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Book Reviews
21-Hit Wonder
By: Sam Hollander - Matt Holt / BenBella Books, $23.84

Description: Rising up the charts seemed, at many points in Sam Hollander�s career, highly unlikely. This is his story of failing his way to the top.

As one of the most renowned, multi-platinum songwriters and producers in the game, Sam Hollander has written and produced for the likes of Panic! At The Disco, One Direction, Katy Perry, Ringo Starr, Def Leppard, Carole King, Weezer, blink-182, Jewel, Train, Fitz and the Tantrums, Billy Idol, Tom Morello, and many others.

But before he was stacking Billboard hits, Hollander was piling up calamitous flops, false starts, and feeling like the world was moving on and up without him while he spun in place.

Today he wears that decade of misses like a badge of honor.

Verdict: In 21-Hit Wonder, Sam Hollander has collected anecdotes from his wild music industry roller coaster ride to help aspiring songwriters and other creatives learn about survival, endurance, scheming, hustle, and the importance of laughing even on the worst days of the journey.

Stand outs to me, personally, and on a left of center start, include the time Hollander was babysat by none other than Andy Warhol, his short, but wholly enthralling tale of the time he worked with Jason Mraz, his experience with NYC band The Virgins, moments spent on Pat Monahan�s solo project, and amongst others, another short, but entertaining chapter entitled I Write the Songs that Make the Whole World Sleep; which was all centered around the music industry titan, Clive Davis.

Trust me when I say that music lovers spanning generations and genres will find stories about many of their heroes and industry icons, for 21-Hit Wonder is one part chronicle of a songwriter�s storied career and another part love letter to anyone who has been counted out.

Take, for example, the story of a band called Desoto, which had been stumbled upon when refreshing a bookmarked Pure Volume page over and over back in late 2006, and how the lead singer, and his beastly ginger-red hair, made him resemble that evil syndrome kid from The Incredibles movie.

Hollander and his team clicked some listening buttons, liked what they heard, and although the band wasn�t at its musical best, the singer definitely had promise, so Hollander reached out and got a positive reply back within the hour!

With the promise of coming to NYC and having Hollander and his team write a couple of songs for them, they got into their crumbling sprinter van and drove from Orlando to NYC right there and then!

Once all together, the team set to writing a whole host of tunes for the band, but quickly realized that the guys� current band name, Desotos, was linked to 135 other so-named bands on MySpace alone. But after many of their own suggestions failed to land, the band themselves decided they had their own new band name: Check Yes, Juliet!

Still continuing to write for what they still maintained was an unnamed band, with the songs written, everyone behind the scenes happy, they then told the guys that they should be named We the Kings (adding that it was a record-deal-worthy tag from the jump).

The band was signed to the brand new S-Curve Records, but come the final hour, Hollander and his team realized they just didn�t have a Great Escape. Luckily, that was remedied by Hollander when he went to get his morning coffee and in the drizzly, raw air, started to unconsciously scat words to their laid down melody, rushing back to the studio, coffee spilling, just to tell everyone he finally had the Great Escape; which led to the song being titled Check Yes, Juliet instead.

But things changed drastically, and publicly for the worse, for as Hollander went down to Florida to witness We the Kings� first live show, he reached out to his old friend Aaron Accetta (the salaried in-house producer for Lou Pearlman) to aid in the molding of these not-so-ready-for-prime-time kids into something viable; but the dark cloud had already begun to settle above them all!

When Hollander arrived to see Accetta at his studio/office, there ominous black vans surrounding it, which turned out to be FBI, as it turned out Pearlman (as we all now know) had fled the country, owing millions to artists, investors, staff and government alike!

That very same night, Hollander still managed to catch We the Kings live, and once that song Check Yes, Juliet was played, the audience went wild, meaning Hollander knew it was a smash. Flooding the radio stations, the song blew up, also becoming one of Hollander�s personal favorites.

In conclusion, from no-hit wonders and one-hit wonders to the novelties and the never-been�s, and just needs a bit of inspiration to persevere, Sam Hollander�s inspiring story is proof that setbacks are just steps on the road to success.

About the Author - As one of the most renowned songwriters and producers in the game, Sam Hollander has had multi-platinum success writing and producing for the likes of Panic! At The Disco, Fitz and the Tantrums, Weezer, Katy Perry, Train, One Direction, Daughtry, Pentatonix, and Gym Class Heroes, amongst many others.

To date, he has achieved 22 US Top 40 Hits, as well as 10 Number 1�s, 10 top fives, and 87 Top 10 chart positions globally.

His songs have been streamed over 5 billion times, and in 2019, he held the #1 position on the Billboard Rock Songwriters chart for nine weeks, a year-end record. Sam has also been chosen to be on Variety�s Hitmaker�s list, as well as being named Rolling Stone�s Hot List Producer of the Year in 2008.

� Hollander�s career has recently hit new heights from collaborations with Fitz and the Tantrums� multi-platinum worldwide hit, HandClap (one-billion-streams) and eight songs he co-penned on Panic! At The Disco�s Billboard 200 No. 1 album Pray For The Wicked, including the 5x platinum, billion streamed record-breaking global hit High Hopes and Hey Look Ma, I Made It! which replaced High Hopes at No. 1 on the Hot Rock Songs chart.

Other notable recent successes include writing Banners� platinum hit, Someone To You, Blink-182�s Alternative Top 10 single Blame It On My Youth, James TW�s worldwide platinum hit When You Love Someone and writing and producing two songs on the legendary Ringo Starr�s recent release What�s My Name.�He�s currently writing and producing the music for NBC�S fall 2021 new drama series Ordinary Joe.

Amazon Book Purchase Link

www.Jbenbellabooks.com





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