The Hooters
After starting piano lessons at age 4 and playing in garage bands during his early teens in Meriden, Connecticut, Rob moved to Philadelphia in the 70's to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania. It was here that he met Eric Bazilian and Rick Chertoff, who would become his close friends and musical soul mates. Since then, Rob has become known worldwide as a successful songwriter, musician, arranger and producer.
Rob and Eric co-founded The Hooters in 1980, extensively touring the Philadelphia area's clubs and colleges. The Hooters began their rise to fame with an independent album release titled "Amore" that sold over 100,000 copies. This led to their debut major label release "Nervous Night" on Columbia in 1985. This album sold in excess of 2 million copies and included Billboard Top 40 hits such as "Day By Day" (#18), "And We Danced" (#21) and "Where Do The Children Go" (#38).
The Hooters had continued success with 5 more albums including "Hooterization - A Retrospective" Greatest Hits album and "The Hooters - Live". The Hooters' albums attained Platinum and Gold status in the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway and Sweden and toured all over the world through 1995. Highlights of Rob's career with The Hooters include the Live-Aid Concert 1985 in Philadelphia, Amnesty International Concert at Giants Stadium 1986, the Tokyo Dome 1987 and Roger Waters' extravaganza at The Wall in Berlin 1990.
"Time After Time", co-written and sung with Cyndi Lauper, earned Rob a Grammy nomination for Song Of The Year in 1984, and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. "Time After Time" has been covered by over 50 artists including Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Matchbox 20, Everything But The Girl and Cassandra Wilson.
Joan Osborne's debut release, "Relish", provided Rob with the opportunity to write, play and arrange on the album that was nominated for 5 Grammy awards in 1996, including Album Of The Year.
In 1998, Rob and Rick Chertoff gathered an all-star cast of musicians and friends, including Carole King, The Chieftains, Taj Mahal, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne and members of The Band among others for an epic musical project "Largo". The album, a creative exploration of American music, is currently being developed as a possible Broadway musical.
Rob's creative songwriting style was featured in the Ron Howard film "The Grinch". Rob co-wrote, co-produced, arranged and played on "Christmas of Love" performed by Little Isidore and The Inquisitors. Rob also co-wrote and performed on Ricky Martin's single "Private Emotion", featured on his 2000 debut release "Ricky Martin".
Recently, Rob co-produced and played on the latest Dar Williams CD "The Beauty of the Rain" as well as co-writing the single "Closer To You" from that CD. Other songwriting activities include collaborations with Bette Midler and songs for a variety of other stage and film projects, as well as development projects with several emerging new artists.
Rob joined the reunited Hooters on a very successful headlining tour in Germany during June and July 2003 and looks forward to the next exciting chapter in the life of the band.
In addition, construction is complete on his state-of-the-art recording studio, "Elmstreet Studios" in suburban Philadelphia, and several projects have been completed there with many more on the way. The new studio combines vintage analog gear and the latest digital recording equipment including Pro-Tools HD and houses Rob's extensive keyboard collection.
All You Zombies
Holy Moses met the Pharaoh
Yeah, he tried to set him straight
Looked him in the eye, "let my people go"
Holy Moses on the mountain
High above the golden calf
Went to get the Ten Commandments
He's just gonna break them in half
All you zombies hide your faces
All you people in the street
All you sittin' in high places
The pieces gonna fall on you
No one ever spoke to Noah
They all laughed at him instead
Working on his ark, working all by himself
Only Noah saw it coming
Forty days and forty nights
Took his sons and daughters with him
Yeah, they were the Israelites
All you zombies hide your faces
All you people in the street
All you sittin' in high places
The rain's gonna fall on you
Holy Father, what's the matter
Where have all your children gone
Sitting in the dark, living all by themselves
You don't have to hide anymore
All you zombies show your faces...
