Clayton, Steve

Singer-songwriter who collaborated frequently with Candy Anderson in the 1960s and ’70s on such children’s fare as Lullaby and Goodnight, The Farmer in the Dell & Other Happy Songs, and Gilbert & Sullivan for Children. He also recorded the theme song for Palisades Park in New Jersey, written by park owner Irving Rosenthal’s wife, Gladys Shelley, which aired on radio and television throughout the 1960s.

Steve continued to plumb the children’s market with Gail Contini with 1974’s Learning About Me & The Way I Move and It’s About Time, released in 1975. Three years later, he was a member of the chorus on the soundtrack of The Wiz, the film version of a play he had sung in on Broadway. You can also hear him on the oxymorically titled musical theatre compilation, Broadway First Take, Vol. 2.

In 1979, he was one of the featured artists on the children’s album The Safari, along with Mary Sue Berry and Rosemary Jun, who also appeared with him on Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy. Sinatra and Peggy Lee each recorded a version of “All I Want”, co-penned by Steve and the aforementioned Gladys Shelley.

Other film work followed in the ’80s when he had a chance to sing the cleverly penned songs “Leonard the Lizard” and “You May Be Six People (But I Love You)” for Woody Allen’s film Zelig. He ended the decade by appearing as a background vocalist on the Judy Collins album, Running for My Life.

In the 1990s, he sang “1939” and “Typical of You” with The Lew Anderson Big Band on their album Fired Up and released a pair of solo CDs, At His Very Best and Love is Said in Many Ways.

Frank Sinatra recordings
That’s What God Looks Like To Me (Stan Irvin/Lan O’Kun)
Reprise RPS 49233 (XNY2101S) (US 45)

Theme from “New York, New York” (Fred Ebb/John Kander)
Reprise RPS49233 (XNY 2103 S) (US 45)

Here he is singing his co-written Palisades Park theme song..

Sources:

Clayton, Steve

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