Paul Leka, songwriter/producer - a few memories

Paul passed away on October 12, 2011. Denise and I had spent hundreds of hours with him working on music, talking on the phone, or simply having dinner since meeting him back in 1997. I had sold Paul some recording gear and we immediately hit it off and became friends. Once he heard Denise's voice he wanted to sign her to record deal.
Paul and I split up a couple years later and I went on to produce Denise myself. He contacted us again right after 9/11/2001 to ask Denise to sing The Spirit Of America (written by Michael Brown). He was very excited about this project and hired a complete staff of people. He also pressed 50,000 CDs.

We could only find a few video clips and pictures to share. For those of you that knew him, I'm sure you will enjoy these. These clips are from my house and at his Music Mansion. Paul was my mentor and a very special person. We are deeply saddened to hear of his passing.

I will list below just a few of his many accomplishments. But first I want to say that Paul was a very hard working, caring and loving person. He inspired people around him and affected many people's lives. He taught many people how to believe in their dreams and for one of my birthdays he gave me that book "The Best of Success" complied my Wynn Davis. He was always giving my books to read like The Craft of Lyric Writing by Sheila Davis, All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald Passman and many more. He taught me a lot about making hit records and how to listen to a song. And of course he had a ton of stories to tell!

Paul had written and produced many hit records. His first #1 hit he co-wrote and produced was Green Tambourine and he told me once about the feeling he had walking down Madison Ave knowing his song was #1 and that no one could ever take that away. Of course he had already paid a lot of dues and had an incredible work ethic since he came from an immigrant family. He went on to discover Harry Chapin whom he later produced Cat's In The Cradle, and REO Speedwagon, Gloria Gaynor and many, many more. He told me the story about Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Good Bye, which most people know as a sporting event song. That song was just the B side of a 45 record. When they couldn't think of any words for the chorus they just chanted Na Na, Hey Hey, etc. To his surprise it became a hit.




Thank you Paul,

Tony Walstra

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Paul Leka
• Tony Walstra
• Denise Levasseur

[70HAFE]

Paul Leka Made in Albanian

[ignitzby]

god bless paul leka what a great man-