Biography

"Art," singer-songwriter Larry Weiss says, "has no age. It’s ready, when it’s ready."

Weiss knows a little something about that. His biggest hit, the million-selling "Rhinestone Cowboy," was turned down multiple times by every record label in Nashville and elsewhere, before it was discovered by Glen Campbell, who now uses it as his personal theme song. Weiss recorded his first album in 1974, and then waited nearly 35 years to make a second. And he’s only now showing a Broadway musical production that’s been brewing in the back of his mind for decades.

Weiss’ approach to art is one in which he goes deep inside, looking for the unexpected as he continues to learn who he is and why he was put here. Music is a means of self-discovery, a pathway to the truth everyone hides—even from themselves—no matter how long it takes.

"Finding out who you are," he says, "is letting go of safety."

Born in Newark and raised in New York City, Weiss has repeatedly snipped his safety nets as he’s challenged his own preconceptions about his life, escaping a destiny in textiles to become a good songwriter, to hear his songs sung by great artists.

"I don’t care what any songwriter says to the contrary, but writing is some kind of therapy, where you often come face to face with yourself."

That didn’t happen easily. But almost nothing has in Weiss’ colorful existence. Growing up in Newark, he heard all sorts of music around the house: George Shearing and Thelonius Monk, Broadway show tunes and the traditional pop of Sinatra, Bennett and Cole. His family lived on the edge of a black slum, so by osmosis he developed an affinity for R&B and black gospel music. As a kid, he would even periodically sneak into a nearby Baptist church to drink that music in.

In his early teens, Weiss’ father gave him a sunburst Gibson guitar.

"I could only play a couple of chords, and I felt them so deeply it gave me chills." It also gave him sore fingers. Soon he began to plink and plunk away on the family’s blonde Wurlitzer Spinet keyboard and found a handful of chords there. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the piano.

Weiss’ father, moved the family to Queens, and gave his eldest son a job as a textiles salesman. It was the family business where Larry and his younger brothers would at one time or another, work out of a lower Broadway office. Larry was headed for upper Broadway.

"I used to lug around an attaché case filled with fabric samples and order pads," Weiss laughs. "I was supposed to go and see appointments that my father would set up. I never showed up. I’d go to the movies. I’d sit on the subway and write lyrics."

On one of those rides, he absentmindedly got off the train without the attaché case. It understandably drew his dad’s ire.

"To me, it was symbolic," Larry says. "I quit to pursue my passion."

Seeing the light, the elder Weiss agreed to finance Larry’s first demo recordings. One song caught the ear of the late Wes Farrell. He put Weiss to work writing songs on a freelance basis at 1650 Broadway, one of two structures that were the foundation of the Brill Building-era of pop songwriting. He worked in a small office/cubicle not unlike the kind Goffin & King, Sedaka & Greenfield, Mann & Weil, Leiber & Stoller and Barry, Greenwich and Phil Spector had written songs in. The output from those locations was legendary.

Weiss was still feeling his way on the piano, and the fact that keys were often missing from the office uprights only made the job more challenging, not to mention his fingers initially shaped like eagle claws learning how to strike those keys. Today he still plays by ear.

"I remember hearing ‘Up On The Roof’ and being blown away by Goffin and King’s simplistic approach to lyrics and music," he says. "I remember walking down a narrow hallway at Scepter Records and hearing this amazing voice, backed by a forceful piano playing—‘Anyone who had a heart…’ It was Burt Bacharach rehearsing Dionne Warwick while Hal David looked on."

Weiss, who grew up with some learning disabilities, bored his way through them. In his first year, two dozen of his songs became R&B recordings. Then Nat "King" Cole recorded "Mr. Wishing Well," an A-side that became the B-side of a million seller called "That Sunday That Summer." He thought to himself, ‘if the great Nat Cole chose to sing one of his songs, he had something going on.’ Soulful singers like Dionne Warwicke, Baby Washington, Chuck Jackson and The Shirrelle’s, found their way his songs. Soon Lenny Welch, Ruby & The Romantics, Linda Scott, and Marvin Gaye followed, as Weiss worked his way to Jerry Butler with "Mr. Dream Merchant."

Famed arranger, Claus Ogermann spotted his talent and signed him as a writer. But it when Weiss discovered lyricist Scott English, (who later wrote the lyrics to ‘Mandy’), and they created songs for a number of English acts; Jeff Beck ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’, still an anthem in Europe, Eric Burdon’s ‘Help Me Girl’ and songs for the Status Quo, and the Searchers. Finally the American Breed earned a million-seller with their "Bend Me Shape Me."

Weiss and English parted company, as Weiss began to find his own voice lyrically. He wrote Spooky Tooth’s "Evil Woman," and songs for Mitch Ryder, the Hassles (featuring young Billy Joel), Paul Revere & The Raiders, Van McCoy and others.

Weiss moved his family to Los Angeles in 1971, where he continued to push himself as a songwriter along with a 9-5 executive job for Famous Music plugging other people’s songs. Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond and Lou Rawls found their way to his songs and on the charts. After a year he stopped being a ‘suit’ and landed his first recording deal. Black & Blue Suite, his first album, released on 20th Century Records.

"I was so petrified," he admits, "I had to enlist hypnosis therapy to stand behind the mike."
After the initial tracks were completed, his co-producer disappeared, leaving him to produce the rest of the project himself.

"I learned so much," he says.

Part of what he learned came in his interaction with the musicians: bass player Lee Sklar, guitarist Hugh McCracken, pianist Tom Hensley and drummer Rick Marotta.

"That was a major turning point for me," Weiss says. "I was recording with world-class musicians who had worked with legends, and who were looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I had to write something of substance, or else it was like, ‘Larry, we want to help you, but…’ I had to really come through—for me, find out if I was just a singer or an artist. It was a complete metamorphosis and I owe my better writing from the experience of working with them."

His first single from Black & Blue Suite was riding the Billboard Adult/Contemporary chart. Weiss thought he might to have a hit out of the box. But man makes plans while God smiles. It played particularly well at KNX Radio and some thirty other soft Rock stations for almost a year, until Glen Campbell heard ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’, and launched them both to immortal status. The song won multiple awards over the years including ASCAP recognizing it as one of the 10 most-played Country songs of the 20th century in 2004.

Weiss lost his record deal but plunged into creating music for its own sake. When he finally caught up with himself, Disco was in full force, and Weiss felt himself out of fashion. But, another notion began to take hold. It was the idea of turning "Rhinestone Cowboy" into another medium. First came ‘Rhinestone’, a film that starred Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone but was far off the mark. The theatrical piece that occurred to him while recording his first album began to crystallize in his mind. It was a concept that took even greater form when he bumped into an old songwriting friend right in front of the Brill Building, where he had started out over a dozen years earlier.

"He came up to me, shook my hand and wouldn’t let go of it," Weiss notes. "He said, ‘I’m so proud of you for writing that song, and I know why you wrote it: You wrote it for all of us on Broadway that had a dream of making it.’

Weiss decided to build Rhinestone Cowboy: The Musical around that idea, that early 60’s Broadway image with the rich variety of characters that populated Manhattan’s music business world. "I didn’t know if I was ever going to record again."

Over the years, the ’mailbox money’ stayed strong. Weiss worked on a screenplay, sang jingles, and the theme song for the sitcom Who’s The Boss? But at the end of 1992, it was time for new horizons. He relocated to Nashville in hopes of shaking up his artistic direction.

It wasn’t an instant match. At the time, Music Row viewed Los Angeles and Northerners with much skepticism, and Weiss hadn’t really developed many Nashville connections.

"I was also making my way through some rough terrain in my life, a marriage breaking up, money frozen," he recalls. "I slept on somebody’s couch for a month until I was able to get on my feet. Then one day, a drunk ran a red light and totaled my car. "If I hadn’t been wearing my seat belt it would have been more serious."

I was starting to wonder if I had made the right choice. The music business had changed. It was getting harder and harder to get one’s songs recorded, and Southern culture was challenging to a diehard New Jerseyian. "I was happy just being a writer, being anonymous, but the lack of steady recordings began to eat at me" he notes, "yet there was this voice inside that said I am not supposed to stop doing music."

Years passed with hardly a note of new success. Finally at the urging of a close friend, Weiss stepped into the studio, wrote, produced and financed, Cuts And Scratches. ‘I Am Somebody’, the leadoff song, had been written years before, and while in the depths of depression. "I mean the depths of depression," he says, "it came through me like lightning and temporarily relieved the situation. Reaching back, it reminded me that I am never alone, and became the inspirational springboard for the project."

These days, there’s a new buzz of activity around Larry Weiss, in great part because he simply preservers. He is preparing for a concert tour. He is a busy artist who recently finished ‘Rhinestone Cowboy The Musical!" There is also a feature film script for animation in the works. A music-themed hotel (possibly casino), The Rhinestone Cowboy, is now in development. Did we forget to mention that he has also taken up painting. (See Larryweiss.com). Nashville indeed was a place where one could expand his creative palette.

Quoting one of his own sayings, " we are all magicians if we have the courage to reach for the magic inside". Weiss adds ," so if you’ve been given a wonderful vision why not work to reveal it."

Like the protagonist in his iconic ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’, Larry Weiss keeps pushing forward, though at times it has not been easy, and will not be easy, after all ... art is only ready when it’s ready.


DISCOGRAPHY

Janie Grant Trying To Forget You
Steve Alaimo Going Back To Mary
Ten Lonely Guys Ten Lonely Guys
Ten Lonely Guys Pat Boone
One More Kiss Amos Milburn Jr.

Chuck Jackson Getting Ready For The Heartbreak
Shirelles Go Celebrate Your Victory
Dionne Warwicke Getting Ready For The Heartbreak
Ray Fleming Humpty Dumpty
Dukays Combination
Baby Washington There He Is
The Wanderers After He Breaks Your Heart
Timi Yuro Insult To Injury
Dick Lee Lonely Anniversary
Anna King The Big Change
Paul Anthony Look At Me Now
Jerri Lynn Fraser Are You Just A Guy With A Line
Adam Wade Teenage Mona Lisa
Selvin Johannes In The Days Of Plenty
Clive Clerk Lookin’ For A Girl
Baby Washington Leave Me Alone
Ernestine Anderson You’re Not The Guy For Me
Joyce Alexander Here I Come
Nat King Cole Mr. Wishing Well
Marvin Gaye Three Time Loser
Joyce Davis Go Celebrate Your Victory
The Relatives Ziga Ziga Zoom
Tony RusselL Nice Guys Come In Last
Carol Shaw Jimmy Boy
Tobin Matthhews When You Came Along
Denise Germaine Johnny Casanova
The Parlettes Because We’re Very Young
Astonauts Hey Sugarfoot
Roy Hamilton There She Is
Clyde McPhatter Second Window Second Floor
Charades Can’t Make It Without You
Linda Scott I Envy You
Paul Anka Cindy Go Home
Adam Wade Broken Hearted Stranger
Ruby & The Romantics Does He Really Care For Me
Ray Pollard Darling Take Me Back
Lenny Welch Darling Take Me Back
Jerry Jackson Hey Sugarfoot
Pat Woodell What Good Would It Do
Barbara Chandler A Lonely New Year
Tony Roma Real True Love
Ruby & The Romantics Your Baby Doesn’t Love You Anymore
Gene Pitney Weaving In & Out Of My Life
Ruby & The Romantics We’ll Meet Again
Linda Scott I Can’t Get Through To You
Carolines Can’t Stop Loving The Boy
Carolines You’re My Baby
Bobby Rydell She Was The Girl
Gene Pitney (In The) Cold Light of Day
Searchers Popcorn Double Feature
Eric Burdon & The Animals Help Me Girl
Outsiders Help Me Girl
Toys Ciao Baby
Lynn Randell Ciao Baby
Clark King Keep It Coming
Leola Jiles Keep It Coming
Jeff Beck Hi Ho Silver Lining
Attack Hi Ho Silver Lining
Ronnie Dio & The Prophets Walking In Different Circles
Goldie & The Gingerbreads Walking In Different Circles
Peppermint Rainbow Walking In Different Circles
Models Bend Me Shape Me
Models World of Pretty Faces
The 3 1/2 You Turned Your Back On Love
Tim Wilde Popcorn Double Feature
Jerry Butler You Walked Into My Life
P.J. Proby Just Holding On
Madeline Bell Mr. Dream Merchant
Jerry Butler Mr. Dream Merchant
Al Martino More Than The Eye Can See
Gorgie Porgie & The Cry Babies Just Holding On
Rod Stewart Hi Ho Silver Lining
Guy Darell Evil Woman
Eternal Flames Ciao Baby
American Breed Bend Me Shape Me
American Breed Master of My Fate
Michael & The Messengers She Was The Girl
Lou Rawls Evil Woman
Spooky Tooth Evil Woman
Troggs Evil Woman
Mitch Ryder My Party
Castaways Walking In Different Circles
Daughters of Eve Help Me Boy
Jane Morgan Look What You’ve Done To Me
Mitch Ryder The Lights of Night
Pete Klint Quintet Just Holding On
Little Bits Feeling of Love
Michael Jackson To Make My Father Proud
Len Barry You’re My Picasso Baby
Glories There He Is
American Breed Keep The Faith
Bob Crewe More Than The Eye Can See
Buddy Arden Saying Goodbyes
Three Degrees Feeling of Love
Elves (Ronnie Dio) Walking In Different Circles
Bobby Comstock Annabelle Jane
Del Royals Man of Value
Ithaca Bow Down (To The Dollar)
Ithaca Give It Up
Deni Lyn The Lights of Night
Julius LaRosa This Is All I had
Garrett Scott Sweet Laura Lee
Larry Weiss See You At Sunrise
Larry Weiss Maryanna
Ben E. King Can’t Take It Like A Man
Orpheus By The Size of My Shoes
Del Royals Some Kind of Wonderful
Petula Clark The Lights of Night
Storm (Larry Weiss) Bend Me Shape Me
Cissy Houston Darling Take Me Back
Newby & Johnson I Want To Give You My Everything
“ “
Sweet Happiness
Chuck Boris Maryanna
Giant Crab Walking In Different Circles
Clark Sullivan Reaching For A Rainbow
The Children Evil Woman
Tim Bryon Maryanna
Catherine McKinnon Ciao Baby
Glass Bottle Mama Don’t You Wait Up For Me
Van McCoy To Make My Father Proud
Rising Sign Together Again
Storm Going Going Gone
Gerri Granger Darling Take Me Back
Gerri Granger I Go To Pieces
Eddie Jason Together Again
Gerri Granger Can’t Take It Like A Man
Gerri Granger Get It Together
Rochelle I Want To Give You My Everything
Pink Lady I Want To Give You My Everything
Gene Pitney Weaving In & Out of My Life
Hot Love Hi Ho Silver Lining
Lonnie Satton Beyond Games
Sam Dees Maryanna
Donald Peers Happy Face
Joshua Bow Down To The Dollar
Henry Shed Bend Me Shape Me
Storm (Larry Weiss) This I Find Is Beautiful
T-Rex Take Me Make Me Yours
Casper Sing A Song
John Rowels Mrs. Smith
Rock Flowers Mother You Smother You
Michael Allen Where Did All The Romance Go
Bobby Sherman Together Again
Bobby Hanna Where Are We Going
Gary Puckett Leaving In The Morning
Scott English Ballad of The Unloved
Paul Revere & The Raiders Ballad of The Unloved
Lou Rawls Man of Value
Donnie Osmond Going Going Gone
Moms Mabley A World’s Prayer
Candy & Sweets I Want To Give You My Everything
Jerry Wayne Knights In Shining Armour
Chubby Checker Raggae My Way
John Davidson I Want To Spend My Life With You
John Williams I Want To Spend My Life With You
Larry Weiss
BLACK & BLUE SUITE:
Rhinestone Cowboy
Sweet Ophelia
Sheldon
She’s Everything She Doesn’t Want
To Be..
Lead Me On
Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Anytime..Babe
The World Was Filled With Love

Maureen McGovern This I Find Is Beautiful
Clodagh Rodgers Get It Together
Gregory Harris Blue Angel
David Clayton Thomas Anytime..Babe
Three Dog Night Anytime..Babe
Wayne Newton I Want You With Me
Wayne Newton Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Eddie Holman Darling Take Me Back
Samantha Jones This I Find Is Beautiful
Glen Campbell Rhinestone Cowboy
(Over 500 recordings of Rhinestone Cowboy)
New Birth Mr. Dream Merchant
Carl Douglas I Want To Give You My Everything
Jose’ Feliciano Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea
Vic Dana Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Nestor Pistor Winestoned Plowboy
Tyrone Barkley Man of Value
Tight Fit Bend Me Shape Me
Bob Welsh Bend Me Shape Me
Barry Manilow Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Johnny Mathis You Are There
Loretta Lynn Rhinestone Cowboy
Charlie Pride Rhinestone Cowboy
Salena Jones Mr. Dream Merchant
Robert Goulet/Stephanie Weiss I Will Love You Uncle
Bobby Vinton I Want To Spend My Life With You
Glen Campbell Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Engelbert Humperdincke This I Find Is Beautiful
Engelbert Humperdincke Together Again


You Are There
Neil Diamond Ten Lonely Guys
The Hassles (aka Billy Joel) Just Holding On
Loyal Garner Making Love Without Love
Ron Dante Street Angel
Ken Dodd This I Find Is Beautiful
Glen Campbell/Tanya Tucker Hollywood Smiles
Denny Doherty Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out To Sea)
Karen Carpenter Your Baby Doesn’t Love You Anymore..
Wilson Pickett Man of Value

Love Never Let Me Down
The Waters Love Never Let Me Down
Melissa Manchester We Had This Time
Dionne Warwicke We Had This Time
Dolly Parton/Billy Dean You Got Me Over A Heartache Tonight..
Billy Burnette/Bekka Bramlett True Blue Love
Amir What Do You Dream About
Larry Weiss CUTS & SCRATCHES – 2008
I Am Somebody
My Forefathers
(I Remember) Dempsey’s
Real Kind of People
Help Me Girl
My Road Leads To You
Man Who Never Was
You Can’t Have Me
Get Your Act Together Sam
El Hakamir
(Ain’t It Supposed To Be) –Better By Now
Can’t We Start Over Again