Frank Simms
Encyclopedia
Frank Simms is an American
singer and voice-over artist known for providing the voices behind such iconic characters as the Kool-Aid Man
, the Honeycomb Craver, the bug-eyed, fuzzy mascot of Honeycomb cereal, and the Geico ringtone. He is one of the founding members and songwriters of The Simms Brothers Band
. He recorded the weekly theme song for TV Funhouse
on Saturday Night Live
. He's recorded with dozens of artists beginning in the seventies.
's "Let's Dance
", "Modern Love
", and "China Girl
"; Billy Joel's River of Dreams
album, and Madonna's Material Girl
. He has also recorded with INXS
, Chaka Khan
, Al Green
, Elvis Costello
, Brian Wilson
, Carly Simon
, Cyndi Lauper
, Jeff Beck
, Philip Bailey
, The Fab Faux
, Laurie Anderson
, Chic
, William S. Burroughs
, Ace Frehley
, The Psychedelic Furs, Dionne Warwick
, Roberta Flack
, Serge Gainsbourg
and Harry Chapin
among others. He sings for the Emmy winning PBS shows Dragontales
and Between the Lions
, and won a 2007 Emmy award with his performance of the winning song, "Q Without U" for the children's animated series, Between The Lions
.
His voice may be heard on the films Working Girl
, Anastasia
, David Bowie
's Serious Moonlight Tour DVD, and Mickey Blue Eyes
. In 1983, he toured the world with his brother George as a vocalist on David Bowie's Serious Moonlight
tour. Frank has also toured with Billy Joel
and Carly Simon
, and has sung on TV with Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Al Green, Dan Hartman, Phil Collins, and others.
and Nickelodeon
. His voice may be heard on the video games Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
. He is a National and NY Local Board member of AFTRA
, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and voice-over artist known for providing the voices behind such iconic characters as the Kool-Aid Man
Kool-Aid Man
Kool-Aid Man is the mascot for Kool-Aid, a popular drink mix. The character has appeared on television and print advertising as a fun-loving gigantic pitcher, filled with red Kool-Aid and marked with a fingerpainted smiley face...
, the Honeycomb Craver, the bug-eyed, fuzzy mascot of Honeycomb cereal, and the Geico ringtone. He is one of the founding members and songwriters of The Simms Brothers Band
The Simms Brothers Band
-Early years:The Simms Brothers Band is a rock/jazz/R&B group formed in early 1974 in southwestern Connecticut. The group began as a trio; Frank and George Simms, and Dave Spinner, composed their harmonies set to an acoustic guitar and played local coffee houses...
. He recorded the weekly theme song for TV Funhouse
TV Funhouse
Saturday TV Funhouse is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central...
on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. He's recorded with dozens of artists beginning in the seventies.
Singing
Simms provides background vocals on David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "Let's Dance
Let's Dance (David Bowie song)
"Let's Dance" is the title album track on David Bowie's album Let's Dance. It was also released as the first single from that album in 1983, and went on to become one of his biggest-selling tracks....
", "Modern Love
Modern Love (song)
"Modern Love" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie, and the first track on his album Let's Dance. It was issued as the third single from the album in 1983....
", and "China Girl
China Girl (song)
"China Girl" is a song co-written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop during their years in Berlin, first appearing on Pop's album The Idiot...
"; Billy Joel's River of Dreams
River of Dreams
River of Dreams is the 12th studio album by Billy Joel, released in 1993. This is the last pop album made by Joel, and presented a much more serious tone as a whole, dealing with issues such as trust and long-lasting love; it was rumored that the themes of trust and betrayal, particularly certain...
album, and Madonna's Material Girl
Material Girl
"Material Girl" is a song performed by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released on January 30, 1985, by Sire Records, as the second single from her second album Like a Virgin. It also appears slightly remixed on the 1990 greatest hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection, and in its...
. He has also recorded with INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
, Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
, Al Green
Al Green
Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Philip Bailey
Philip Bailey
Philip Irvin Bailey is an American R&B, soul, gospel and funk singer, songwriter, percussionist and actor, best known as one of the longtime members of Earth, Wind & Fire. Together with Verdine White, B. David Whitworth, and Ralph Johnson he forms the heart of the current EWF line-up on...
, The Fab Faux
The Fab Faux
The Fab Faux is a musical tribute band performing the works of The Beatles. The group was founded by Will Lee, bassist for Late Show with David Letterman, and features Jimmy Vivino, bandleader for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Other members include Rich Pagano, Frank Agnello, and Jack Petruzzelli...
, Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
, Chic
Chic (band)
Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Ace Frehley
Ace Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics...
, The Psychedelic Furs, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
, Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
and Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter best known in particular for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and the number-one hit "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key player in the creation of the...
among others. He sings for the Emmy winning PBS shows Dragontales
Dragontales
Dragontales was a series of gamebooks written by Rhondi A. Vilott Salsitz as "Rhondi Vilott" and published by Signet in the 1980s. The books place the reader in the role of a young man or woman in various fantasy countries inhabited by a variety of extravagant creatures...
and Between the Lions
Between the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
, and won a 2007 Emmy award with his performance of the winning song, "Q Without U" for the children's animated series, Between The Lions
Between the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
.
His voice may be heard on the films Working Girl
Working Girl
Working Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
, Anastasia
Anastasia
Anastasia is a personal name and the female form of the Greek male name Anastasius/Anastasios meaning "resurrection." The name, and its male counterpart, were often given to Greek children born around December 2 or around Easter during the early days of Christianity. It is the name of several...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's Serious Moonlight Tour DVD, and Mickey Blue Eyes
Mickey Blue Eyes
Mickey Blue Eyes is a 1999 film directed by Kelly Makin. Hugh Grant stars as Michael Felgate, an English auctioneer living in New York City who becomes entangled in his soon-to-be father in-law's mafia connections...
. In 1983, he toured the world with his brother George as a vocalist on David Bowie's Serious Moonlight
Serious Moonlight
Serious Moonlight may refer to:*Serious Moonlight ; a video album by David Bowie*Serious Moonlight ; a comedy film starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long...
tour. Frank has also toured with Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
and Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
, and has sung on TV with Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Al Green, Dan Hartman, Phil Collins, and others.
Voice acting
After much album/CD work, he began a career in voice-overs and character acting for commercials, films and TV, including spots for Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
and Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
. His voice may be heard on the video games Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and Rockstar Vienna for the Xbox & PlayStation 2 and published by Rockstar Games. The game is a direct sequel to Max Payne and is followed by Max Payne 3...
and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
. He is a National and NY Local Board member of AFTRA
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is a performers' union that represents a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, as well as radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording artists , promo and voice-over announcers and other...
, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.