. It comprises several songs by Aimee Mann, plus tracks by Gabrielle, Supertramp and Jon Brion. The album received positive reviews and was certified gold in 2001. Mann's song "Save Me" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
I Am Sam is the soundtrack to the 2001 film I Am Sam. It was released on January 8, 2002 by V2 Records. The album contents are made up entirely of cover versions of songs by the Beatles, although it was originally intended to consist of the group's original recordings. When producers were unable to obtain the rights to the original tracks, they commissioned the artists featured on the album to record the versions released.
Soul Provider is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Bolton. The album was released on June 19, 1989, by Columbia Records/CBS. The album has sold 12.5 million copies worldwide.
The Pick of Destiny is the second studio album and the soundtrack for the feature film of the same name by American comedy rock band Tenacious D. The album was released on November 14, 2006, through Epic Records, and debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200.
Tarzan: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the soundtrack for the 1999 Disney animated feature film, Tarzan. The songs on the soundtrack were composed by Phil Collins, and the instrumental score by Mark Mancina. The song "You'll Be in My Heart" won both the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, while the soundtrack album won a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. For his contribution to the soundtrack, Collins received an American Music Award for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.
March is the debut album of singer-songwriter Michael Penn, released in 1989.
"No Myth" is a song by rock singer Michael Penn from his debut album March.
Metamorphosis is the sixth studio album by American rock band Papa Roach. It was released by DGC/Interscope on March 24, 2009. The album was originally planned to be titled Days of War, Nights of Love, which is a lyrical quote from the song "No More Secrets" on the band's previous album, The Paramour Sessions. Subsequently, two songs on the album are titled "Days of War" and "Nights of Love". It is the first album to feature Tony Palermo on drums, who joined the band in 2007 after original drummer Dave Buckner's departure.
Aimee Mann is an American singer-songwriter who has released several albums since the early 1980s. Originally, she worked in collaboration with The Young Snakes and 'Til Tuesday, before becoming a solo artist. In 2013, she and Ted Leo began performing as a duo called The Both.
Mental Illness is the ninth studio album by singer-songwriter Aimee Mann. It was released on March 31, 2017, by SuperEgo Records. Mann described it as her "saddest, slowest and most acoustic" album. The album won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.
Patrick Warren is an American musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for his work on the films Magnolia, Fifty Shades of Grey, Boogie Nights and Red State, as well as the television series True Detective for which he composed and performed his original music for which he was awarded an Emmy. He composed the theme song and the original score to the Showtime original series The Chi. As a recording artist, he has worked with Michael Penn, Fiona Apple, The Wallflowers, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Stevie Nicks, and Liz Phair. As a touring musician, he has toured with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Lana Del Rey. He is globally known as an expert Chamberlin artist.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |