David Ricketts

Emmy-winning Philadelphia-born songwriter/producer/arranger and performer David Ricketts – best known as one-half of David + David — has collaborated on several Grammy-winning and nominated albums, including Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club, Toni Childs’ Union and Meredith Brooks’ Blurring the Edge. Ricketts’ impressive credits also includes working with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Robbie Robertson on his solo album, Storyville, and writing music to words by longtime Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin.

Ricketts’ latest project finds him producing and writing with Encinitas-by-way-of-New England singer/songwriter and steel guitarist Sarah Rogo, yet another in a line of notable female artists whose careers he’s helped launch over the years.

“Sarah’s just a real, across-the-board musician,” he says. “She has this innate feel which comes across in everything she does. Working with her as rejuvenated me. That connection is the biggest thing. You can’t worry about anything else, given the way things are in the music industry today.”

Ricketts created the template for David + David’s 1986 breakthrough, Boomtown, by woodshedding and recording on his living room porta-studio. The album has become a classic L.A. film noir about the various denizens of the City of Angels, complete with the pitfalls of a stardom he was about to experience himself. The album’s very first track, “Welcome to Boomtown,” crossed over and became a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, cracking the Top 10 of the Mainstream Rock chart. The two succeeding singles, “Swallowed by the Cracks” and “Ain’t So Easy” (which peaked at #51 on the Hot 100), also hit the Mainstream Rock Top 20, with the album eventually going platinum.

From there, Ricketts continued his successful run by partnering with Toni Childs, producing and co-writing most of the songs for her multi-Grammy-nominated 1998 debut, Union (receiving nods in the Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance – Female categories for the single, “Don’t Walk Away”), and the follow-up, House of Hope, both for A&M Records, which had also released Boomtown. He had originally met Childs when he worked with her on the soundtrack for the motion picture Echo Park. She then sang back-up vocals on the David + David track, “Ain’t So Easy”.

Ricketts, Child and Eddy Free earned a 2004 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for co-writing “Because You Are Beautiful,” which was featured on the Lifetime Television documentary V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, inspired by Child’s performance in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues in L.A.

Ricketts also became involved in 1993 with the rotating group of musicians organized by producer Bill Bottrell which turned into Sheryl Crow’s award-winning debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, racking up Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year. He ended up as a co-songwriter on “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Strong Enough” as well as “Solidify” and “The Na-Na Song.”

Four years later, he co-produced (with Geza X), as well as contributing keyboards and bass guitar to Meredith Brooks’ album, Blurring the Edges, which produced the Top 40 hit, “Bitch,” and earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song.

Ricketts has also worked on The Band songwriter/guitarist Robbie Robertson’s solo album, Storyville, collaborated with singer/songwriter Matthew Ryan and even wrote music with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin, cutting several demos.

Working with Sarah Rogo in his Beachwood Canyon home studio has brought him back to doing what he does best – bringing in tracks from other musicians and making it sound like they’re all in one room, having fun.

As for his own dreams of performing again, Ricketts is open to anything. “My ideal would be a bunch of people who get together with a musical short-hand, accomplishing things I couldn’t do myself. Where the whole amounts to more than the sum of its parts.”

You could rightfully say the same thing about David Ricketts’ career longevity as a producer, songwriter, musician and performer.

Billboard Chart History

Collaborating artist:

David + David
Welcome To Boomtown (1986) album #39 Top 200
Welcome To Boomtown (1986) single #37 Hot 100 / #8 Top Rock
Ain’t so Easy (1986) #51 Hot 100 / #17 Top Rock
Swallowed By The Cracks (1986) #14 Top Rock

Toni Childs
Union (1988) #63 Top 200
House Of Hope (1991) #115 Top 200
Don’t Walk Away (1988) #72 Hot 100 / #17 Top Alternative

Robbie Robertson
Storyville (1991) #69 Top 200
What About Now (1991) #28 Top Alternative

Sheryl Crow
Tuesday Night Music Club (1995) #3 Top 200 / #44 Top Catalogue Albums / #2 Heatseekers Albums
Strong Enough (1995) #5 Hot 100 / #3 Mainstream Top 40 / #11 Adult Contemporary / #34 Adult Top 40 / #10 Alternative Rock Songs / #2 Top Radio Play
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) #60 Hot 100 / #31 Mainstream Top 40 / #60 Top Radio Play

Meredith Brooks
Blurring The Edges (1997) #22 Top 200 / #11 Canadian Album Sales
Bitch (1997) #2 Hot 100 / #1 Mainstream Top 40 / #14 Adult Top 40 / #22 Rock Digital Sales / #4 Top Alternative / #34 Dance Club Songs / #6 Top Radio Songs
What Would Happen (1998) #46 Hot 100 / #15 Mainstream Top 40 / #21 Adult Top 40 / #44 Top Radio Songs
Stop (1998) #40 Mainstream Top 40