Teddy Randazzo

In the teen idol era, Randazzo hit the charts with Little Serenade, The Way Of A Clown and Big Wild World. Subsequent releases like You Dont Need A Heart would find belated favour among soul fans.

Randazzo also had starring roles in such rock films as Hey, Lets Twist, The Girl Cant Help It, Mr. Rock and Roll and Rock, Rock, Rock.

It was as a songwriter and producer, most notably for Little Anthony and the Imperials, that Teddy Randazzo excelled. His 800+ registered compositions consisted mainly of collaborations with lyricists Bobby Weinstein, Bobby Hart, Lou Stallman, Victoria Pike, and Roger Joyce. With Weinstein, he wrote a string of major hits for Little Anthony, including Goin Out Of My Head and Hurt So Bad. When the Lettermen combined those two songs in a medley, they became pop classics, recorded by a gamut of industry giants, from Frank Sinatra to Dionne Warwick. According to BMI, Goin Out Of My Head accumulated more than 6 million radio plays, whilst Hurt So Bad which also lists Hart as a co-writer, received in excess of 4 million. Randazzo and Weinsteins Its Gonna Take A Miracle (co-written with Stallman), originally recorded by the Royalettes, was also successful for Laura Nyro and Deniece Williams. He also ran his own labels, Satin and Buttercup. According to Weinstein, he and Randazzo were in the process of writing a song called I Never Got The Chance To Say Goodbye at the time of his death. Randazzo is survived by his wife Shelly, 4 sons and 3 daughters. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.