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