WORLD GOES ROUND, a pop-rock supergroup band who got together in 1989 to record an album that never saw the light of day, will be releasing their full length album of previously undiscovered music – a time capsule of music from pop music’s classic 1980s era – on January 22. The album will be available on all digital formats, and on vinyl, via Viper Records.
With combined credits from such legendary artists as Queen to Supertramp, John Fogerty, Air Supply, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, Quincy Jones, Kenny Rogers, Supertramp, Donna Summer, Neil Diamond, Jeffrey Osbourne, and many more, Frank Musker (co-lead vocals), Elizabeth Lamers (co-lead vocals), Jeff Hull (keyboards/drums/bass guitar) and Marty Walsh (guitar), have written, recorded and performed an immense catalog of iconic music making.
Their original producer, multi Grammy Award and Emmy Award winning Tommy Vicari (known for his work with The Oscars, The Emmys, Prince, Billy Idol) recently remastered it, after one of the band members found an old cassette of the recordings. Now, more than 30 years later, the music available for the public to hear. The 10 track album was recorded at Musker’s Laurel Canyon studio in L.A., where the group created powerful pop tunes, matching their creative and musical aspirations – to make a record that was musically inspired by their heroes. The songs on the album, although recorded in the 80s, have messages that were relevant then, and are now. The group’s mission was to make socially conscious music, and today, their messages resonate now more than ever.
Says Musker, “It’s amazing to me that not only is this music finally being heard after all this time, but that it sounds so relevant to the momentous times we’re living in even though the songs were written 30 years ago. It’s very gratifying to be able to finish what we started and even more satisfying that people are reacting so positively to our music.” Echoes Hull: “We’ve all worked on a lot of great songs that haven’t seen the light of day until now. I’m pleased there’s excitement around this album, and that it’s finally out there getting heard.”
Adds Walsh, “About a year ago, the producer of World Goes Round, Tommy Vicari, asked me if I had a copy of the project. I dug out a cassette tape of the mixes, put it into my audio player, and recorded it into my studio workstation. As soon as I heard the first song, it was apparent that this project really was something special. I sent the project to Tommy, and then sent it to the rest of the members of WGR, who I had been out of touch with for many years. Everybody was quite floored by the music we had not heard in decades, and a conversation ensued about the possibility of somehow releasing this music.”
Says Jonathan Stuart, founder of Viper Records, “Along the way, I’ve worked with some very talented people, and World Goes Round is no exception. The music speaks for itself.”
“What a treat it has been to reconnect with these wonderful, talented players,” says Lamers. “If there is a silver lining to the lockdown it is that we had the time to revisit this project we started so long ago. It’s been an amazing journey!”
Echoes Walsh, “It is quite amazing and gratifying that this work we did back then, and put our heart and souls into, is being released. We are finally letting the world in on World Goes Round!”
World Goes Round are a supremely talented group of musicians and this album was far too good to languish, forgotten and incomplete, since the 80s! ‘World Goes Round’ will be released in the UK on 22 January 2021.
Frank Musker: One of the most internationally successful and established British songwriter/lyricists in music. Musker’s musical versatility has allowed him to collaborate with some of the world’s most important artists which include: Queen, Air Supply, Gypsy Kings, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Paul Young, Maxi Priest, Carly Simon, John Denver, Queen, Roger Daltrey, Luciano Pavarotti, Josh Groban, Sister Sledge, Sheena Easton, Cher, The O’Jays, The Three Degrees, Patty Austin, Sarah Brightman, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Bonnie Tyler, Alan Parsons, Jeffrey Osborne, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Lisa Stansfield, Amici Forever, Il Divo, Macy Gray, BB King, Ronan Keating, Tom Jones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and more.
Elizabeth Lamers has had several wide-ranging careers in music in songwriting, voiceovers and background singing. She has sung on countless commercials and is a busy voiceover artist, working in film and television and supplying voices to many Warner Brothers cartoons including Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, Histeria, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. As a background singer, Lamers has toured with Linda Ronstadt, Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, John Denver, Christopher Cross, Cab Calloway, K.D. Lang and the Gypsy Kings, among others. As a songwriter, Lamers collaborated with Frank Musker, and during that time, composed “Too Much Love Will Kill You” with Musker and Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May.
Jeff Hull is a prolific producer/composer/arranger/musician and engineer who has written and or produced a number of songs, including the original “Piano in the Dark,” a Grammy Nominated song for “Song of the Year,” and also BMI’s most performed song of the year. His hit for Flo Rida in a re-worked rendition of “Piano in the Dark” went to #1 on the Billboard rap charts. He also put out a solo project called Beatnik eVolution on the EP E-CLEKTRONICA, which one of the tracks, “the Alamrmist” was nominated for best electronic track of the year. In addition to being a staff writer at E.M.I. for three years, Hull has also written and arranged for a long line of artists from Brenda Russell and Chaka Kahn to Heart and Suzanna Hoffs. Other work includes a track on the Lilith Fair record featuring Holly Cole, main title for the feature film “Molly” (MGM) starring Elizabeth Shue; “Rush of Ushers” with then partner “Daniel O’Brien”. He has also composed and arranged songs for Beatnik eVolution, Arnold McCuller, Brenda Russell, Chaka Kahn, Molly (MGM), Karyn White, Hope Floats, Holly Cole, Jane Weidlen, Wendy Moten, Jenifer Rush, The Cores, Heart, Chynna Phillips, Tom Jones, Brian May (Queen), Desiree’, 5 Starr, Rick Nowels, Lauren Wood, Suzanna Hoffs, Bobby Caldwell, Thelma Houston, Julio Iglesias, and more.
Guitarist Marty Walsh is an assistant professor in the Ensemble and Music Production departments at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He was a guitarist on hits “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton, “She Works Hard For The Money” by Donna Summer, and “Heartlight” by Neil Diamond, to name a few. He has also recorded with John Denver, Eddie Money, Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, LeAnn Rimes and Julio Iglesias, among others. Walsh did the guitar work on the Supertramp album “Brother Where You Bound”; then toured with the band in 1985-86, and again in 1988 after playing on their release “Free As A Bird.” Also in 1986, Walsh was a member of John Fogerty’s touring band for his first tour post CCR. In the 1990s, he was a part of the live band on the Nickelodeon television show “Roundhouse.”
Tommy Vicari (Producer) is a multi-Emmy and Grammy Award recipient, internationally recognized as one of Hollywood’s finest recording engineers and music mixers. He has recorded music for: Prince, Billy Preston, George Duke, Jeffrey Osborne, Philip Bailey, Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Sammy Nestico and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. His tv credits include: The Oscars, Six Feet Under, The Newsroom, Angels in America. His mix for HBO’s Behind the Candelabra earned him both an Emmy and a Cinema Audio Society Award. Vicari’s work on feature films includes the Brian DiPalma cult classic, Phantom of the Paradise, to the Pixar multi Academy Award™ winning classics, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Along with Thomas Newman, Vicari worked on Road to Perdition, Cinderella Man, A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Saving Mr. Banks, Bridge of Spies, The Highwaymen, and many more. With composer Nicholas Britell, Vicari worked on The Big Short and the HBO series Succession, Academy Award winning Moonlight and If Beal Street Could Talk, and the Netflix feature,The King.
