By Eric Snider; cross-posted from The Daily Loaf:
You probably don’t know the name Dennis Lambert, but you know the man’s work. During most of the ’70s and into the ’80s, he was part of a songwriting/producing tandem that routinely spun out chart-topping singles.
The tunes cut a broad stylistic swath: Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds’ “Don’t Pull Your Love,” Player’s “Baby Come Back,” The Commodores’ “Night Shift,” The Four Tops’ “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got),” Starship’s “We Built This City,” to name a few.
After watching his stock in the music biz fall in the ’90s, Lambert retreated from New York to Boca Raton, where he built a successful career in real estate.
He’s the subject of a documentary, Of All the Things — lovingly directed by his son Jody Lambert — that’s showing at the Gasparilla Film Festival.
The film follows Dennis Lambert’s return to a country where he enjoyed his only real success as a solo artist: The Philippines. His 1972 album Bags and Things turned out to be a monster hit in that island country; the love ballad “Of All the Things” is still adored by the citizenry, and has become something of a wedding anthem. To read the rest, click here.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2009.