Lauren Wood


Lauren Wood is an American singer-songwriter, voice-over artist and producer. She is most notable for the 1989 single, "Fallen", which was used in the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, and "Please Don't Leave", a duet with singer Michael McDonald in November 1979. Wood is also known by the nickname "Chunky" and has used "Ilene Rappaport" for authoring songs.

Biography

Wood's career began in the mid-1960s when she formed a band called Rebecca and the Sunnybrook Farmers. In 1972, she provided back-up vocals on Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo. In 1973, Wood formed the band Chunky, Novi and Ernie with her cousin Novi Novog and bassist Ernie Emerita. They released two albums both co-produced by Ted Templeman and John Cale. "Underground", from the 1973 album was covered by Montrose on Paper Money. Frank Zappa can be heard speaking at the beginning of "Rosalie".
In 1979, she released her first self-titled album Lauren Wood on Warner Bros. Records. Although this is a solo album, the words "Featuring Novi and Ernie" appear in the lower right corner of the cover and the photo has Wood flanked by her bandmates. Guests included Michael McDonald, Little Feat members Bill Payne and Fred Tackett, Steve Lukather, Ronnie Montrose, Jim Keltner, and Patrick Simmons. The duet "Please Don't Leave" went to No. 5 on Billboards Adult Contemporary chart and No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.
After her follow-up album, Cat Trick, Wood vanished from the music scene. However, she spent time writing and performing songs for television and movie soundtracks, including "Fallen", the song used in Pretty Woman, which has been covered by musicians such as Johnny Mathis and Larry Coryell. The song was first recorded by Nicolette Larson, followed by Wood for Cat Trick. Larson would later record two more songs written by Wood for her 1988 album Shadows of Love. These two tracks were "Work on It" and "Where Did I Get These Tears".
In 1997, Wood founded her own record label, Bad Art Records. On this label, she released her third album, also titled Lauren Wood, in 1999 and Love, Death & Customer Service in 2006. Her second self-titled album was first distributed in Japan under license from Bad Art.

Discography

Albums (with band)