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| Patrick Adams |
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| The cleverly deceptive genius Patrick Adams was born March 17, 1950 in New York City. Some people are just destined for greatness and Adams was one of those. He wrote his first song at 12, recorded his first record at 16 and produced his first track at 17. It would take several more years for the world to realize his genius. In 1966 Patrick was invited to join a neighborhood group of young musicians, the brash youngsters brazenly auditioned for a small role in an upcoming movie "Up The Down Staircase." The boys won the part of the high school dance band and are featured in a small segment of the Warner Brothers film. Two months later the guys, now known as "The Sparks," were signed to Curb/MGM records where they recorded a single called "Cool it" with the flip side "Woe, Woe." But after failing to chart the label quickly dropped them, The Sparks continued performing and touring together for four more years. Patrick's next success came the following year (1967) when he wrote "You've Got To Learn Something" for the children's show "Sesame Street." In 1970 Adams left the group to take a job as A&R Vice-President of Perception/Today Records. While there he helped guide the careers by producing and arranging for Madhouse, J.J. Barnes and Black Ivory. Black Ivory, and more importantly it's member Leroy Burgess, would play a pivitol role in disco music and Patrick's blossoming career later on. During that period he also worked with numerous other artists like Astrud Gilberto and Les Variations as a musician. Having gained sufficent knowledge and experience he chose to leave his job and with Peter Brown (NOT the artist but a promotions man) they formed P&P Records in 1974. The label was distributed by Morris Levy's Roulette Records and housed the sub-labels Queen Constance, Heavenly Star, Jay Star and Chocolate Star Records as well. He also started PAPMUS his own production company. During the next four years, as disco was emerging, Adams became a key figure in it's growth scoring scoring countless hits including: "Disco Juice" and "Atmosphere Strut" with Cloud One, "Mainline" by Black Ivory, "Dance And Shake Your Tambourine"-The Universal Robot Band, "My Baby's Got E.S.P." with Four Below Zero, and "Love Bug" and "Lady Bug" by Bumblebee Unlimited. 1978 was Patrick's breakthrough year. The infamous song was "In The Bush." "I did not sit down and invent the phrase "Push Push In The Bush" in a moment of meditative genius. I was in the recording studio looking for a chant to put on the chorus of this last hot track for the Musique album. I was thinking out loud of my older brother and his friends. Sometimes they would chant - "To the bush" This was a reference to a dance club that they frequented. One of the background singers, (the Sweethearts Of Sigma Sound), jokingly said push because it rhymed" states Adams. Patrick continues "The first time I played the album for everyone at Prelude Records every face in the room was red with embarrassment. While he fanned his face label head Marv Schlacther yelled, "Patrick, I CAN'T PUT THAT OUT!" Everybody in the office had the same opinion. The record was hot, maybe just a little too hot. After some serious discussion it was decided that it would be included on the album but not promoted." "Then one morning Marv called me and asked that I come around the corner to his office. When I arrived he began to fill me in on this strange phenomenon that was happening across the country. In the midwest, stations like WIFE radio, a conservative POP station, were playing "In The Bush." About three weeks later, the cover story on BILLBOARD Magazine was that about 600 radio stations were banning some naughty record called "Push Push In The Bush!" exclaims Patrick. The rest as they say is history. No longer was Adams known as only a disco funk producer. Although already revered in New York underground club circles he was now a familiar name to gay clubgoers as well as the straight white suburbia cliques. Over the course of the next three years, between 1978-1981 Patrick Adams racked up an impressive 22 hits. Among those were Inner Life's "I'm Caught Up (In A One Night Love Affair)," Herbie Man's "Superman" and Phreek's "Weekend." Some of the many artists included Narada Michael Walden (who would later become a hit producer himself), Carol Douglas, Melba Moore, The Salsoul Orchestra, Venus Dodson, Bruni Pagan, Sine, Rainbow Brown, Fonda Rae and Donna McGhee. As the disco-era changed, so too did Adams. In the 1980's he would lend his creative genius to such notable acts as Salt 'N' Pepa, Keith Sweat and Carol Lynn Townes. In the 1990's he helmed recordings by Eric B. Rakim, Paul Lekakis and Morris Day. Patrick's portfolio includes songs in 8 movie scores and hundreds of TV and Radio commercials. He is most proud of his songs written for 2 childrens CD-ROM projects for Paramount Interactive , a division of Paramount Pictures/ Viacom. Both CD-Roms, "Busytown" and "How Things Work In Busytown" are based on the books of the late Richard Scarry and have received high honors and critical acclaim from educators around the world. Patrick, a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, lectures often at various ASCAP Writer Workshops. He has received the ASCAP "Songwriter Of The Year" award three times. He has multiple Gold and Platinum record awards, including one for the worldwide hit, "Touch Me (All Night Long)" by Cathy Dennis. We are thankful that Patrick is still around sharing his talents with the world. I cannot imagine what the disco-era would have been like without Patrick......Mr. Adams we salute you! |
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