| Roxanne Seeman | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City |
| Genres | R&B Jazz pop rock rock |
| Occupations | songwriter lyricist record producer |
| Website | http://www.noanoamusic.com |
Roxanne Seeman is an American songwriter born in New York City; June 10 , 1954. She is best known for her songs with Billie Hughes, Philip Bailey with Phil Collins, The Jacksons, The Sisters of Mercy, Bette Midler, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Jacky Cheung.
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Roxanne received a B.A. at Columbia University in Oriental Studies, Arts and Language. She spent nights in New York jazz clubs and found her way into records when Dee Dee Bridgewater recorded the Ramsey Lewis instrumental "Tequila Mockingbird" with Seeman's lyrics. Larry Dunn of Earth, Wind & Fire wrote the tune and George Duke produced the record. This led to Roxanne's collaboration with Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, with whom she penned, along with Maurice White and Eduardo del Barrio, "Sailaway", for Earth, Wind & Fire's Faces album. During this time, Carmine Coppola and Italia Pennino asked Roxanne to collaborate with them in developing themes from Carmine's movie scores into songs. She co-wrote lyrics for the themes from The Black Stallion, The Outsiders, and Napoleon.[1]
Roxanne held the position of Executive Assistant to Scott Rudin, President of Production, 20th Century Fox. In 1987, she worked on location in Bangkok, on the film Off Limits, starring Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines. She is credited for Thai casting.
Roxanne's partnership in 1983 with recording artist and songwriter/composer Billie Hughes marked the beginning of a long and successful career of recording, producing and songwriting.
Seeman and Hughes' efforts achieved fame in Japan in 1991; the couple wrote and produced Hughes' "Welcome to the Edge" #1 single and album. "Welcome to the Edge" remained on Billboard's Japan Top 10 chart for four months, selling 520,000 copies. Seeman and Hughes received #1 International Single of the Year at the NHK Japan Grand Prix Awards (equivalent of the United States Grammys).[1]
"Walking on the Chinese Wall" is one of Roxanne and Billie's most novel songs, resulting in the title track, chart single and video for Philip Bailey's Chinese Wall album produced by Phil Collins. In 1985, Philip Bailey received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Male Vocal for "Chinese Wall".
Barbra Streisand recorded Seeman's "Let's Start Right Now", a Brazilian song with her original English lyric. "Let's Start Right Now" appeared as a bonus CD single in a limited edition of Streisand's "A Love Like Ours" album.
In 2003, Jermaine Jackson performed "Let's Start Right Now" on The View.
In 1991, Bette Midler released Seeman & Hughes' "Night And Day", a chart single and music video.
In 1993, The Sisters of Mercy released "Under the Gun", a chart single and music video, written by Billie Hughes, Roxanne Seeman, and Andrew Eldritch, produced by Andrew Eldritch and Billie Hughes.
In collaboration with Sarah Brightman and Frank Peterson, Seeman wrote "Harem", new, original English lyrics for "Cancao do Mar", a Portuguese fado made famous by Amalia Rodrigues. Sarah Brightman's "Harem" album stayed in the Billboard Top 10 Crossover Classical chart for over 80 weeks. In December 2008, Daniel Lindstrom released the single "Caught In That Feeling" in Sweden, written by Seeman, Lindstrom, and Samsson.
In March 2009, Seeman met Philipp Steinke, from Berlin, while he was staying in Los Angeles, and began a writing collaboration. Seeman and Steinke wrote "Amor En Suspenso (Crocodile Tears)" which was recorded by Alejandra Guzmán, Mexico's "Queen Of Rock", for Guzman's "Unico" album, released by EMI Latin. Guzman wrote the Spanish lyrics with Fernando Osorio.
In 2009, Seeman began writing for the new album of Jacky Cheung. Working with Cheung's producer, Andrew Tuason, Seeman wrote five songs for Jacky Cheung's Cantonese jazz album with European collaborators: "不只有緣 (Lucky In Love)", "Double Trouble", "Let It Go", "Which Way, Robert Frost", and "Everyday Is Christmas". The first song, "Everyday Is Christmas", was written with Philipp Steinke. Following "Everyday Is Christmas", Cheung asked Seeman and Steinke for another song and they wrote "Which Way, Robert Frost".
In 2009, the newly formed South Korean girl group 4Minute with Kim Hyun-Ah of The Wonder Girls, recorded "Tick Tock". When 4 Minute did not release "Tick Tock", it was recorded by Rainie Yang (Sony Taiwan) in Mandarin. "Tick Tock" by Rainie Yang was featured in the hit Taiwanese TV drama "Hi My Sweetheart" starring Rainie Yang and Show Luo.
Seeman returned to Asia in August 2009 for five weeks. Since then, her songs have been recorded and released including "All Pumped Up" by Evan Yo (Sony Taiwan), "Cha Cha Cha" by Linda Chung (Star Entertainment Hong Kong), When You Hear This Song" by Allen Su (Sony Beijing), "Arrest Me" by Amber Kuo (Warner Taiwan), "No One Knows" by Stephy Tang (Gold Typhoon), and "Hui Bu Hui (Will We)" by Yang Kun. Music Videos include Jacky Cheung "Double Trouble", Rainie Yang "Tick Tock", and Stephy Tang "No One Knows".
In November 2011, Lin Yu Chun (Sony Taiwan), released "Saving Grace" on his "Endlessly" album.
Roxanne's works have been incorporated in film, television, video, and records. Her "So Hard To Know" was written by request for Chet Baker. It appears in the Oscar-nominated documentary "Let's Get Lost", Bruce Weber's tribute to Chet Baker's life and music. The re-release of Bruce Weber's "Let's Get Lost" Chet Baker documentary was premiered in London on June 5, 2008.
February 19, 1994, "The Jackson Family Honors" live ABC telecast from Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel features Roxanne Seeman, Billie Hughes, and Jermaine Jackson's song "If You'd Only Believe" thematically, with a finale performance including Michael Jackson, guest artists Celine Dion and others.
"Welcome to the Edge" received an Emmy nomination for Best Original Song in the TV drama Santa Barbara. In 1992, Seeman and Hughes received a second Emmy nomination for Best Original Song for "Dreamlove" in the TV drama Another World.
With Earth, Wind & Fire, Seeman wrote "Cruisin'" for Spike Lee's Get On The Bus. A collaboration with Eric Levi of ERA and Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire resulted in the end-title song of the hit French film La Vengeance d'Une Blonde.
Roxanne wrote "Hold On To The Good Things" for Stuart Little 2, recorded by Grammy-winning artist Shawn Colvin. "Hold On To The Good Things" appears as the second end-credit song.
From William Ross' theme for The Young Black Stallion, Roxanne and Gavin Greenaway developed and produced the song "Born To Ride" sung by Biana Tamimi, 11 year old actress of the movie, for the DVD release December 2004.
Seeman co-wrote "不只有緣 (Lucky In Love)" with Daniel Nitt for Jacky Cheung. "不只有緣 (Lucky In Love)" appears over the end-credits of Crossing Hennessy, Hong Kong movie produced by William Kong. "Crossing Hennessy", starring Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) and Jacky Cheung, premiered as the opening night film for the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival March 21.[2]
For Arif Mardin's "All My Friends Are Here" album and "The Greatest Ears in Town: The Arif Mardin Story" companion documentary, Roxanne wrote lyrics for Arif Mardin's composition "So Blue". "So Blue" features Chaka Khan and David Sanborn. "The Greatest Ears In Town" was screened during the 29th International Istanbul Film Festival, April 2010. "All My Friends Are Here" was released June 15, 2010. "The Greatest Ears in Town: The Arif Mardin Story" was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 for Best Long Form Video.
"Hui Bu Hui (Will We)" recorded by Yang Kun appears as the theme song of "Lost In Panic Cruise" (sequel to "Lost In Panic Room") starring Alec Su and Yang Kun. "Lost In Panic Cruise" released October 27, 2011.