Will Wheaton Junior
Encyclopedia
Will Wheaton, born Willie Mack Wheaton, Jr. (October 26 in Laurel, Mississippi
, USA) is an American
singer/songwriter and musician
. He grew up in Los Angeles, California
and is the son of Gospel singer Juanita Wheaton. He studied music in his teens and was eventually tutored by Furman Fordham, whose former students include Lena Horne
.
He became a sought-after studio background singer and has performed on projects for Natalie Cole
, Coolio
, Celine Dion
, Michael Jackson
, Willy DeVille
, Quincy Jones
, Montell Jordan
, Kenny Loggins
, Diana Ross
, Barbra Streisand
, Whitney Houston
, and Stevie Wonder
. In 1998, he did background vocals on Rod Stewart
’s When We Were the New Boys
, and played bass in his performances. He also sings in commercials, including spots for American Express
, Dr Pepper
, The Gap, Master Card, McDonald's
and Sprite
.
In 1992 he won Dick Clark’s USA Music Challenge talent contest and received an MCA
recording contract. Clark said of him, "Will Wheaton has a signature voice that puts you in the mood for romance." Although an MCA album never materialized, in 1995 he came to the attention of Grammy Award
-winning producer David Foster
who signed him to the vocal group Next Millennium. He co-wrote four songs for the project with Foster but that album was not released either.
Wheaton began to achieve major success as a songwriter in the 1990s and has composed songs for the Manhattans, Earth, Wind & Fire
, Tevin Campbell
, Will Downing
, and Iyanla Vanzant
. He also co-wrote the title hit for European superstar Anastacia
‘s Not That Kind
which sold over 10 million copies.
He has released two albums on his own Platinum Brass Records imprint: Consenting Adultz in 1999, and the critically acclaimed Old School Soul in 2005. In a nationwide promotion and marketing campaign, the latter was launched in AMC Theaters in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago
and New York
.
In 2000 Black Entertainment Television
used three of Wheaton’s songs from “Consenting Adultz” for its Midnight Blue movie of the week. He also sang bass on the soundtrack for the The Temptations
mini series. The Felicity TV series used two of his songs for their syndication update.
He toured with Japanese superstar Namie Amuro
on her Love 2000
tour and has worked on her recent albums. He was also a featured singer in Ben Stiller
’s Mystery Men
. Wheaton lives in Los Angeles. He performs often throughout Southern California
and on occasion in other areas of the country. His CDs are widely available and can be downloaded on iTunes
and elsewhere.
He is a second cousin once removed of Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Laurel, Mississippi
Laurel is a city located in Jones County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,393 although a significant population increase has been reported following Hurricane Katrina. Located in southeast Mississippi, southeast of...
, USA) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer/songwriter and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He grew up in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and is the son of Gospel singer Juanita Wheaton. He studied music in his teens and was eventually tutored by Furman Fordham, whose former students include Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
.
He became a sought-after studio background singer and has performed on projects for Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Coolio
Coolio
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. , better known by the stage name Coolio, is an American musician, rapper, actor and record producer.-Late 80s:He recorded two singles in the late 80s, titled "Watcha Gonna Do" and "You're Gonna Miss Me"...
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five year career, first with his band Mink DeVille and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles. He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Montell Jordan
Montell Jordan
Montell Jordan is a former American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. Jordan became the main solo male artist on its Def Soul imprint until leaving the label in 2003. Of his live performances it is often regarded that he is a rock oriented musician, with Jordan even going as far as to...
, Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
, Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
, and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
. In 1998, he did background vocals on Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
’s When We Were the New Boys
When We Were the New Boys
When We Were the New Boys is a studio album released by Rod Stewart on May 29, 1998 . It was Stewart's eighteenth studio album and was released on Warner Bros. Records...
, and played bass in his performances. He also sings in commercials, including spots for American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
, Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...
, The Gap, Master Card, McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
and Sprite
Sprite (soft drink)
Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...
.
In 1992 he won Dick Clark’s USA Music Challenge talent contest and received an MCA
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
recording contract. Clark said of him, "Will Wheaton has a signature voice that puts you in the mood for romance." Although an MCA album never materialized, in 1995 he came to the attention of Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning producer David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
who signed him to the vocal group Next Millennium. He co-wrote four songs for the project with Foster but that album was not released either.
Wheaton began to achieve major success as a songwriter in the 1990s and has composed songs for the Manhattans, Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...
, Tevin Campbell
Tevin Campbell
Tevin Jermod Campbell is an American R&B singer-songwriter and actor. He scored a string of R&B chart hits as a teenager in the early to mid-1990s.-Music career:...
, Will Downing
Will Downing
Will Downing , is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Downing is known in the contemporary jazz and R&B music genres for his rich baritone vocals, and his interpretations of R&B and pop classics that stretch back to the early 1980s...
, and Iyanla Vanzant
Iyanla Vanzant
Iyanla Vanzant is an inspirational speaker, New Thought spiritual teacher, author, and television personality. She is known primarily for her books, for her eponymous talk show, and for her frequent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on Oprah's Lifeclass webcasts.Vanzant was born in...
. He also co-wrote the title hit for European superstar Anastacia
Anastacia
Anastacia is an American singer-songwriter. Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Asia, South Africa and South America, but has had only minor success in her native United States...
‘s Not That Kind
Not That Kind
Not That Kind is the debut album by American recording artist Anastacia. It was released internationally in June 2000 and in the United States and Canada on March 27, 2001. The album was primarily produced by Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello, and Ric Wake, with additional production and writing from...
which sold over 10 million copies.
He has released two albums on his own Platinum Brass Records imprint: Consenting Adultz in 1999, and the critically acclaimed Old School Soul in 2005. In a nationwide promotion and marketing campaign, the latter was launched in AMC Theaters in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
In 2000 Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
used three of Wheaton’s songs from “Consenting Adultz” for its Midnight Blue movie of the week. He also sang bass on the soundtrack for the The Temptations
The Temptations (miniseries)
The Temptations is a four-hour television miniseries broadcast in two-hour halves on NBC, based upon the history of one of Motown's longest-lived acts, The Temptations...
mini series. The Felicity TV series used two of his songs for their syndication update.
He toured with Japanese superstar Namie Amuro
Namie Amuro
is a Japanese R&B and pop singer, entertainer, and former actress who at the height of her popularity was referred to as the "Teen Queen" and the title "Queen of Japanese Pop Music". Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of 14 as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey's...
on her Love 2000
LOVE 2000
"Love 2000" is Namie Amuro's 15th single on the Avex Trax label. First pressing privileges came with a bonus remix of the title track. The same remix would later be included on a vinyl single released two months after the CD version...
tour and has worked on her recent albums. He was also a featured singer in Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
’s Mystery Men
Mystery Men
Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
. Wheaton lives in Los Angeles. He performs often throughout Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and on occasion in other areas of the country. His CDs are widely available and can be downloaded on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and elsewhere.
He is a second cousin once removed of Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Discography
Projects including Will Wheaton compositions (partial list)- Not That KindNot That Kind (song)"Not That Kind" is a song by American recording artist Anastacia from her debut album, Not That Kind . Written by Anastacia, Will Wheaton, and Marvin "Young MC" Young, the song was released as the album's second single.-Music video:...
– AnastaciaAnastaciaAnastacia is an American singer-songwriter. Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Asia, South Africa and South America, but has had only minor success in her native United States...
single (album title song) - In the Name of LoveIn the Name of Love (Earth, Wind & Fire album)In the Name of Love is an album by Earth, Wind & Fire. It released in 1997 on Rhino Records and was produced by the band's leader Maurice White for Kalimba Productions. The track Love Is Life is a remake of its namesake which appeared on the band 's debut album Earth, Wind & Fire...
– Earth Wind and Fire - Somewhere In The Night (lyrics) - Manhattans, Even Now album
- Invitation Only – Will DowningWill DowningWill Downing , is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Downing is known in the contemporary jazz and R&B music genres for his rich baritone vocals, and his interpretations of R&B and pop classics that stretch back to the early 1980s...
- In The Mean Time – Iyanla Vanzant (Inspirational project)
- Consenting Adultz – Will Wheaton
- Old School Soul – Will Wheaton
- French Exit – Film score contribution
- Mystery MenMystery MenMystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
– Film (featured singer)