| Tom (Thomas) Bähler | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas Lee Bahler June 1, 1943 Inglewood, Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1967-present |
Thomas Lee Bähler (also written as Bahler), (Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, June 1, 1943) is an American singer, composer, songwriter, arranger and producer. He is the brother of John Bähler.
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Tom is known for his early work with Jan Berry[1][2] (of Jan and Dean). Later Tom and his brother John were vocalists in the Ron Hicklin Singers.[3] Together with the Wrecking Crew, the Bahlers have sung, produced, and arranged hundreds of worldwide hits. Most notably Tom and his brother John (along with Ron Hicklin and Jackie Ward) were the featured background voices on The Partridge Family recordings in the 1970s.
John and Tom tried their hands with their own band The Love Generation[4] which was not a great success. They made three records as a band. The last record, "Montage", is considered to be a project just by John and Tom. As session vocalists for The Partridge Family the brothers re-recorded the Screen Gems-published song "Let the Good Times In" for the series' pilot episode, which they had originally recorded for their debut "Love Generation" album in a slightly different arrangement. The Partridge version of the song remained a heavily sought after unreleased track until it appeared officially for the first time ever on the group's "The Very Best Of" CD which was released in 2005.
After The Love Generation, John and Tom joined The Going Thing[5], a band which was devised by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (now known as JWT[6]) to promote the products of the Ford Motor Company. Tom appeared on Ford's 1969 "Going Thing" television commercial. As John and Tom were given great freedom and a steady income, this may be the place where they learned to arrange and produce songs.
He wrote the Bobby Sherman hit "Julie, Do Ya Love Me" (1970).
She's Out Of My Life, a well-known song recorded by Michael Jackson and a variety of other artists, was written by Bähler in 1979 and published by Tom Bähler Music under BMI. It has been claimed he wrote the song about Karen Carpenter, who broke up with Bähler after discovering he had fathered a child with another woman[7], but Bahler says the song was written about Rhonda Rivera[8].
He has also worked with popular musicians like Billy Joel and Michael Jackson. Tom is a close associate of Quincy Jones and associate producer and arranger of We Are The World.
He produced the music for the Miss (Teen) USA and Miss Universe Pageant,[9] for a number of years.
Tom composed the music to a number of movies and scored a number of soundtracks: Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975)[10] and Cold Feet (1989).[11] He also made cameo appearances in movies like Wag The Dog.
Update 2010: Tom has completed his first novel, "Anything Is Possible" and is also active as a composer. One project that has his attention is a song cycle he is composing on the poetry of the Sufi poet Hafiz (also known as Hafez).