Author Archives: Alan Wexler

The first song I ever had recorded was a song I’d written called TROPICAL NIGHTS. I had originally written it as a little show biz shuffle- and it was by far the best song I had written up to that point. Well some of the other candidates were KING KONG and something called LOVE STAINS (hell, I was young!). So there wasn’t a lot of competition.

I was working as a waiter at this crazy restaurant in Beverly Hills, and Steve March Torme would always be coming in – he was Mel Torme’s son and a very talented singer-songwriter in his own right. He knew that I sang and wrote songs too, so one day he informed me that he was producing an album for Liza Minnelli and asked if I had any songs she might like. You see, Steve and Liza had grown up in Hollywood together as offsprings of famous parents. Well, I thought “Tropical Nights” sort of being an old fashioned shuffle was just the ticket for Liza. I remember making him a cassette (remember those?) and then not hearing anything back from him. Nothing unusual about that, In those days, with my three or four songs I never heard anything back from anyone.

Until one starry night this musician friend of mine called me up at midnight and said Liza Minnelli was doing my song TROPICAL NIGHTS right that minute with a 30 piece orchestra in Hollywood – and it was fabulous! So fabulous that it was going to be the title of her new album. Well, let me put this in context, Liza had just finished NEW YORK, NEW YORK and was one of the biggest stars on the planet and I’m living in a single apartment somewhere above the Capitol Records Bldg – my apartment was so small, every night when I went to sleep my head was just inches from the front door. So I was pretty excited!

Later, from my friend I learned that they’d turned my little 3 minute shuffle into a 6 and a half minute disco extravaganza with a rainstorm, a conga line and the melody of BALI HAI opening it all up. The label read (Winkler/Rodgers/Hammerstein)– But in the tradition of Hollywood I didn’t hear anything back from Liza or Steve March Torme for two months. In the meantime, I had been working with this wonderful publisher who was starting up a new publishing company and was desperate for some credibility. So when I told him Liza had just recorded my tune, he plopped $500 on the desk in front of me and said that I could have the money if I gave him half the publishing. Well, remember at the time I was living on tuna casseroles and diet cokes, so faster than you can say Bob Fosse I took him up on the offer. Good thing I did, because the record label tried to get my publishing saying they were “thinking” of putting my song on the album. We knew they’d already spent $65,000 hiring ace photographer Reid Miles to create the whole world of Tropical Nights for the album cover, so we were not dissuaded. But it was nice to have some Hollywood muscle backing me up.

Well, the album came out. It didn’t set the world on fire, but it was a smash at Studio 54, and because it was Liza, for years afterwords it was sung by every drag queen from Studio City to Tokyo! And it was featured in an infamous Oscar Nite special with Cheryl Ladd and Ben Vereen that is like some crazy out take from a Village People meets Bob Fosse video. Throiugh the years there was a revue that played in Australia that featured it, and it was even done as a ballet by a prestigious NY dance company! Wow!

Check out Liza’s version of the song and my original demo!

Liza’s version of Tropical Nights

My original demo of Tropical Nights

I just found out that I’m #2 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases for Jazz Vocals with my new CD “The Company I Keep”—and I suddenly realized I have reached another destination – the top of this particular measure of achievement—but I got there not with traditional GPs but with a WAZE app. Now what does that mean Mark? (Love talking to myself) It means that at a certain point I realized the major highways and byways of show business weren’t going to take me to where I wanted to go, so I would have get creative and to find the back streets and out of the ways places to get to my end point. My destination is recognition and the ability to sing my songs around the country and have people appreciate it and yes lay down money to hear me.

The highways and byways were closed for a lot of reasons—I’m old, I’m singing Jazz, I was doing a lot of originals in a field where the audience preferred standards. So, I had to be crafty and figure out other ways to get there. The first thing I did was to say to myself, Mark (here I go again) what are you good at? Now as artists, we spend a fair amount of time knowing what we’re not good at (and I’m going to keep that close to my vest), but I thought about this and came up with a few things that were good about me. I had a pleasing voice, it had a nice sound. I wrote really good lyrics, and I had developed over the years a nice stage persona and act.

So, what I did is take those three things and double down on all of them—I started taking more singing lessons and really supported my tone, and yoga helped open up my chest cavity. I started teaching lyric writing (which made me a better writer—because I was constantly teaching the craft, and as a teacher had to walk the talk) and finally I analyzed what was good about my show—and just emphasized that. Whatever song I sang was like a little bit more information about me, I learned to spice up my originals with well-chosen songs written by others and I learned how to read a chart and communicate with the band. I found out I could swing—and that I was “cool” who knew??? I also realized that I was playing in LA too many times a year, so I cut down on the shows and I made each show a special occasion. I started regionally and now I’m slowly expanding my base.

And most importantly, when I put out a self-financed CD I spend money on promoting it.

I’ve done all this without the highways and Drivers of the industry—But with a lot of help from my collaborators, musicians, singers, friends and fans. I love my fans—and always try to give them my best. It takes a village to get you there—Show business is a people business and person by person I’ve made people my allies and collaborators.

And…block by block each CD since 2009 has been getting more notice and increased visibility. Reviewers know me, Downbeat has given me Four Stars, magazines do articles on me—and it’s all going to what’s available to me at that moment.

And as I’ve gained confidence I’ve sought out better routes and lanes that I once would have thought I wasn’t fast enough to go in. Sometimes these lanes block my entrance and—voila! Sometimes the lanes let me in.

My career has been challenging, depressing, elating, quizzical- but I stand here at 67 doing better than ever! And I can get to a “yes” 3 minutes faster by just going for it.

Thanks for reading my blog! Here’s a free download of my song Walk Between the Raindrops, a duet with the wonderful Jackie Ryan, from The Company I Keep.  Free Download