Philadelphia raised songwriter who is a self-taught piano player and graduate of Temple University. In his teens, he did session work for the likes of Teddy Pendergrass, The Spinners, and The Stylistics.
After college, he and his wife moved to L.A. and he had a hit with his first professional composition, “Mirror Mirror”, a song he co-wrote with Michael Sembello. They recorded it as part of a demo for Sembello, but when RCA heard it they were so enamoured of the song, Diana Ross wound up taking it to No.8 on the Billboard chart and the top five on the R&B chart. Shortly thereafter, another Matkosky-Sembello collaboration would reach No.1, this time with Sembello on vocals.
“Maniac”, which Matkosky started writing while he was watching the news on TV about a particularly brutal murder, started out as a joke song between him and Sembello. Phil Ramone actually liked the song and wanted to use it in the film Flashdance, with different lyrics, of course. The soundtrack sold over twenty million copies and won a Grammy award for Best Soundtrack Album.
It is hard to imagine this same fellow is also responsible for some of the biggest country and western hits of the last thirteen years. Matkosky emigrated to Nashville and 1994 and began a lucrative partnership with singer-songwriter LeAnn Rimes, exemplified by the mega-smash “I Need You”, which spent a record 111 weeks on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart and earned him awards from ASCAP in both the country and pop categories.
Other successes include Smokey Robinson’s “We’ve Saved the Best for Last” and Boz Scaggs’ “Heart of Mine”, both of which hit No. 1 on the AC chart, and Keith Urban’s No.1 country and western hit, “You’ll Think Of Me”.
Matkosky is chameleon-like in his seeming effortlessness to write, and succeed, in different genres. His songs have topped the Christian Contemporary charts eleven times, and he has also cracked the top ten of Billboard’s Gospel and Jazz charts. His works have been covered by such variegated artists as George Benson, Sara Brightman, Stanley Clarke, Sheena Easton, James Ingram, Al Jarreau, Kenny G, Kool & The Gang, Sergio Mendes, and Cliff Richard. Dennis Matkosky may not be a household name, but with over fifty million records sold, chances are his name can be found somewhere in your household.
Diana Ross recordings
Mirror, Mirror (Dennis Matkosky/Michael Sembello)
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