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All Music Guide:
Holly Knight managed to make an impact on the rock scene in the 1980s as a prolific songwriter, writing a string of songs that managed to blend muscle with melody. Rarely the recipient of critical acclaim, Knight still helped define the sound of rock radio of the time with Top Ten singles like Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield, Scandal's "The Warrior," and Tina Turner's "Better Be Good to Me." She had started out with the band Spider at the start of the decade, playing keyboards and adding background vocals to 1980's Spider, 1981's Between the Lines, and 1984's Rough Justice. The band, which included future Late Night With David Letterman drummer Anton Fig, had managed to score several small hits, even inching into the Top 40 with "New Romance (It's a Mystery)" reaching number 39 in 1980.
Following the disbanding of Spider, Knight continued to write and was involved in Heart's 1985 self-titled, comeback album, writing several songs, including the Top Ten "Never." Knight soon joined forces with lead vocalist Paul Engemann and guitarist Gene Black to form the rock trio Device. Again, the result was a minor hit with lead single "Hanging on a Heart Attack" and the parent album 22B3. It would be the only thing that they would release and Knight would continue to see other artists have more success with her songs. She issued a solo album in 1989 that made nary a ripple, but stayed a part of the musical landscape, notching songwriting hits with Tina Turner's "The Best," Aerosmith's "Rag Doll," Lou Gramm's "Just Between You and Me," and Pat Benatar's "Invincible."
Wikipedia:
Holly Knight is an American songwriter, vocalist and musician of pop and rock music.
Biography[edit]
Holly Knight is a songwriter, producer and musician, known for having written hits for some of the most successful artists in music. She was voted Best Songwriter in Rolling Stone's 11th annual poll, along with Phil Collins, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.
Born in New York City, she started playing classical piano as a young child. She soon became interested in rock music, and left home at about sixteen to pursue her dreams. Five years later, in the early 1980s, her band Spider (featuring Anton Fig of Late Show with David Letterman), managed by Bill Aucoin, who had also managed KISS and Billy Idol, among others, got a recording contract with Dreamland Records, and released two albums: Spider (self-titled; 1980) and Between the Lines (1981).
Knight had a second band called Device in the mid-1980s, who had a hit with "Hanging on a Heart Attack" off their 22B3 (1986) album. Spider and Device both had Top 40 hits, while Device was on MTV's heavy-rotation playlist for four consecutive months.
Dreamland president, songwriter and record producer Mike Chapman, urged her to leave the band and go to Los Angeles, California to pursue her songwriting career. She signed a publishing deal with his company, eventually signing to EMI Publishing.
Knight and Chapman worked together on Top 5 U.S. hit "Better Be Good to Me" (1984) by Tina Turner and Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" (1983), each of which won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She also co-wrote the highly successful song "The Best" (1989), which was a #1 single around the world for Tina Turner. On her own and in collaboration with others, Knight wrote songs with Heart, Aerosmith, Bonnie Tyler, Rod Stewart, and many more. Tina Turner has recorded nine of her tunes, including "The Best", "Better Be Good to Me", and "In Your Wildest Dreams" (1996). She also wrote the hit, "Invincible" (1985) for Pat Benatar.
Her songs have been featured in box-office smashes such as movie soundtracks Thelma & Louise (1991), Vision Quest (1985), Legend of Billie Jean (1985), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Stuart Little II (2002), 13 Going on 30 (2004), What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004), and hit TV shows such as Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), The Singing Bee (2007–), American Idol, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, 30 Rock, South Park, and the finale episode of The Voice 2011 finale in, wherein Cee Lo Green performed a duet of "Love Is a Battlefield" with one of the final contestants.
Knight wrote the theme song for the popular Joss Whedon television show Angel (1999–2004), performed by Darling Violetta. She also wrote and produced the title theme for the sitcom Still Standing (2002–2006), which received the ASCAP award for recognition as one of the top TV music themes of 2003, as well as the same award again in 2004.
In recent years Holly has been continuing to pursue a career as a record producer. In 2009 she produced a jazz EP called Natural for Antonia Bennett, daughter of Tony Bennett, and in 2011, a pop record of original songs for her as well, entitled Ordinary Girl. In addition, she produced a new jazz record for Antonia Bennett of songs from the Great American Songbook in 2012. She has also produced tracks for Otep, Fefe Dobson, and the Australian band, Porcelain.
Although primarily known for her songwriting, and membership in other bands, Knight also released a self-titled solo album in 1988. This album featured her own rendition of the song she co-wrote, "Love is a Battlefield", as well as the single "Heart Don't Fail Me Now", which featured background vocals from Daryl Hall. Another song from this album, "Howling at the Moon", was recently sampled by the band Scooter for a remix of the tune.
Interscope artist, Zander Bleck will be releasing his debut album with four songs, co-written with Knight, starting with first single, "Temptation".
Family[edit]
She currently resides with her two sons in Los Angeles, California.