Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Stephen Schwartz
All Music Guide:
A dynamic pop trio, Parachute Express was the first children's group to get real exposure through a non-broadcast medium. The group's original songs and upbeat tempos set the stage for the Gymboree preschool classes, and made Donny Becker, Janice Hubbard, and Stephen Michael Schwartz very well-known long before they began marketing their songs.
Donny Becker graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz and became a co-director of a Montessori school there. He and his wife, Adrian, became owners of a Gymboree franchise and began building that business. But Becker found that the Gymboree preschool gym classes lacked an important element -- music. With his close friends Stephen Michael Schwartz and Janice Hubbard, Becker formed Parachute Express. The group's music became an essential part of every Gymboree class in the nation.
Parachute Express began marketing their music through the Gymboree classes and, later, through the Gymboree retail outlets. Their first release, Feel the Music, was snapped up, as were several that followed. The group was named one of 1990's "Superstars of Children's Music."
In 1991, Parachute Express signed on as featured artists in Walt Disney Records' ill-fated "Music Box Series." The group produced Happy to Be Here and began touring across the country. Their song "Polka Dots, Checks, and Stripes" was made into a highly successful short video, and garnered a coveted spot on Nickelodeon's Nick Junior Rocks.
In 1995, Parachute Express formed their own record company, and returned to their primary form of marketing on the Gymboree retail shelves. They released Who's Got a Hug, filled with original, active songs such as "Too Happy to Sit" and "Jump in the Middle." In a span of a few short years, Gymboree catered to an entirely new preschool audience, and Parachute Express gained a new audience as well.
Wikipedia:
Parachute Express is a group of three California-based entertainers who perform, write and produce music for comedy. Band members are Stephen Michael Schwartz, Janice Hubbard and Donny Becker. Parachute Express gained national prominence as recording artists for Gymboree Play & Music, Walt Disney Records, and Trio Lane Records. They sing the theme song to the popular television series Jay Jay The Jet Plane and have been seen on TV shows Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. Rocks and Disney's Kaleidoscope Concerts. Their music is featured in over 550 Gymboree franchises throughout the world, as well as in preschools, daycare centers and diverse informal education programs.
Parachute Express created a total of twelve albums to date, selling over half a million units (figure for 2004). In the early 1990s Parachute Express recorded for Walt Disney Records under the Music Box Artist Series. Since 1998 the trio has its own label, Trio Lane Records. Many of their albums have won national awards including NAPPA awards, the Film Advisory Board Award, an Indie Award, a Toy of The Year Award, and several times the Parents' Choice Gold Award.
Their video Come Sing With Us! won the Parents Choice Video Award and an International Monitor Award. They have been voted "Best Group" by the American Academy of Children's Entertainment. Their long list of honors further includes featured performers at the 42nd and 43rd Presidential Inaugural Festivities, performing their "poetic anthem" We The Children. This song was included in the Presidential library by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. They performed half a dozen times at the Annual Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn of the White House and continue to perform to date. In 2010 (and now in 2011) Parachute Express toured China, performing in Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
