Photo Credit: Kevin Jarvis
While Ben Vaughn is known as a musician, performer, record producer, TV and film composer, and syndicated radio show host, his initial success in the business came from his first love, songwriting. From an early age he found himself analyzing the tunes coming out of speakers wherever he was.
“There are a lot of good songs out there that need to be heard” says Vaughn. “Why they initially fell through the cracks will forever be a mystery. This collection contains some of my favorites – mostly tunes I’ve been in love with for years (Herman’s Hermits, Suicide) but also one I only discovered recently (Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying by Labi Siffre). Interpreting this material was a great experience for me.”
For this collection, he cast a wide net. The selections came from a variety of places: the Motown hit factory, the UK top forty of the seventies, the hippie enclave of Petaluma, the early electronica scene in lower Manhattan, and even the teenybopper-friendly pop music world of Herman’s Hermits. “A great song is a great song no matter what genre it is or where it comes from. And it can travel anywhere.”
From an early age he found himself analyzing the tunes coming out of speakers wherever he was. “I could be in a pizzeria or at a gas station or at home in my bedroom…it didn’t matter. If a well-crafted song came on, I would stop everything and pick it apart—lyrics, melody, everything. I gained a reputation as a ‘weird kid’ but it was worth it. The education was there for the taking and it didn’t matter who was around.”
