Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Benny Hester is a music artist and songwriter. He is best known for his songs "When God Ran" and "Nobody Knows Me Like You" and for producing the groundbreaking "tween/teen" music driven, sketch comedy and dance television series Roundhouse on Nickelodeon. Hester also received a television Cable Ace Award for the song "I Can Dream" and a collection of nominations for writing and producing a featured original song for each weekly episode of Roundhouse during its successful four year run. He has written and recorded more than twenty-five No. 1 and top ten songs.
"When God Ran" is the longest-running number one song in Contemporary Christian Music history.
The title track from his third album, “Nobody Knows Me Like You”, reached number one on Christian Music Charts and became the first CCM song to break the Billboard Top 50 Adult Contemporary Chart, debuting at number 44 on November 7, 1981.
Hester's first CCM single, "Jesus Came Into My Life", was a breakthrough recording, becoming the first contemporary rock song to be universally accepted and widely played across all Christian Radio formats.
Biography
Born in Waco, Texas, Hester began studying classical music at age four and continued his studies through high school with European teachers and musical innovators John and Martha Reuther. He was among the first to master John Reuther’s futuristic chromatic “checkerboard” designed keyboard and one of a handful of musicians to become expert on the instrument, playing public performances to demonstrate its attributes over the standard keyboard.
Hester auditioned and was chosen to sing with “The Texas Boys Choir”.
He became the youngest member of the Texas Swing Band “Sam Weaver and The Texas Playboys”, and appeared on the band’s weekly television show playing alongside guest music legends including Johnny Gimble and Ernest Tubb.
While in high school, Hester was one of the founding members of the popular pop-rock band “The Morticians”. He wrote songs for the group and included them in sets for the band’s sizable revved up audiences. Headed now by original band member Joe Hall, “The Morticians” continue to play concerts regularly - http://themorticians.com
Hester was hired to play in the live stage band and orchestra for the long running musical “Texas” and continued with the show for two years. While performing in “Texas” he founded the singing duo “Hester & Hilton” with partner Steve Hilton. “Hester & Hilton” performed their own songs along with stylized takes on songs by their favorite artists. While playing El Paso, Hester was asked to write two songs for a recording session by the group “The Sojourners”. It turned out to be his first professional recording session as a songwriter. The two songs were produced and engineered by Norman Petty and recorded at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico, where Hester had the opportunity to work with the legendary Petty and record in his hit studio. Hester and his older brother, a music fan with a ten-year head start on him, grew up singing and listening to Buddy Holly songs. Norman Petty produced and recorded those songs. Hester coincidentally attended Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX, home to Petty and birthplace of Holly.
Las Vegas
Hester moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he met music producer and recording engineer Brent Maher. He taught music at a private music school, recorded “Hester & Hilton” demos at Bill Porter's United Recording Studios, and later formed a successful jingle advertising company, MusAd, which dominated the Las Vegas radio and television market for ten years. He penned the song for Hickory Farms Of Ohio and Nevada’s largest newspaper, The Las Vegas Review Journal, with the slogan “The RJ is Las Vegas” appearing on billboards and ads still. Together Hester and Maher wrote and produced commercial songs for many Las Vegas hotels and banks, Nevada's largest home builders, trendy clothing manufacturers and outlets and notably, at the request of coach Jerry Tarkanian, the original University Of Nevada Las Vegas fight song and school song for the UNLV “Runnin’ Rebels” basketball team. Maher went on to produce Hester's first two albums, the self titled, Benny..., and his first CCM album for Billy Ray Hearn's Sparrow Records. Hester first became a Christian while attending an evangelical rally at a traveling tent crusade called Christ is the Answer. He later attended a local church called The Neighborhood Church.
Maher and Bill Porter, Elvis Presley’s recording and sound engineer, brought Elvis’s band to record with Hester for his first album. The band included Ronnie Tutt, James Burton, Glenn Hardin and Jerry Scheff, as well as Larry Muhoberac and Joe Osborn.
The finished masters and packaged albums, ready for record company distribution, were lost in the studio-warehouse fire that destroyed United Recording. Hester's first album was never released. Only a few albums survived the fire, ending up in the hands of collectors.
Albums & Concerts
Hester has since released a string of hit albums and chart topping songs, and has performed thousands of concerts. His recording of “When God Ran” is the longest-running number one song in Contemporary Christian Music history, number one for thirteen weeks, at which time the song held the number one spot on the AC and CHR Charts. Simultaneously Hester's recording of "Secret Thoughts" made its way to the number one slot on the ROCK Charts, causing him to sweep the top spot on all three. "When God Ran" continues to be rerecorded by many groups and in many musical genres, including AC, Pop/Rock, Alt Rock, and Southern Gospel, making it to the top of the charts repeatedly. The latest version by The Kingsmen took the No. 1 spot on the Southern Gospel Charts in February 2009. Also, for the 2009 Fan Awards Nominations... Favorite Song - "When God Ran"... Favorite Album - "When God Ran".
"Roundhouse" Television Series on Nickelodeon
From 1992 to 1996 Hester was the Music Producer/Musical Director, Songwriter and Co-Executive producer of the award winning Nickelodeon/MTV Networks television series Roundhouse. He was nominated for seven songwriting and music producer awards, winning for “I Can Dream” (Cable Ace Award) and “Can’t Let Go” (Hollywood Foreign Press Youth In Film Award) in the best “Original Song” for television categories. He also received three Television Cable Ace Award nominations for best “Variety Special Or Series” as Co-Executive Producer of Roundhouse.
The twelve member "triple threat" cast of Roundhouse received "Outstanding Ensemble Cast In A Youth Series Or Variety Show" as awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Youth In Film Awards.
Hester is the recipient of the prestigious “Ollie Award” for “Excellence In Television Programming For America’s Children”, presented by The Museum Of Broadcast Communications.
Benny Hester and record producer Howard Benson prepared the first Roundhouse Cast album for release on Irving Azoff's Giant Records (Warner Music Group). The Irving Azoff/Giant Records album masters contained six Roundhouse Cable Ace nominated tunes, including the Hester/Sheffield penned Cable Ace winner "I Can Dream". Nickelodeon exercised its 50% approval right by blocking the first of four Roundhouse cast albums, which included five solo artist spinoff options. Simultaneously Nickelodeon withheld approval of the use of the cable channels name in association with the 30 city Roundhouse concert tour by Pace Entertainment Corporation's Pace Theatrical, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment. The Disney Channel, under the leadership of former Nickelodeon employees, recognized the missed opportunity and jumped ahead of Nickelodeon in music driven television for the "tween/teen" market, eventually surpassing them in viewer ratings.
1992-2008 "TV - The New Radio For Record Companies"
After a pitch to the Disney Channel by 'Roundhouse' producers in 2001 of the show ‘Rock and Roland’, in which a junior high boy was a "normal kid by day, rock star by night” (gender option given during the pitch), and after providing additional written scenes and a plan for marketing the music from the show through Disney's Hollywood Records, the Disney Channel’s Rich Ross publicly took credit for the success of Disney’s gender-reversed multibillion dollar franchise ‘Hannah Montana’, as did the channel’s Adam Bonnett. Ross and Bonnett were both former Nickelodeon executives who worked with, among others, the award-winning 'Roundhouse' and its newly aquired 6-14 demo, airing in Nickelodeon’s first prime time block, SNICK. SNICK was later revamped as TEENick to target the newly found 'tween/teen' audience. Ross was Nickelodeon Talent Booker turned VP Of Program Enterprises, involved in all Nickelodeon original programming deals and, Bonnett, Production Coordinator becoming Director Of Current Programming for Nickelodeon.
Ross and Bonnett were subsequently promoted at Disney, along with others from the Disney Channel, and credited for Hannah Montana’s broad reaching success across TV, music and live tours, the model first proposed and put into motion by 'Roundhouse' producers at Nickelodeon, but blocked by the network during the time Ross and Bonnett were there. That decision turned out to be shortsighted by Nickelodeon and when proposed again to the then underutilized Disney Channel as a tie-in to the underperforming Hollywood Records (Disney Music Group), the concept proved inherently valuable enough that, as the complaint filed against Disney in 2007 in Los Angeles claimed, ‘Rock and Roland’ was misappropriated by Disney and produced under the name ‘Hannah Montana'. For their key roles in bringing 'Hannah Montana' to Disney, Rich Ross was elevated from the Disney Channel to Chairman of Walt Disney Studios (Oct 2009, forced to resign April 2012) and Adam Bonnett upped to Senior Vice President, Original Programming, Disney Channel.
The Walt Disney Company and Disney ABC Cable Networks Group agreed to settle the legal claim regarding ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Rock and Roland’ less than four weeks before the jury trial was to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 26, 2008.
