Jeff Foskett
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Foskett is a guitarist
and singer best known for his work with Brian Wilson
and The Beach Boys
.
Foskett originally came from San Jose, California
, where in the early-1970s his first band was a surf group named "Cherry", after the Willow Glen area street on which he lived. He attended Willow Glen High School and is listed as one of the high school's "notable alumni". Cherry played mostly surf music covers in the same market as Papa Doo Run Run
aka Papa Do Run Da Run, whom Foskett would join forces with decades later. In the late seventies, Foskett formed two renowned bands; The "Reverie Rhythm Rockers" (aka: "Reverie") and "The Pranks" in Santa Barbara, California
, gigging throughout the area with fellow area bands like "D. B. Cooper" (Foskett appears on that band's 1979 Warner Brothers debut album Buy American, singing background vocals). Although Jeff's two bands consisted of the same members: mostly Jeffrey Foskett, Randell Kirsch
and Bo Fox (with Robby Scharf sitting in), Reverie performed all 1960s cover music whereas The Pranks played only original music written by Foskett and Kirsch. They held a house residency at The Troubadore Nightclub in Hollywood every Monday night performing with such other 1970s notable bands as The Mentors
, The Cretones
, The Police
, 20/20
, The Beat, The Pop. The Pencils and The Rickys to name a very few. Other notable members of Jeff's two bands included: Art "Crying" Battson, Fred "Crying" Meckauer, Jim "Savage" Shaffer, Carter Morgan, Dr. Tim, Philip Claypool
, Dave (Younque) Humes, Sneak Van Der Snake and The Very Cool Randy J. In search of the elusive record deal The Pranks continued to perform into the early 1980s.
In late 1979, Mike Love stopped by the famous Santa Barbara restaurant "1129" where Reverie was the house band. Love came in and listened to Foskett and company and hired Reverie as the original incarnation of The Endless Summer Beach Band. The ESBB toured with Love throughout 1980 into 1981 when Jeff replaced Carl Wilson
who briefly left the Beach Boys to pursue a solo career. While Carl Wilson
toured to promote his first solo album. Foskett filled the void with his guitar work and falsetto vocals in The Beach Boys. When Carl permanently returned to the Beach Boys in May 1982, he asked Foskett to stay, which Foskett did and toured with the group for a decade until July 4, 1990, after which Jeff left for his own solo career.
To date, Foskett has released over a dozen well received solo CDs including Thru My Window, touted as "The best Beach Boys album they never recorded", The Other Takes, Sunny's Off, Twelve and Twelve a 12 song collection featuring 12 string guitars and big name guest stars such as Marshall Crenshaw
, Gerry Beckley
from America (band)
, and Robert Lamm
from Chicago (band)
and a compilation CD of his original music Stars in the Sand. Throughout his solo career, Jeff has won several awards including Top Selling Artist of the Year in New Zealand, Best New Foreign Artist in Japan and he is a member of San Jose Rocks and The Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. Jeff, along with Brian Wilson, is one of a very few artists to have performed at both Live Aid (with The Beach Boys) and Live 8 (with Brian WIlson).
Aside from the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson
, Foskett has toured and recorded (and currently works) with many other luminaries in the music industry such as Paul McCartney
, Heart
, Roger McGuinn
, Roy Orbison
, Eric Clapton
, Jeff Beck
, Jimmy Page
, Ringo Starr
, Chicago
, The Moody Blues
, The Everly Brothers
, Christopher Cross
and America to name a few. He has also been an occasional member of the surf-rock group Papa Doo Run Run
since 1993 and continues to record his original music with New Surf, LTD label mate Jeff Larson
, among others.
Along with his many solo projects, Jeff is a huge supporter of The Carl Wilson Foundation ( www.carlwilsonfoundation.org ). Foskett mainly tours and records as Musical Director for Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson
. Foskett appears as a guitarist / vocalist / (arranger) on all of Brian Wilson's solo material including the Grammy-winning 2004 version of Smile
. He can be seen (and heard) on HEART's DVD Dreamboat Annie Live concert singing back ground vocals. He also produces other artists including Harry Shearer
of Spinal Tap
and Micky Dolenz
of The Monkees
. Jeff has earned over 40 Gold and Platinum Record awards and a Grammy.
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and singer best known for his work with 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...
and The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
.
Foskett originally came from San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, where in the early-1970s his first band was a surf group named "Cherry", after the Willow Glen area street on which he lived. He attended Willow Glen High School and is listed as one of the high school's "notable alumni". Cherry played mostly surf music covers in the same market as Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run is a band from Cupertino, California, United States, that specializes in covers of songs from the heyday of surf music in the 1960s.-History:...
aka Papa Do Run Da Run, whom Foskett would join forces with decades later. In the late seventies, Foskett formed two renowned bands; The "Reverie Rhythm Rockers" (aka: "Reverie") and "The Pranks" in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, gigging throughout the area with fellow area bands like "D. B. Cooper" (Foskett appears on that band's 1979 Warner Brothers debut album Buy American, singing background vocals). Although Jeff's two bands consisted of the same members: mostly Jeffrey Foskett, Randell Kirsch
Randell Kirsch
Randell Kirsch is an American singer/songwriter and musician.Kirsch received his first guitar lesson in 1962, performed publicly for the first time in 1963 at the Fresno County Fair, won the Wolters Elementary School talent show in 1966 with his band The Scorchers with Jeff Bryon and Perry Hodge,...
and Bo Fox (with Robby Scharf sitting in), Reverie performed all 1960s cover music whereas The Pranks played only original music written by Foskett and Kirsch. They held a house residency at The Troubadore Nightclub in Hollywood every Monday night performing with such other 1970s notable bands as The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...
, The Cretones
The Cretones
The Cretones were a United States, Los Angeles-based new wave rock and power pop group in the early 1980s. Led by singer/guitarist and former Eddie Boy Band member Mark Goldenberg , the group had a strong sense of melody and a lyrical wit that placed them a cut above most of their new wave peers...
, The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, 20/20
20/20 (band)
20/20 was an American power pop band based in Hollywood, California. They were active from 1977 to 1983 and reunited during the mid 1990s to the late 1990s. Steve Allen and Ron Flynt had played together in Tulsa in 1976, and Steve decided to move to Los Angeles in 1977 after fellow Tulsa natives...
, The Beat, The Pop. The Pencils and The Rickys to name a very few. Other notable members of Jeff's two bands included: Art "Crying" Battson, Fred "Crying" Meckauer, Jim "Savage" Shaffer, Carter Morgan, Dr. Tim, Philip Claypool
Philip Claypool
Philip Claypool is an American country music artist. Between 1995 and 1999, he recorded two studio albums for the Curb Records label , in addition to charting four singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts...
, Dave (Younque) Humes, Sneak Van Der Snake and The Very Cool Randy J. In search of the elusive record deal The Pranks continued to perform into the early 1980s.
In late 1979, Mike Love stopped by the famous Santa Barbara restaurant "1129" where Reverie was the house band. Love came in and listened to Foskett and company and hired Reverie as the original incarnation of The Endless Summer Beach Band. The ESBB toured with Love throughout 1980 into 1981 when Jeff replaced Carl Wilson
Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...
who briefly left the Beach Boys to pursue a solo career. While Carl Wilson
Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...
toured to promote his first solo album. Foskett filled the void with his guitar work and falsetto vocals in The Beach Boys. When Carl permanently returned to the Beach Boys in May 1982, he asked Foskett to stay, which Foskett did and toured with the group for a decade until July 4, 1990, after which Jeff left for his own solo career.
To date, Foskett has released over a dozen well received solo CDs including Thru My Window, touted as "The best Beach Boys album they never recorded", The Other Takes, Sunny's Off, Twelve and Twelve a 12 song collection featuring 12 string guitars and big name guest stars such as Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his song "Someday, Someway".-Biography:...
, Gerry Beckley
Gerry Beckley
Gerald Linford "Gerry" Beckley is a founding member of the band America.Beckley was born to an American father, and an English mother. He began playing the piano at the age of three and the guitar a few years later. By 1962, Beckley was playing guitar in The Vanguards, an instrumental surf music...
from America (band)
America (band)
America is an English-American folk rock band that originally included members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The three members were barely out of their teens when they became a musical sensation during 1972, scoring #1 hits and winning a Grammy for best new musical artist...
, and Robert Lamm
Robert Lamm
Robert William Lamm is an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter who came to fame as a founding member of the pop rock band Chicago...
from Chicago (band)
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
and a compilation CD of his original music Stars in the Sand. Throughout his solo career, Jeff has won several awards including Top Selling Artist of the Year in New Zealand, Best New Foreign Artist in Japan and he is a member of San Jose Rocks and The Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. Jeff, along with Brian Wilson, is one of a very few artists to have performed at both Live Aid (with The Beach Boys) and Live 8 (with Brian WIlson).
Aside from the Beach Boys and 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...
, Foskett has toured and recorded (and currently works) with many other luminaries in the music industry such as Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, 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...
, Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
, The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
, The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
, Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammys. He is perhaps best known for his Top Ten hit songs, "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind", and "Arthur's Theme ", the last of which he performed for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore...
and America to name a few. He has also been an occasional member of the surf-rock group Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run is a band from Cupertino, California, United States, that specializes in covers of songs from the heyday of surf music in the 1960s.-History:...
since 1993 and continues to record his original music with New Surf, LTD label mate Jeff Larson
Jeff Larson
Jeff Larson is an American political consultant and entrepreneur who served as CEO of the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, which organized the 2008 Republican National Convention...
, among others.
Along with his many solo projects, Jeff is a huge supporter of The Carl Wilson Foundation ( www.carlwilsonfoundation.org ). Foskett mainly tours and records as Musical Director for Beach Boys founder 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...
. Foskett appears as a guitarist / vocalist / (arranger) on all of Brian Wilson's solo material including the Grammy-winning 2004 version of Smile
Smile (Brian Wilson album)
Smile, sometimes typeset with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, or referred to as Brian Wilson Presents Smile is a solo album by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Van Dyke Parks released on September 28, 2004 on CD and two-disc vinyl LP...
. He can be seen (and heard) on HEART's DVD Dreamboat Annie Live concert singing back ground vocals. He also produces other artists including Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
of Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap (band)
Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
and Micky Dolenz
Micky Dolenz
George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, Jr. is an American actor, musician, television director, radio personality and theater director, best known as a member of the 1960s made-for-television band The Monkees.-Biography:...
of The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
. Jeff has earned over 40 Gold and Platinum Record awards and a Grammy.
External links
- http://www.new-surf.com
- http://www.brianwilson.com