Dan Hartman

Daniel Earl Hartman (December 8, 1950 – March 22, 1994) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" with The Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful song, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984.[1] The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, was even more successful, reaching #4 on March 1, 1986. One of the most successful songs he co-wrote was the disco hit “Love Sensation” recorded by Loleatta Holloway, which as been sampled countless times, most controversially by Black Box who was sued by Loleatta Holloway for failing to give her credit when they sampled her voice on “Ride on Time.”

Dan Hartman
Promotional photo for MCA Records, circa 1985
Background information
Birth nameDaniel Earl Hartman
Born(1950-12-08)December 8, 1950
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States
DiedMarch 22, 1994(1994-03-22) (aged 43)
Westport, Connecticut, United States[1]
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, record producer
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, keyboards, bass guitar
Years active1963–1994
LabelsBlue Sky, Atlantic, MCA
Associated actsEdgar Winter Group, 3V, KC and the Sunshine Band
Websitedanhartman.com

Early life

Hartman was born on December 8, 1950 to Carl and Pauline Hartman near Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, in West Hanover Township, Dauphin County. He was a child prodigy and studied classical piano.

Career

He joined his first band The Legends at the age of 13.[2] His older brother Dave was also a member of the band.[3] He played the keyboards and wrote much of the band's music, but despite the release of a number of recordings, none turned out to be hits.[4]

Musician Dan Hartman with the Edgar Winter Group in 1975 (third from left)

He subsequently spent a period of time backing the Johnny Winter Band. In 1972, Hartman joined the Edgar Winter Group (Edgar Winter was Johnny Winter's younger brother), where he played bass, wrote or co-wrote many of their songs, and sang on three of their albums: They Only Come Out at Night, Shock Treatment, and The Edgar Winter Group with Rick Derringer.[5] He wrote and sang the band's second biggest pop hit, "Free Ride", in 1972. The ballad "Autumn" on Edgar's LP They Only Come Out at Night was a regional radio hit in New England.[6] Hartman also wrote the band's charting singles “Easy Rider” and “River’s Risin” from the Shock Treatment album.[7][8] He became known for wearing the Guitar Suit, which he designed with Los Angeles Couturier Bill Witten out of a rubbery fabric that allowed Hartman to insert an electric guitar in a pelvic pocket.[9]

Solo career and producing

Upon launching a solo career in 1976, he released a promotional album titled Who Is Dan Hartman and Why Is Everyone Saying Wonderful Things About Him? It was a compilation disc including songs from Johnny Winter and the Edgar Winter Group. His second release, Images, was his first true album and featured ex-Edgar Winter Group members Edgar Winter, Ronnie Montrose and Rick Derringer and guests Clarence Clemons and Randy Brecker.[5][10]

Around 1976, Hartman began using one of the rooms of a colonial home in Westport, Connecticut (dubbed “The Schoolhouse”) to serve as a recording studio. The rest of the house's rooms were wired for recording and to allow for different sounds by the artists. He produced albums for artists such as .38 Special, Foghat, David Johansen and Rick Derringer.[11] During late 1977, blues legend Muddy Waters used "The Schoolhouse" to record his album I'm Ready. Hartman ran the recording board for the sessions and Johnny Winter served as the producer.[12]

In late 1978, partly due to being introduced by the Studio 54 sound system, Hartman reached No. 1 on the Dance Charts with the disco single "Instant Replay" (the title track of his third full-length album Instant Replay) which crossed over to No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 and also reached the Top 10 on the UK charts.[13] Musicians Hartman worked with on the associated album included Vinnie Vincent and G. E. Smith.[14] This was followed by his second chart topper, 1979's "Relight My Fire" (the title track of his fourth full-length album Relight My Fire), which featured friend Loleatta Holloway on vocals.[15] An instrumental version of the song later became the theme for the NBC talk show Tomorrow. He wrote and produced the 1980 Disco hit "Love Sensation" performed by American R&B singer Loleatta Holloway. The song has been sampled 185 times since its release.[16][17]

Hartman was back on the charts again with the single "I Can Dream About You", which was featured on his album of the same name—as well as the Streets of Fire soundtrack in 1984. The tune reached No. 6 on the U.S. charts, and (on re-release in 1985) No. 12 in the UK. Hartman was featured as a bartender in one of the two videos that were released for the single, which received heavy rotation on MTV. "I Can Dream About You" is sung within the movie Streets of Fire by a fictional vocal group called The Sorels, whose lead singer is played by Stoney Jackson; the actual vocal was performed by Winston Ford. During the same year, Hartman arranged and engineered Neil Sedaka's album Come See About Me.[5] Hartman last worked as an engineer for Sedaka on the musician's 1981 album Neil Sedaka: Now.[12]

In 1984, Hartman also performed Heart of the Beat under the band name 3V with Charlie Midnight for the soundtrack of Breakin', directed by Joel Silberg and, in 1985, scored a third Number 1 single on the Dance Music charts, "We Are the Young".[18] The single "Second Nature" also charted during this period. Also in 1985, Hartman's song "Talking To The Wall" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Perfect starring Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta.

In 1985 and 1986, Hartman worked on what was planned as his subsequent studio album, White Boy; he wanted the album to have a darker and more mature sound than his previous work. The album was completed in 1986, but the record label, MCA, thought it was too dissimilar to Hartman's previous work, especially "I Can Dream About You", and refused to release it.[19] White Boy has never been released, though some test pressings of the album were made that are now held by collectors, and some of the songs from the album are available on the internet. One song from the album, "Waiting to See You", was used in the 1986 film Ruthless People and its accompanying soundtrack album, and was subsequently released as a single. He also co-produced a version of the song “Great Gosh O Mighty” for the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills. For his 1986 album Lifetime Friend, Little Richard (who performed the song in the aforementioned film) used a different version.[20][21][22] In 1988, Hartman co-wrote the song "Why Should I Worry?" with Charlie Midnight, for the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Oliver & Company.

Hartman worked as a songwriter, producer, and collaborated with such artists as the Plasmatics (Hartman produced a demo version of Coup d'Etat in 1982, which was released as Coup de Grace in 2000),[23] Nona Hendryx (she co-wrote the song "Electricity" with Hartman, which was featured on his 1984 I Can Dream About You album),[24] James Brown (Gravity; 1986),[25] Steve Winwood (Hartman provided backing vocals on "Back in the High Life Again", which was featured on Winwood's 1986 album Back in the High Life),[26] Paul King (Joy; 1987),[27] Tina Turner (Foreign Affair; 1989),[28] Joe Cocker (Unchain My Heart and One Night of Sin; 1987 and 1989 respectively),[29] Holly Johnson (Blast; 1989),[30] Living in a Box (Gatecrashing; 1989),[31] Dusty Springfield (Reputation; 1990),[32] Bonnie Tyler (Bitterblue; 1991).[33][34] Hartman produced and co-wrote "Living in America", a No. 4 hit for James Brown which appeared on the soundtrack of the feature film Rocky IV (1985). The song was the last of Brown's 44 hit recordings to appear on the Billboard Top 40 charts. The track also appeared on the Hartman produced album Gravity.[35][36][25][37] In 1987, Hartman and Charlie Midnight were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Brown won a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.[38]

In 1989, he released his last studio album New Green Clear Blue, an instrumental new age-styled album.[33] In January 1990, a cover version of "Instant Replay" recorded by the British duo Yell! became a top 10 hit.[3] Also, in 1990, he co-wrote with longtime collaborator Charlie Midnight 9.95 (performed by Spunkadelic) for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. In 1991, Hartman recorded "(That's Your) Consciousness" for the soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Also, during the same year, Paul Young featured a cover version of "I'm Only Foolin' Myself" on his compilation album From Time to Time – The Singles Collection.[39]

Personal life and death

Hartman was never married and had no children. He died on March 22, 1994, at his Westport, Connecticut, home from an AIDS-related[40] brain tumor.[1][3] A closeted gay man,[41] he was diagnosed with HIV in the late 1980s.[40] He kept his HIV status a secret, even after friend and intermittent collaborator Holly Johnson (formerly of the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood) announced his own HIV status in 1991.[41] His remains were cremated and he was survived by both parents, his brother Dave, and sister Kathy.

In May 1994, the “Dan Hartman: A Celebration of His Life and Music” memorial concert was performed at New York’s Sound Factory Bar. Nona Hendryx, Loleatta Holloway, and producer Frankie Knuckles were among the participants.[42]

Legacy

Hartman has been renowned for his musical versatility.[4] In his last will and testament, Hartman created the Dan Hartman Arts and Music Foundation (located in Los Angeles, California) with Charlie Midnight as his sole trustee.[43] At the time of his death, Hartman was recording a solo album for CHAOS/Columbia. The record label had no immediate plans to release Hartman's unfinished work.[44] In 1996, it was announced that EMI Music Publishing purchased Hartman’s complete catalog.[45] During the same year, Tom Robinson released the song “Connecticut” in memory of Hartman. The song appears on Robinson’s album Having It Both Ways.[6]

Also, at the time of his death, Hartman's music was enjoying a revival of sorts: a cover version of "Relight My Fire" became a British number-one hit for Take That and Lulu in 1993.[46] Sales of Hartman's solo recordings, group efforts, production, songwriting and compilation inclusions had exceeded 50 million records worldwide. In 1994, the album Keep the Fire Burnin' was posthumously released – a compilation featuring remixes of earlier hits and previously unreleased material. The album spawned two singles; "Keep the Fire Burnin'" – a duet featuring Holloway – and "The Love in Your Eyes".[47][48][49] Hartman's version of "Free Ride" was featured in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie the year after his death.[50] In 1996, Audio Adrenaline included a cover version of "Free Ride" on their album Bloom.[51]

In 2006, 12 years after his death, "I Can Dream About You" was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories; "Relight My Fire" was also featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony.[52]

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Dan Hartman among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.[53]

Discography

Studio albums

Unreleased albums

Compilation albums
  • Keep the Fire Burnin' (1994)
  • Superhits (2004)

Singles
Year Song U.S. Hot 100[54] U.S. R&B[55] U.S. A.C.[56] U.S. Dance[57] UK Singles Chart[58] Australian Singles Chart Album
1976 "High Sign" - - - - - - Images
1977 "Lighthouse" - - - - - -
1978 "Instant Replay" 29 44 - 1 8 6 Instant Replay
"Chocolate Box" - - - - - -
1979 "Time and Space" - - - - - -
"This Is It" 91 - - - 17 -
"Hands Down" - - - 26 - - Relight My Fire
"Free Ride" 1[59] - - - -
"Boogie All Summer" - - - - - - non-album single
1980 "Vertigo"/"Relight My Fire" 105 - - 1 - - Relight My Fire
1981 "It Hurts to Be in Love" 72 - - 48 - - It Hurts to Be in Love
"Heaven in Your Arms" 86 - - - - -
"All I Need" 110[60] - 41 - - -
1984 "I Can Dream About You" 2 6 60 7 8 12 3 I Can Dream About You
"We Are the Young" 25 58 - 1 - -
"Name of the Game" - - - - - -
1985 "Second Nature" 39 - 19 40 66 -
"Get Outta Town" - - - - 99 - Fletch (soundtrack)
1986 "Waiting to See You" - - - - - - Ruthless People (soundtrack)
1988 "The Love You Take" (with Denise Lopez) - - - - - - Scrooged (soundtrack)
1994 "Keep the Fire Burnin'" (with Loleatta Holloway) - - - - 49 - Keep the Fire Burnin'
"The Love in Your Eyes" - - - - - -

See also

References
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  2. Nite, Norm N. (1982). Rock on: The video revolution, 1979-1984. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-181644-4.
  3. Simmonds, Jeremy (2008). The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-754-8.
  4. Matthew, Terry (April 20, 2016). "Disco Refugees". 5 Magazine. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  5. Tuber, Keith (August 1985). Fletch to the Beat. Orange Coast Magazine.
  6. Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-105-0.
  7. Rene, Sheila (December 28, 1984). "Rockin End to the Year". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  8. Kucheran, Bill (August 21, 1974). "Subdued Hollies Good Summer Album". The Lethbridge Herald.
  9. (1974). TIME Magazine, 104(21), 104.
  10. Afterman, Peter (October 20, 1976). "Dan Hartman - Images". California Aggie. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
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  12. Foti, Laura (August 15, 1981). Hartman's Little Schoolhouse Haven for Aspiring Musicians. Billboard.
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  18. Hot Dance / Disco. Billboard. January 5, 1985.
  19. Campbell, Mary (March 7, 1989). "Dan Hartman manages to turn a career valley into a peak". Associated Press – via Google News.
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