David Kershenbaum

David Kershenbaum is an American record producer and entrepreneur, born in Springfield, Missouri.

Kershenbaum has worked, throughout his career, with many top-selling bands, including: Duran Duran, Tracy Chapman, Joe Jackson, Bryan Adams, Supertramp, Cat Stevens, Elkie Brooks and Tori Amos. As a producer he has earned 75 international gold and platinum albums^[1]. His work has yielded multiple Grammys and an Oscar nomination^[2].

Kershenbaum has also been an executive in three major record companies. Kershenbaum's first album at A&M Records was Joan Baez's Diamonds and Rust, which was the biggest album of her career. While vice-president/A&R at A&M Records, he signed Janet Jackson.

Kershenbaum also signed the British musician Joe Jackson and was responsible for the production of four of his albums, including "Night and Day" LP which became the artist's most successful, earning two Grammy nominations and a worldwide Top 5 single, "Stepping Out". Produced by Kershenbaum, Jackson's debut album "Look Sharp" helped establish Jackson as a cornerstone of a new wave music^[3].

Kershenbaum is also known for a hit Tracy Chapman album that resulted in a debut with sales of over 17 million copies and $200 million in revenues. The LP was recognized by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, earning three Grammy awards, six nominations including "Best Producer Of The Year", "Best Song Of The Year", "Best New Artist" and "Best Album Of The Year".

Kershenbaum also worked with the highly successful group Duran Duran on their ^[4]Rio album at Capitol Records. Duran Duran released their Rio album, which quickly scored four UK Top 20 singles. However, before Kershenbaum's engagement into this project "...the Rio album did not do well in the United States at first. ...and Capitol Records (EMI's American branch) was at a loss about how to sell them. After Carnival (an EP of Rio's Kershenbaum's dance remixes) became popular with DJs in the fall, the band arranged to have most of the album remixed by David Kershenbaum. Only after it was re-released in the U.S. in November, with heavy promotion as a dance album, Rio begin to climb the American charts..."^[5]"Following the success of the Kershenbaum remixes, Capitol changed its marketing strategy on Duran Duran from New Romantic to dance band." This work also resulted in many awards and Multi-platinum sales and smash hit "Hungry Like the Wolf". The album went gold in the US on March 1, 1983, and platinum on April 26, eventually reaching double platinum status. It peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US (on June 5, 1983), and remained on the charts there for 129 weeks -- almost two and a half years.

Kershenbaum later established his own group of companies encompassing 5 recording studios, a film music supervision division, and a music publishing company. Under this banner, he produced and recorded many projects including Kenny Loggins LP for Sony, as well as successful platinum LP by Joshua Kadison.

As a partner and co-president of Morgan Creek Music Group^[6], Kershenbaum brought home the music for the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves^[7]" acting as Executive Producer of "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams.

As a music supervisor, Kershenbaum has worked on many films. At Morgan Creek Pictures, he supervised all of the music for the large slate of pictures, including “The Last of the Mohicans”, which soundtrack has now sold in excess of 1,800,000 units worldwide. Other films included "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", "Road House", "Navy Seals", "White Sands", "200 Cigarettes".

References and sources

External links

[1] An American Society of Composers,Authors and Publishers

[2] A&R Registry. Spotlight: Veteran Record producer David Kershenbaum & Music Pros Hollywood

[3] Article by Robyn Flans. David Kershenbaum: Enhancing the Artist, May 1, 2000

[4] Duran Duran Article by: David Medsker, 10/09/2006

[5] UK Pages.Duran Duran

[6] Morgan Creek Records.

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