Steve Tyrell

by Jason AnkenyProducer, composer, and singer Steve Tyrell was born and raised in Texas, cutting his teeth in local R&B bands before relocating to New York at age 18 and landing a staff position at Scepter Records. As the label's head of A&R and promotion, Tyrell championed the classic Burt Bacharach/Hal David-composed recordings of Dionne Warwick and also recruited singer B.J. Thomas, producing his hits "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." In the years to follow, Tyrell additionally made his mark as a hit songwriter, co-writing the gold-selling number one hit "How Do You Talk to an Angel" for the Heights and the Jamie Walters smash "Hold On," as well as working on music for film (Mystic Pizza, Midnight Crossing, and The Brady Bunch Movie, among others) and television. He returned to performing in 1991, singing "The Way You Look Tonight" on the soundtrack to Father of the Bride, then had two more cuts on the soundtrack to Father of the Bride -- Part II in 1995. An album of standards, A New Standard, followed in 1999; it was a Top Five hit on the jazz charts and was still listed in those charts two years after its release. Tyrell followed it with a second album, Standard Time, in 2001. The holiday-themed This Time of the Year arrived in 2002, followed in 2003 by another album of pop standards, This Guy's in Love. In 2005 Tyrell released Songs of Sinatra on the Hollywood label; it was followed a year later by The Disney Standards. Tyrell's seventh album, Back to Bacharach, was released in 2008.