Do you know who Kim Fowley is? If you never heard of him, you sure do know his work as a musician, songwriter, producer, manager, a current national radio DJ, and he was extremely influential in many well songs and with a wide variety of many well known music artists. With the upcoming movie on April 9th about The Runaways, he will be in the public eye for sure.
http://www.kimfowley.net/
He had a bizzare song out in the 60s called Wildfire.
http://www.last.fm/music/Kim+Fowley/_/Wildfire
Kim Vincent Fowley (born July 21, 1939) is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter and musician. He is the son of Hollywood character actor Douglas Fowley (Singin' in the Rain) and is also a polio survivor. He has generally remained on the fringes of the mainstream, immersing himself in obscure and offbeat projects while occasionally stumbling onto (and frequently exploiting) commercial success. Of all his ventures, he is arguably best known for his role behind a string of novelty, cult rock, and 45 rpm records of particular significance during the 1960s, for co-founding the all-female punk music group titled The Runaways in the 1970s with Joan Jett and Sandy West— whence also came Cherie Currie and Lita Ford — for working as a producer and songwriter with Helen Reddy in the late 1970s, including her album Ear Candy.
During the 1960s in Los Angeles, Fowley produced hundreds of recordings with a wide range of acts and in a remarkably broad spectrum of styles - from bubblegum novelty acts and girl group ditties, Fowley also wrote, covered, and produced songs in genres ranging from folk and country to acid rock. While some of them went on to attain a cult status over time, only a few achieved mainstream commercial success. His three biggest hits - all as producer - were "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles (a US #1 in 1960); a cover of "Nut Rocker" by B. Bumble and the Stingers (a UK #1 in 1962); and "Popsicles and Icicles" by The Murmaids, a US #3 in 1963. The latter was written by a pre-Bread David Gates, then a session musician and songwriter who had met Fowley while hitchhiking in LA.
During the mid-1960s Fowley relocated for a time to London where he worked and recorded with a sizeable number of then-unknown acts and musicians who later went on to become famous. Fowley wrote the lyrics to a song, and sought a partner through Mike Hurst from Decca Records to compose a melody for it. The song was titled, "Portobello Road", and so became the B-side of Cat Stevens' first record single, "I Love My Dog".
He produced an early incarnation of Slade known as the N'Betweens; Soft Machine (he produced their first single); and the Lancasters, an instrumental rock group featuring a young Ritchie Blackmore. He also helped Napoleon XIV record the 1966 novelty record "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!", which was a hit in the UK and number 1 in the US. The B-side consisted of the A-side played backwards.
Fowley worked on occasion as a recording artist in the 1960s, issuing opportunistic flower-power albums such as Love Is Alive and Well. In 1965, he wrote and produced a song about the psychedelic experience, called "The Trip". Released as a single in June of that year, it is possibly the first recorded rock song about LSD. Though largely ignored in the USA, it charted in Europe and oddly, was one of the first releases on Island Records. Other 45s by Fowley as a recording artist included the notorious, darkly comic "Animal Man" (1968). He has guested as a musician (on megaphone) on Frank Zappa's first album Freak Out!.
In 1969, Fowley produced a critically acclaimed comeback album for Gene Vincent entitled I'm Back and I'm Proud. That same year, he produced Warren Zevon's first solo album, Wanted Dead or Alive (although he walked away from the project due to disagreements with Zevon prior to its completion and did not take credit as the producer). Fowley perhaps came closest to mainstream recognition (and chart success) during a period from 1969 to 1971, when he collaborated with his friend Skip Battin, during Battin's membership as bassist with the Byrds on a number of songs. Several appeared on the group's hit 1970 album, Untitled; one, from the 1971 LP, Farther Along, was even released as a single: "America's Great National Pastime". However, the novelty-Americana slant of much of this material was not well-received.
In 1972 and again in 1973. he produced early recordings by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, many of which were released several years later.
In 1973, Fowley produced three recordings by Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids for the film "American Graffiti" (1973). These songs were "At The Hop", "Louie Louie" and "She's So Fine".
By the late 1970s, after meeting a teenaged Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West, with whom he founded the legendary all-female punk combo, The Runaways. Stories about the rise and fall of The Runaways, and of Fowley's bizarre expectations of the act's members vary depending on the source. However, by printing the girls' ages (as young as fourteen or fifteen) on the back cover of their first album, Fowley helped to seal his Svengali image. Furthermore, according to 1980s interviews with Sandy West and Cherie Currie in publications including The Guardian and The Cutting Edge, members were required to go along with the "special needs" of Fowley and his associates "if they wanted to stay in the band". According to Sandy West, Fowley told her that Michael Steele, (later of The Bangles) and Ann Boleyn (of Hellion) "were both kicked out because they wouldn't put out in the way he expected, if you know what I mean".
During the 1970s, Fowley also co-wrote songs for acts as diverse as KISS, Helen Reddy, Slade, Alice Cooper, Leon Russell and Kris Kristofferson. He also co-produced, with John Cale, the debut album by cult new-wavers the Modern Lovers.
In 2005, Fowley was recruited by Steven Van Zandt to host his own radio show on Van Zandt's Underground Garage radio channel heard throughout America on Sirius Satellite Radio. Fowley is presently heard every weekend on the channel - with a 4-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays.
A Short Discography
HOLLYWOOD ARGYLES Alley Oop Lute Co-Producer
B. BUMBLE AND THE STINGERS Nut Rocker EMI UK Writer
PARADONS Diamonds & Pearls Milestone Co-Publisher
UPTONES No More Lute Producer
MURMAIDS Popsicles & Icicles Chatahoochee Producer
CRESCENTS Pink Dominoes ERA Co-Publisher
JIM CAPALDI/DAVE MASON WITH THE HELLIONS Day Dream Picadilly Producer
RICHIE BLACKMORE with THE LANCASTERS Satan's Holiday Titan Producer/Co-Writer
THEM AKA BELFAST GYPSIES Gloria's Dream Sonet-Sweden Producer/Co-Publisher
SLADE AKA 'N BETWEENS You'd Better Run Columbia/EMI Co-Writer/Producer
MOTHERS OF INVENTION Help I'm a Rock (Freak Out Album) Ryko Co-Singer with Frank Zappa
CAT STEVENS Portabello Road Deram Co-Writer
SEEKERS Emerald City EMI-UK Co-Writer
FAMILY Silver Dagger/Great Pretender EX-MGT Producer
MANFRED MANN Longhair/Unsquare Dude Called Jack HMV-Aust. Co-Writer
SOFT MACHINE Love Makes Sweet Music Polydor UK Producer
WARREN ZEVON Wanted Dead or Alive Imperial Co-Writer
SEEDS Falling Off the Edge of My Mind/Wild Blood/Shock Waves GNP/Cresendo Producer/Co-Writer
FABIAN American East Creem Co-Writer
GENE VINCENT Rainbow at Midnight Dandelion Producer
SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET Michoican Mercury Co-Writer
BYRDS America's Great National Pastime Columbia Co-Writer
NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE Singin' Cowboy Columbia Co-Writer
FLYING BURRITOS Don't Go Down the Drain Relix Co-Writer
LEON RUSSELL From Maine to Mexico Paradise/WB Co-Writer
RUNAWAYS Cherry Bomb Mercury Co-Writer
THE QUICK Purgatory Years Mercury Co-Producer
VENUS AND THE RAZORBLADES I Want to be Where the Boys Are/Punk-A-Rama Spark Producer/Co-Writer
FLASH CADILLAC At The Hop/She's So Fine/Louie Louie MCA-American Graffiti Soundtrack/EPIC-Debut Album Producer
MODERN LOVERS I'm Straight Warner Brothers Producer
KISS King of the Nighttime World/Do You Love Me Mercury Co-Writer
ALICE COOPER Escape Atlantic Co-Writer
BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE Down to the Line Mercury Co-Writer
DEAD BOYS Big City Sire Co-Writer
PLASTIC ONO BAND Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 Apple Announcer/Intro/Outro
WIGWAM Tombstone Valentine Verve Producer
VAN HALEN Young and Wild Warner Bros. Co-Writer
STEPPENWOLF Gang War Blues Sony Co-Writer
MONDO ROCK Down to Earth EMI-Aust. Co-Writer
WAYNE NEWTON Housewife 20th Century Fox Co-Writer
HELEN REDDY Ear Candy plus We'll Sing in the Sunshine - Capitol (1977-1978). Kim Co-Produced "Ear Candy" = "You're My World" and "Happy Girls". Kim produced "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" single and elements of the album of the same name. All the above charted on various USA and International Charts. "You're My World" was number one (#1) in Mexico (Billboard) in 1977.
MOTLEY CRUE Stick to Your Guns Leather-Enigma Publisher
STEEL BREEZE You Don't Want Me Anymore/Dreaming is Easy RCA Producer
THE LEATHER NUN Red Guitars MNW Co-Producer/Co-Singer
SONIC YOUTH Bubble Gum DGC Co-Writer
NIRVANA Do You Love Me ** CZ Co-Writer
PRIMAL SCREAM International Heros Creation/Sony Co-Writer
NILON BOMBERS Superstar Almo Producer
BMX BANDITS Girl Next Door Creation/Sony Co-Producer
SPACE MONKEYS Dream Catcher Factory 2 Producer
