David Was

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David Was (born David Weiss; October 26, 1952) is, with his stage-brother Don Was, the founder of the 1980s pop group, Was (Not Was).

Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Was fled his native Detroit for California, and found employment as the jazz critic for the now-defunct Hearst daily, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, where he forged friendships with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis and Mel Tormé.

With his childhood friend Don Was he went on to form Was (Not Was), providing all of the lyrics and playing various instruments, primarily flute, keyboards and harmonica. Reviewed by The New York Times in 1980 as "the funkier art-funk band," Was (Not Was) used members of Funkadelic, alongside jazz musicians like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave; and singers Mel Tormé,and Ozzy Osbourne. They released five albums and enjoyed four Top 10 singles worldwide. Their most recent album, Boo!, was issued in 2008 and ranked among that year's top ten releases on many critics' lists. Their 1989 release, What Up, Dog? featured two top 10 singles, the latter of which, "Walk the Dinosaur," has been re-recorded by Queen Latifah for the animated feature, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and has been licensed for use in a half-dozen other feature films.

In other projects, Was produced two soundtrack albums for the X-Files TV show and feature film, as well as music supervised features for Fox and Disney. He joined network music composers on CBS The Education of Max Bickford, starring Richard Dreyfuss, and also did the music for ABC's That Was Then. His theme music introduces Fox Sports' "NFL Pregame Show" and precedes every NBA, NHL and MLB games on local Fox Sports outlets. As a record producer, he has worked with Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, Roy Orbison, k.d. lang, Wayne Kramer (of MC5 fame) and the Holly Cole Trio of Canada.

Was has been a regular contributor to National Public Radio's, Day to Day and, currently, All Things Considered, where he writes and records culturally themed features. As a journalist, he has had bylines in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, Seattle Post, Entertainment Weekly, Golfweek, Golf and Travel & Golf.

Was lives in California with his wife, Vickie, with whom he has two children, Nicholas and Phoebe.

References

David Was at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Was (Not Was)

David Was Don Was "Sweet Pea" Atkinson Harry Bowens

Studio albums	Was (Not Was) Born to Laugh at Tornadoes What Up, Dog? Are You Okay? Boo!

Singles	"Wheel Me Out" "Out Come the Freaks" "Where Did Your Heart Go?" "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming" "Smile" "Knocked Down, Made Small (Treated Like a Rubber Ball)" "Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks" "Robot Girl" "Spy in the House of Love" "Out Come the Freaks (Again)" "Anything Can Happen" "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" "How the Heart Behaves" "I Feel Better Than James Brown" "Listen Like Thieves" "Shake Your Head" "Somewhere in America (There's a Street Named after My Dad)"

Contributions	A Christmas Record That's The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films

Authority control	VIAF: 2673544 BNF: cb14051847v

Persondata
Name	Was, David
Alternative names
Short description	American musician
Date of birth	October 26, 1952
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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