Alan Lorber

A versatile and commercially successful composer, arranger, and producer, Alan Lorber has had a hand in thousands of recordings, ranging from pop (<a href="spotify:artist:5N6GwJzOcOY5kv8p0NjhYL">Neil Sedaka</a>'s "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," <a href="spotify:artist:7423mOwJSpXloxFsr1apHi">Mike Clifford</a>'s "Close to Cathy") to R&B (<a href="spotify:artist:64wglyu5BoOzwMXYjtAbfS">Chuck Jackson</a>'s "I Wake Up Crying," <a href="spotify:artist:4VnomLtKTm9Ahe1tZfmZju">Jackie Wilson</a>'s "Baby Workout") to psychedelic rock (<a href="spotify:artist:38ULknnQK6G4oLJtTtPkkM">Ultimate Spinach</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4bR4jAqu6RkhruxWQ6q9EK">Orpheus</a>). He was busiest throughout the 1960s and wasn't merely a hired hand. In 1964, for instance, he put together <a href="spotify:artist:3IpzgXQFzsMPjSW7d8okVK">the Mugwumps</a>, a group notable for having featured future members of <a href="spotify:artist:1bs7HoMkSyQwcobCpE9KpN">the Mamas & the Papas</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7CCn4PFRRRZF127jtCBAUe">the Lovin' Spoonful</a>. (Lorber produced the latter's first Top Ten single, "Do You Believe in Magic.") During the late '60s, he established and developed the Boston (or Bosstown) Sound, a marketing concept that morphed into a full-blown rock scene. He has also released many of his own recordings, beginning with 1967's The Lotus Palace -- an orchestral pyschedelic album, consisting mostly of pop covers, that incorporated Indian music -- and continuing through the early 2000s, with a prolific run of releases credited to Alan Lorber 21st Century Orchestra. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi