Holly Knight

Holly Knight

Knight accepting an award from the Women's International Music Network, 2013
Background information
Birth name Holly Erlander
Born New York City, U.S.
Genres Pop, rock
Occupation(s) Songwriter, singer, musician, producer
Years active 1980–present
Associated acts Spider, Device, many others
Website www.hollyknight.com
Notable instruments
Keyboards

Holly Knight is an American, Grammy Award-winning songwriter, vocalist and musician of pop and rock music. In 2013 she was inducted into The Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Winner of thirteen ASCAP awards, her songs have won three Grammys. She is known for having written hits for some of the most successful artists in music, including "The Best" performed by Bonnie Tyler, and later re-recorded by Tina Turner, as well as "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Invincible" performed by Pat Benatar. She was voted the Best Songwriter in Rolling Stone Magazine's 11th annual poll, along with Phil Collins, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.

Early life and education

Born in New York City as Holly Erlander,[1] she started playing classical piano at the age of four, continuing her studies for ten years at The Mannes School of Music.[2]

Career

She soon became interested in rock music, and left home at sixteen to pursue her dreams. Five years later, in the early 1980s, her band Spider (featuring Anton Fig of Late Show with David Letterman), managed by Bill Aucoin, manager for Kiss and Billy Idol, among others, got a recording contract with Dreamland Records, and released two albums: Spider (self-titled; 1980) and Between the Lines (1981).

Dreamland president, songwriter and record producer Mike Chapman, urged her to leave the band and come to Los Angeles, California to pursue her songwriting career. She signed a publishing deal with his company, eventually signing to EMI Publishing. Knight and Chapman worked together on the Top 5 U.S. hit "Better Be Good to Me" (1984) by Tina Turner and Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" (1983), each of which won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She co-wrote "The Best" (1989), which was a No. 1 single around the world for Tina Turner. On her own and in collaboration with others, Knight wrote songs with Heart, Aerosmith, Bonnie Tyler, Rod Stewart, and many more. Tina Turner has recorded nine of her tunes, including "The Best", "Better Be Good to Me", and "In Your Wildest Dreams" (1996). She wrote the hit, "Invincible" (1985) for Pat Benatar.

Knight had a second band called Device in the mid-1980s, who had a hit with "Hanging on a Heart Attack" off their 22B3 (1986) album. Spider and Device both had Top 40 hits, while Device was on MTV's heavy-rotation playlist for four consecutive months.

Her songs have been featured in box-office smashes such as movie soundtracks Thelma & Louise (1991), Vision Quest (1985), Legend of Billie Jean (1985), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Stuart Little II (2002), 13 Going on 30 (2004), What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004), and hit TV shows such as Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), The Singing Bee (2007–), American Idol, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, 30 Rock, South Park, and the finale episode of The Voice 2011 finale in, wherein Cee Lo Green performed a duet of "Love Is a Battlefield" with one of the final contestants.

Most recently her songs have appeared in Dallas Buyers Club, Glee, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, The Following, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Necessary Roughness and Deliverance Creek.

Knight wrote the theme song for the popular Joss Whedon television show Angel (1999–2004), performed by Darling Violetta. She also wrote and produced the title theme for the sitcom Still Standing (2002–2006), performed by Will Hoge, which received the ASCAP award for recognition as one of the top TV music themes of 2003, as well as the same award again in 2004. In recent years Holly has been continuing to pursue a career as a record producer. In 2009 she produced a jazz EP called Natural for Antonia Bennett, daughter of Tony Bennett, and in 2011, a pop record of original songs for her as well, entitled Ordinary Girl. In addition, she produced a new jazz record for Antonia Bennett of songs from the Great American Songbook called Embrace Me on Perseverance records. She has also produced tracks for Otep, Fefe Dobson, the Australian band, Porcelain,[3] and 2014 Tony winner, Lena Hall.

Although primarily known for her songwriting, and membership in other bands, Knight also released a self-titled solo album in 1988. This album featured her own rendition of the song she co-wrote, "Love is a Battlefield", as well as the single "Heart Don't Fail Me Now", which featured background vocals from Daryl Hall.

She is currently developing two musicals and also has a photography site.

Personal life

She resides with her two sons in Los Angeles, California.

Songs

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Holly Knight
  1. ↑ "Holly Knight". Discogs.
  2. ↑ "Biography". hollyknight.com.
  3. ↑ "Porcelain Delivers Rock-Hard Performance". BMI. February 26, 2007.
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