BIO:
Legendary session drummer and solo recording artist Hilly Michaels, has re-emerged after a 10-year hiatus from the music scene. Together with UK's Kevin James Hook, they have produced a CD some called impossible to pull off, they did it !
Michaels’ long career in the music world includes stints with other musical legends such as; Sparks, Cherry Vanilla, Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter, Dan Hartman, Ron Wood, Ellen Folley, Michael Bolton and John Melloncamp, plus his two solo LP’s for Warner Brother's Records; Calling All Girls and Lumia. Calling all Girls, the MTV video, was to earn Hilly an award for Worlds Best Foreign Rock Video at the very first MIDEM Music Confab in France.
Michaels’ songs can also be found in several movies: “Something’s On Your Mind”, was featured in the movie, "Caddy Shack", considered to be one of the best comedy’s of all time; "Shake It And Dance", also from Michaels' first LP, " is featured in the film, “Die Laughing”, starring Robbie Benson. Hilly also appears on screen, as a then member of Sparks in the movie, Rollercoaster, performing Big Boy and Fill'er Up. Hilly's second WB's LP entitled lumia, although fruitless, in terms of sales, received great critical acclaim. For the next several years, Hilly traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe producing dozens of signed artist's and was asked to join the rock band KISS in 1980 and again in 1990. In 1985 and 1986 Hilly was living and engaged to marry Marianne Faithfull. From 2003- 2008, Hilly worked for Opera Companies, Symphony Orchestras, Ballet theaters and theater's across the U.S. and acting as manager of marketing and development. He currently resides in Ct. where he recorded his long over due new POP CD entitled 'Pop This!"
ALBUM NOTES:
Legendary session drummer and solo recording artist, Hilly Michaels has re-emerged in 2010. “POP THIS! contains the best of Michaels’ unique brand of zany, frenetic and catchy POP tunes.
“HILLY MICHAELS’ SONGS HAVE MORE HOOKS THAN A MILE OF BARB WIRE FENCES,”
Trouser Press
"His last drumming gig's of note was for Ron Wood and friends in South Beach Fl. on Ronny's birthday in 1990 and most recently, drumming for 'Bat Out Of Hell'....Ms. Ellen Foley. It was a three night engagement at Ronny's club, 'Woodies On The Beach'. The event included such greats as Bobby Keys, Don Covey, Harvey Mandel, bassist Jerry Jamont (Motown great) and former Big Sound Records Jon Tiven. The most recent gigs with Ellen Foley have all been performed in NY's lower East Side.
I was living in the Dominican Republic for two years prior to that and after Ron Wood, I quickly disappeared back to the Caribbean and remained there producing, writing, exploring the Islands, getting married again to a Thai, Peruvian girl Mery, and just enjoying life up until 1995 when he moved to Orlando, FL and got into marketing working for Cape Canaveral Cruise Lines. In 2003 I began working for the country's top operas, ballet companies, musical theaters, and symphony orchestras, including Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts in NYC as marketing manager. After marketing the fine arts for nearly six years, one day I received an email from a fan of mine. She told me she had been tracking me down for years and was a big fan of my music, and asked me when was I going to release a new CD. What she didn't know was that just one month before her call, I had already begun recording songs in Ohio with bassist Jeff Dubois. She told me that millions of fans across Europe were also eager to hear more of my music.....millions? So great was her enthusiasm and excitement towards my music, that I made a decision within the week to quit my day gig and get back to doing what I enjoyed and loved so much... making my own records again......for millions!
I knew I had trunk loads of unreleased demo recordings spanning 35 years as a singer/song writer. I thought it would be a great idea that I go through the hundreds of unreleased songs I had recorded the past 35 years and used sound-on-sound/sound-with-sound recording. I cleaned up the hiss, noise, and recorded some fresh, new, parts/over-dubs on the best 15-20 songs of the hundreds I had never released before, making them sound as fresh and current as possible. I would release a "Hilly Michaels musical anthology" CD, encompassing the performances of the iconic musicians I've had the pleasure of recording with the past 35 years. No one has ever heard these recording before and no one, to my knowledge, has ever compiled a music anthology of their recording career by releasing beefed-up, re-mastered, unreleased demo's before either.
I began the process of recording new music parts to the older music. About half way through, I met Kevin James Hook (a highly creative producer/writer in his own right and an avid Sparks fan), on line and we developed a great friendship. Kevin found out what was going on with my music and offered his production help. I sent Kevin MP3's and my music files across the Atlantic via the Internet and we began adding even more 'bells and whistles' to the works in progress. It took nearly eight months, and a trip to England to Kevin's home/studio to restore and piece together all my music but we did it! When I left England on January 18, 2010, the selected 15 songs were finally ready and sounded better than I had ever imagined. With the post production help of Dan Maggiore and Ed Bonyai, I finished the CD... and all was right with the world again.
So here it is my friends, 15 rapid-fire pop songs. There are no sleepers here, no mediocre songs to skip over. Here along with a cast of hundreds in the making of this CD is Pop This!
If you like:
Bowie, Sparks, Beatles, The Sweet, and super charged, fun, pop music, you might love this Hilly Michaels Pop This! CD.
For MORE info. GO TO: Hillymichaels.net
MUSICIANS:
Jim McCallister
Sal Maida
Rupert Holmes
Mick Ronson
Dan Hartman
Tommy Mandel
Jeff Batter
Danny Magiori
Ellen Foley
Lorna Luft
Rick Derringer
Michael Brown
Marc Friedland
Cyndie Lauper
Robbie Alter
Tom Morengelo
Robbie Kilgore
Kevin James Hook
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