LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ DRC Entertainment) - Southern California-based songwriting legend and "Native New Yorker" (also the '77 smash he composed) Denny Randell is riding a current wave of success powered by hits he's generated both past and present.
His latest song, "Alice In Wonderland," a collaboration with Randell & Schippers writing, performing and producing partner Biddy Schippers, has been a national dance chart sensation and club hit for months. Now, the video version of the track - a fractured post-modern spin-off of the classic fable - is building the "Alice" phenomenon by claiming a No 7 spot on Yahoo Music's Electronica/Dance Video Chart. The clip has also been an Apple Quicktime Pick of the Week, a Video Feature on AOL and Clear Channel Online, and has been viewed over 50,000 times on YouTube, and continues to climb rapidly.
The clip has also drawn raves from DJs and fans alike. Allen Jeffrey, musical artist, programmer and director of premiere NYC dance pool For The Record said, "It's one of my favorite animated videos - its style and attitude is like a combination of South Park and Monty Python."
Denny and Biddy - whose long term creative partnership includes the prior dance hits "Let's Go For It" and "Love Jam" (which the U.K.'s Blues and Soul Magazine called, "quite simply, a modern masterpiece") - are studio pros who've stayed at the vanguard of emerging technologies, and they produced the "Alice In Wonderland" video themselves. It's simple but very stylish, with R&S' treatment - employing equal parts psychedelia and sugar & spice - perfectly matching the song's funky, elastic beat and updated fairy tale storyline. The duo created over 450 Photoshop drawings to bring it visually to life.
Randell - who first rose to fame in the '60s for classic hits including ones for the Four Seasons - and Schippers also attended the June 3 L.A. premiere and press party for the Tony-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys: The Story Of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at the Ahmanson, where the run has been extended through Aug. 31. Los Angeles Times theater reviewer Charles McNulty wrote of the show, "This musical biography ... has a secret weapon that makes it virtually impossible for those wild and crazy baby boomers to stay planted in their seats - the group's seemingly endless string of compulsive hits." Three such hits in the play and on the GRAMMY-winning soundtrack album with the original cast are Randell's songs: "Workin' My Way Back To You," "Opus 17" and "Let's Hang On (To What We've Got)."
"Seeing the L.A. production of this fantastic show," says Randell, "was once again an amazing trip - one in which part of my life was played back to me from the stage, a feeling like nothing else I could describe." In response to many requests from fans, Denny will soon be posting blog entries and articles spotlighting memorable moments from more than four decades in the music business, including his relationships with the Four Seasons and other collaborators and friends. "It's something I've always wanted to do," Denny says, "and now is the time."
Denny Randell's other hits - he's had them in every decade since he began composing - include the timeless pop classic "A Lover's Concerto," the Frankie Valli solo smash "Swearin' To God," "Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" and "I Wanna Dance Wit'Choo." Randell and Schippers are also currently working on a live show that will spotlight songs from throughout Denny's career, as well as a selection of Randell & Schippers favorites.
