lauren 'chunky' wood
biographical information

best known for a pair of adult contemporary smashes -- "please don't leave," a duet with michael mcdonald, and the pretty woman soundtrack's "fallen" -- lauren wood has parlayed a variety of talents into a career spanning two decades, even if she hasn't remained highly visible throughout that time. a native of pittsburgh, lauren wood began her career in that city's rebecca and the sunnybrook farmers, a psychedelic rock band. taking the moniker chunky, she and her cousin novi formed the band chunky, novi and ernie, which released its debut album in 1976 and featured wood on vocals and keyboards. having moved to los angeles, wood recorded another album with chunky, novi and ernie, as well as singing with fusion outfit the freeway philharmonic. in 1979, wood recorded her own self-titled debut album for warner bros., which spawned the hit ballad "please don't leave," a duet with the doobie brothers' michael mcdonald that made the top 30 on billboard's singles chart and the adult contemporary top five. after the follow-up, cat trick, wood seemingly disappeared for a while. she spent much of her time writing songs for other artists and for film and television soundtracks; her material has been recorded by gladys knight ("send it to me"), philip bailey ("echo my heart"), cher, dusty springfield, animotion, tiffany, nicolette larson, sammy hagar and montrose, and billy preston, among others. in addition, wood contributed vocals to television commercials and other artists' sessions, co-wrote and directed a parody of ed wood films entitled they must be told, and founded a successful greeting-card company, cat tricks, based on photographs of her pet cats.
in 1990, wood contributed the track "fallen" to the soundtrack of pretty woman, which went on to sell over three million copies in the united states; it became a much-requested adult contemporary radio hit and was covered by johnny mathis, larry coryell, and nicolette larson. the success enhanced wood's freelancing career as a songwriter, as well as her ability to expand her cat tricks company and found her own record label, bad art. in 1998, wood released her first solo album since 1981, which, like her debut, was titled simply lauren wood; it featured the original version of "fallen," as well as songs that were recorded by other artists and new compositions. recently, wood also performed the theme song to the television series just shoot me. -- steve huey

she had a band called chunky, novi and ernie in the 70s who played around north hollywood. novi played with zappa i believe during that period as well (she is a violist). ernie was the token male in the band, on bass.

     "donna adams" (mdonfarm@ardvark.com) said:
warner bros. turned chunky into lauren wood and she did 2 albums under that name. she had the hit "fallen" from the soundtrack of pretty woman (richard gere & julia roberts) i think chunky is still gigging around l.a. and her cousin novi is with a great group called "freeway philharmonic".

here's a link.  http://songs.com/fp/index.html

here's her own personal site; http://www.laurenwood.com/

     from: lewis saul (lsaul@azstarnet.com)
i grew up in the same pittsburgh suburb as chunky (eileen rappaport), who sang on the grand wazoo.  didn't see her there.  the pittsburgh paper just did a blurb on her.  she's changed her name to laruen wood, wrote "fallen" from pretty woman and the music for the nbc sitcom "just shoot me." she's got her own home studio in la.

      from: otis owens (otisdelivers@yahoo.com)
"chunky" always was "lauren woods". she has numerous gold and platinum records as a song writer. she still writes and records and lives in the hollywood hills. i met her when i worked for zappas art director years ago. i was recently reacquainted through a mutual friend, producer/engineer "val garay".

      from: lauren wood (bighairdo@laurenwood.com)
patrick, i love the "chunky" page.  actually, it's amazingly accurate. great job!!

 my memories of frank :
it was so cool  moving to l.a. and getting to meet one of my idols, who had influenced me so much in my formative years.  i always felt like i was in the presence of a genius....so funny and so smart...and such a work-a-holic! it was truly inspiring.
the last time i saw him.... i had changed my hair and look....he said,"wow, it's candace bergen's stunt double!"  i thought that was really funny! he is missed by all of us.
i actually only recorded at one session with him, the rest of the time, i was just hangin' out.  it was the funny "fee-fah" vocal on 'cleetis alreetis alrightis".  it was very quick and painless....it was all fun!
he probably influenced me most with his "wackiness" it was so long ago, i don't remember much more.

my latest fun projects ; i'm doing voice-overs and writing music for cartoons for disney, kingworld and hallmark. i'm promoting my current cd on bad art records. i have a place on my website called the "cyberquilt" where i try to help get dogs and cats that are at animal shelters adopted.

     from: tom tuerff (ttuerff@primenet.com)
i was a college disc jockey when the cn&e album came out and i used to play various tracks to an unsuspecting college audience. (ahh, the days of free-form radio)  i can remember getting several calls from people asking, "who is that?"

some wazoo-related questions, if you don't mind:
when you recorded the vocals on cleetus, do you remember how much of the track was actually completed? in other words, were you singing to a completed track or just a basic melody track, or what?
did you work with any of the other mothers again on any projects?
great picture of you and steve vai. where is that from?
also--great photo on your new album--i may buy it just from the photo! what type of music are you playing now?
thanks,
tom tuerff, phoenix, az

      from: lauren wood (bighairdo@laurenwood.com)
that's so cool that you played cn&e!  what a rebel you were!!!
to answer your questions:
i have a really bad memory and all of this was so long ago.... i recorded cleetus with a pretty complete track. i think i sang a vocal for something that george duke produced, but i don't remember  what project it was.
i was good friends with ian and ruth underwood for a while, and we used to work on various projects with each other, but again i can't tell you exactly what they were.
where is the photo of steve vai and i?  i didn't see it....but probably it was taken when he joined me onstage for a jam at my billboard live show in july of 97 in los angeles.
i'm glad you like the pic on my new cd.
some of my music is kind of "beatle-ish", some of it  kind of slightly wacky alternative, and some of it is just kinda pretty, i guess.
..and there you have it...
lauren wood  -  bighairdo@laurenwood.com