Van Dyke Parks
Encyclopedia
Van Dyke Parks is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

, producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, singer, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile.

Parks has worked with such notable performers as Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...

, Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Bramlett's five decade career reached peaks in creativity, performance, and notoriety in partnership with his then wife Bonnie Bramlett, in a revolving troupe of professional musicians and Rock superstars dubbed Delaney...

, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

, Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...

, Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

, Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...

, Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...

, Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...

, Inara George
Inara George
Inara Maryland George is a Los Angeles, California-based singer-songwriter, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark...

, Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...

 and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

.

In addition to producing, Parks has released six studio albums of his own recordings: Song Cycle
Song Cycle (album)
Song Cycle is a 1967 album by Van Dyke Parks that encompasses a number of genres, including psychedelic, folk, baroque, and experimental rock and pop. The release was Parks' debut album, and was produced by future Dreamworks Records co-founder Lenny Waronker.The album's material explores...

, Discover America
Discover America (album)
Discover America is a 1972 album by Van Dyke Parks released by Warner Bros., featuring Parks' take on Calypso music. Though only his sophomore release, it was considered a major departure from his debut record, 1968's psychedelic and folk-inspired Song Cycle...

, Clang of the Yankee Reaper
Clang of the Yankee Reaper
Clang of the Yankee Reaper is a 1975 album by Van Dyke Parks, containing only one original Parks composition. It continues his exploration of Calypso music started in the previous album Discover America...

, Jump!, Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose (album)
Tokyo Rose is a 1989 album by American musician Van Dyke Parks. The album concerns the intersection between Japanese and American cultures, particularly as reflected in the competitive "Trade War" of the 1980s...

, and with Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

, Orange Crate Art
Orange Crate Art
Orange Crate Art is a 1995 album by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks released on Warner Bros. Records, where Parks has been contracted since 1967....

.

Early career

Born in 1943 in Hattiesburg
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...

, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 and reared in Lake Charles
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...

, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, Parks attended the American Boychoir School
American Boychoir School
The American Boychoir School is a music boarding school located in Princeton, New Jersey. It is one of only two boychoir boarding schools in the United States, the other being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City...

 '57 in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

. He began his career as a child actor. Between 1953 and 1958 he worked steadily in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, including the 1956 movie The Swan
The Swan (film)
The Swan is a 1956 remake by MGM of a 1925 Paramount film with the same title. . The film is a romantic comedy directed by Charles Vidor, produced by Dore Schary from a screenplay by John Dighton based on the play by Ferenc Molnár...

(which starred Grace Kelly). He appeared as Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza was an Italian basso opera singer with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas...

's son Andrew Bonino on the NBC television show Bonino
Bonino (TV series)
Bonino is an ethnic situation comedy television series starring Ezio Pinza as an Italian-American opera singer trying to rear his six children after the death of their mother. The program aired on NBC from September 12 to December 26, 1953....

. One of his costars on Bonino was 14-year-old Chet Allen, who appeared as Jerry Bonino. Parks and Allen were roommates at the Boychoir School. Parks also had a recurring role as Little Tommy Manacotti (the kid from upstairs) on Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...

's The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...

.

Parks originally studied the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, but had moved to the piano before enrolling (majoring in music) at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, where he studied from 1960 to 1963. In January 1963 Parks learned to play the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and soon relocated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 to play with his older brother Carson Parks
Carson Parks
Clarence Carson Parks II , often known as C. Carson Parks, was an American songwriter, music publisher, musician and singer, best known for writing the hit song "Somethin' Stupid".-Early life and career:...

 (writer of "Somethin' Stupid
Somethin' Stupid
"Somethin' Stupid" is a song written by C. Carson Parks and originally recorded in 1966 by Parks and his wife Gaile Foote, as "Carson and Gaile". It is best known in the hit version by Frank Sinatra and his daughter, Nancy Sinatra....

") as The Steeltown Two (later enlarged to the Steeltown Three), which eventually became the folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 group The Greenwood County Singers (Parks took a short hiatus from this group, moving to New England to be part of The Brandywine Singers).

By 1964, Parks had an artist contract at MGM Records
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...

. In 1966 he was persuaded by producer Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is a record producer for Warner Bros. Records.-Career:He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, ...

 to switch to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

. During this time he worked frequently as a session musician, arranger and songwriter. Parks met Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 through Terry Melcher
Terry Melcher
Terrence P. Melcher was an American musician and record producer, who was instrumental in shaping the sound of American West Coast rock music. His greatest contribution to the culture of the time was producing The Byrds' innovative hits "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and his...

 (who was then producing The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

). During 1966, Parks performed on The Byrds album Fifth Dimension
Fifth Dimension (album)
Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...

(David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...

 had once asked Parks to consider forming a group prior to the formation of the Byrds, but Parks refused) as well as on the ill fated Beach Boys project Smile. Also during this period, Parks' compositions, such as the hit "High Coin" for Harpers Bizarre
Harpers Bizarre
Harpers Bizarre was an American pop-rock band of the 1960s, best known for their Broadway/Sunshine Pop sound and their remake of Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song ."- Career :...

, were becoming known for their lyrical wordplay and sharp imagery.

In 1965 Van Dyke shortly joined Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

's The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...

 on stage, where he was referred to as 'Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...

'.

Smile

In February 1966, Parks became acquainted socially with Brian Wilson. In his 1991 autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice, Wilson his first impressions of Parks being "a skinny kid with a unique perspective", and that he "had a fondness for amphetamines" at the time. Unsatisfied with Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...

collaborator Tony Asher
Tony Asher
Tony Asher is an American lyricist who co-wrote much of The Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds in conjunction with front man Brian Wilson, including such classic songs as "God Only Knows" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...

's lyrics for "Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations
"Good Vibrations" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. Composed and produced by Brian Wilson, the song's lyrics were written by Wilson and Mike Love....

", Wilson first asked Parks to help him re-write the lyrics to the song; Parks refused, stating, "No sense walking into someone else's problem."

However, Brian Wilson soon convinced Parks to write lyrics for the Beach Boys' next LP, the ambitious but ill-fated Smile
Smile (The Beach Boys album)
Smile is a previously unreleased album by The Beach Boys recorded throughout 1966 and 1967. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow-up to Pet Sounds, but was never completed in its original form...

. In preparation for the writing and recording of the album, Wilson purchased several thousand dollars worth of marijuana and hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...

, and also joined Parks in popping "fistfuls of Desputols (amphetamines)". Several members of the Beach Boys strongly opposed Smile, notably Wilson's former collaborator Mike Love
Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...

, who derided Parks' lyrics as "Acid Alliteration".

The bitter resistance from the group and their record company had a strong negative effect on Wilson's increasingly fragile mental state (which may also have been exacerbated by drug use). Following a December 1966 recording session in which he was involved in a heated argument with Mike Love (who vehemently criticized his lyrics for the song "Cabinessence
Cabinessence
"Cabin Essence" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1969 album 20/20...

") Parks' involvement in Smile effectively ceased and he officially withdrew from the project in early 1967. Recording sessions ground to a halt soon after, as Wilson became increasingly withdrawn, and the album was shelved a few months later.

Several complete Wilson/Parks songs and other musical fragments written for Smile subsequently appeared on the Beach Boys' 'replacement' album Smiley Smile
Smiley Smile
Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by The Beach Boys, issued in 1967. Released in the place of the much-touted Smile, Smiley Smile is widely considered to be under-produced, and it was received with indifference and confusion upon its unveiling...

, including "Heroes and Villains
Heroes and Villains
"Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band The Beach Boys, co-written by the group's leader Brian Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended by Wilson to be the centerpiece of the ambitious but shelved album Smile, a re-recorded version of the song was released on Smiley...

" and "Wind Chimes", although most were re-recorded in drastically scaled-down arrangements. Two other key songs written and recorded for Smile -- "Cabinessence
Cabinessence
"Cabin Essence" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1969 album 20/20...

" and "Surf's Up
Surf's Up (song)
"Surf's Up" is the title of a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. The song was intended as one of the centrepieces for the aborted Beach Boys' album Smile, which was begun in late 1966 but shelved in mid-1967. It was reworked and used as the title track for the twenty-second official...

" -- were compiled by Carl Wilson
Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...

 and included on the 20/20
20/20 (The Beach Boys album)
20/20 is the sole 1969 album release by The Beach Boys, and their last studio album to be released with Capitol Records for the next seventeen years.-Recording:...

 and
Surf's Up LPs in more or less the same form as Wilson had intended them for Smile, while the song "Cool Cool Water" (an extended track built around the Smile fragment "I love to say Dada") later appeared on the Sunflower
Sunflower (album)
Sunflower is the sixteenth studio album by American rock group The Beach Boys, their first on Reprise Records. The album achieved number 151 on the US albums chart during a four week stay, becoming the lowest charting Beach Boys album until 1978's M.I.U. Album equalled it. It reached #29 in the...

album.

Smile acquired legendary status as one of the great lost works of Sixties pop, and although fragments were subsequently issued in various forms over the years, the form and exact content of the work as Wilson and Parks had conceived it remained hotly debated. Public interest in Smile was greatly revived by the release of a significant cache of recordings from the original Smile sessions on the Beach Boys 30th anniversary boxed set in 1993.

In 2004, following the great success of his acclaimed live performances of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...

album, and with the support of his band's musical director Darian Sahanaja
Darian Sahanaja
Darian Sahanaja is a singer, songwriter, and is currently playing in the Brian Wilson band with The Wondermints. He has also collaborated with numerous other artists in the genre of orchestral/underground pop, including Baby Lemonade, Wonderboy, Aimee Mann, Now People, Lisa Mychols and Donna Summer...

, Wilson made the surprise announcement that he was going to finish the mythical record using his current touring band. He contacted Parks, who helped fill in gaps in the original lyrics, and the duo re-recorded the album and then presented it on a world tour, beginning with the world premiere performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which Parks attended.

In November 2011, after 44 years The Beach Boys' Smile was finally released.

Solo music career

In 1967, Parks released his first solo album, Song Cycle
Song Cycle (album)
Song Cycle is a 1967 album by Van Dyke Parks that encompasses a number of genres, including psychedelic, folk, baroque, and experimental rock and pop. The release was Parks' debut album, and was produced by future Dreamworks Records co-founder Lenny Waronker.The album's material explores...

(produced by his friend Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is a record producer for Warner Bros. Records.-Career:He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, ...

) which combined orchestral textures and traditional Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

-meets-psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...

 pop song structure. AllMusic's Jason Ankeny has described the album as
an audacious and occasionally brilliant attempt to mount a fully orchestrated, classically minded work within the context of contemporary pop. As indicated by its title, Song Cycle is a thematically coherent work, one which attempts to embrace the breadth of American popular music; bluegrass, ragtime, show tunes -- nothing escapes Parks' radar, and the sheer eclecticism and individualism of his work is remarkable. ...[T]he album is both forward-thinking and backward-minded, a collision of bygone musical styles with the progressive sensibilities of the late '60s; while occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy, it's nevertheless a one-of-a-kind record, the product of true inspiration.

Song Cycle established Parks' signature approach of mining and updating old American musical traditions, including ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...

 and New Orleans-style jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and includes the Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....

 song "Vine Street". The album reportedly cost more than US$35,000 to produce, making it one of the most expensive pop albums ever recorded up to that time. Despite rave critical reviews, it sold very poorly so Warner Bros publicist Stan Cornyn
Stan Cornyn
Stan Cornyn is the author of Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group . He also has written three privately-published family genealogy books .-Career:...

 wrote a tongue-in-cheek advertisement hoping to promote it. Opening with a declaration that the label had "lost $35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)", the ad suggested that those who had purchased the album had probably worn their copies out by playing it over and over, and encouraged listeners to send these supposedly worn-out copies back to Warner Bros, who would exchange it for two new copies, including one "to educate a friend with". Incensed by the tactic, Parks accused Cornyn of trying to kill his career.

Four years later, Parks' travels to the West Indies inspired his second solo album Discover America
Discover America (album)
Discover America is a 1972 album by Van Dyke Parks released by Warner Bros., featuring Parks' take on Calypso music. Though only his sophomore release, it was considered a major departure from his debut record, 1968's psychedelic and folk-inspired Song Cycle...

. Discover America was a tribute to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

 and to calypso music
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

. Parks re-arranged and re-produced obscure songs and calypso classics. This direction was continued in the 1976 release Clang of the Yankee Reaper
Clang of the Yankee Reaper
Clang of the Yankee Reaper is a 1975 album by Van Dyke Parks, containing only one original Parks composition. It continues his exploration of Calypso music started in the previous album Discover America...

.

Parks' 1984 album Jump! featured songs adapted from the stories of Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881...

 and Brer Rabbit. The album features a Broadway-style reduced orchestra plus Americana additions like banjo, mandolin, and steel drums. Parks composed the album but did not arrange or produce it. Martin Kibbee contributed to the lyrics.

Following Jump!, in 1989 Warner Brothers released Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose (album)
Tokyo Rose is a 1989 album by American musician Van Dyke Parks. The album concerns the intersection between Japanese and American cultures, particularly as reflected in the competitive "Trade War" of the 1980s...

. This concept album focuses on the history of Japanese/U.S. relations from the 19th century to the "trade war" of the time of its release. The songs are pop tunes with an orchestral treatment including Japanese instruments and old Parks Caribbean favorites like steel drums. The album did not sell well and was not widely critically noticed.

In 1995 Parks surprised fans and critics by teaming up again with Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 to create the album Orange Crate Art
Orange Crate Art
Orange Crate Art is a 1995 album by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks released on Warner Bros. Records, where Parks has been contracted since 1967....

. Parks wrote all of the songs on the album, except "This Town Goes Down At Sunset" and George Gershwin instrumental "Lullaby", with vocals by Wilson. Orange Crate Art is a tribute to the Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 of the early 1900s, and a lyrical tribute to the beauty of Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

.

1998 saw the release of Parks' first live album, Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove
Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove
Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove is a 1998 live album by Van Dyke Parks, containing reworkings of several of his previous compositions as well as many interpretations of other musicians work...

, which shows a love of the work of 19th-century American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works...

 as well as performances of several of Parks' better (and lesser) known songs. The live ensemble includes Sid Page
Sid Page
Sid Page is an American based violin player who has been playing since the late 1960s. He became a member of Dan Hicks & The Hotlicks replacing violinist David LaFlamme...

 as concertmaster.

Work for other artists

Parks has produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, arranged, or played on albums by artists including Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...

, Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Bramlett's five decade career reached peaks in creativity, performance, and notoriety in partnership with his then wife Bonnie Bramlett, in a revolving troupe of professional musicians and Rock superstars dubbed Delaney...

, U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

, Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....

, Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

, Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...

, Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...

, Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips (singer)
Leslie Ann Phillips, aka Sam Phillips is an American singer and a songwriter.-Biography:Phillips was born in Glendale, California. She began her musical career as a vocalist in the early 1980s, singing background parts for Christian artists Mark Heard, Randy Stonehill and others...

, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

, Frank Black
Frank Black
Black Francis is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the influential alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black...

, The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino , Ron Elliott , Ron Meagher , Declan Mulligan , and John Petersen...

, The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both...

, Medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...

, Sixpence None the Richer
Sixpence None the Richer
Sixpence None the Richer is an American rock/pop band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, eventually settling in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs "Kiss Me" and "Breathe Your Name" and their covers of "Don't Dream It's Over" and "There She Goes". The name of the band is...

, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

, Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....

, T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...

, Stan Ridgway
Stan Ridgway
Stanard 'Stan' Ridgway is an American multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums and was the original lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo...

, Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986. The band consists of singer/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss. The band enjoyed chart success in the 1990s with the singles "Walk on the Ocean," "All I Want,"...

, Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. She is noted for her descriptive songwriting talent, which she has used to immerse the listener of her songs into a...

, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

, Peter Case
Peter Case
Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has had a wide-ranging career ranging from new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.-Early career:...

, Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

, Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success...

, Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...

, Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...

, Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...

, The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...

, Saint Etienne
Saint Etienne (band)
Saint Etienne are an English Pop group comprising Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. They are named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.-History:Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists...

, Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...

, The Thrills
The Thrills
The Thrills are an Irish rock band, formed in 2001 in Dublin, Ireland. The band was founded by lead vocalist Conor Deasy and guitarist Daniel Ryan, guitarist and bass player Padraic McMahon, pianist Kevin Horan and drummer Ben Carrigan. Their big break came with their debut album, So Much for the...

, Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...

, Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

, and Susanna Hoffs
Susanna Hoffs
Susanna Lee Hoffs is an American vocalist, guitarist and actress. She is best known as a member of the all-female pop band The Bangles.-Early life:...

/Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...

's covers collection.

In 2006 he collaborated with singer Joanna Newsom on the orchestral arrangements for her second album, Ys. He and David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....

 are co-credited with the music for the 2006 mini-series Broken Trail
Broken Trail
Broken Trail is a 2006 Western miniseries that originally aired on American Movie Classics as their first original movie. It stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church, and was directed by Walter Hill....

. He also contributed orchestrations to the Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...

 produced second album by UK psychedelic three piece The Shortwave Set
The Shortwave Set
The Shortwave Set are a British alternative pop band whose debut album, The Debt Collection, was released in 2005 on Independiente Records. The band's music combines sample-based music with more traditional songwriting and instrumentation to create a sound the group have described as "Victorian Funk"...

 in 2008.

He also composed orchestral arrangements for the fifth Silverchair album, Young Modern, on three songs, "If You Keep Losing Sleep", "Those Thieving Birds/Strange Behavior", and "All Across The World". Daniel Johns, the band's lead singer, traveled to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 with Parks to have the arrangements recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
The Česká filharmonie is a symphony orchestra based in Prague and is the best-known and most respected orchestra in the Czech Republic.- History :...

. The album's title is a nickname Parks uses for Johns. This followed his work on the band's fourth album, Diorama
Diorama (album)
Diorama is the fourth studio album by Australian alternative rock band Silverchair. Released on 31 March 2002 by record label Eleven, the album was co-produced by Daniel Johns and David Bottrill...

, contributing orchestral arrangements on "Across The Night
Across the Night
"Across the Night" was the fifth and final single released by rock band Silverchair from their fourth album, Diorama. It is the first track on Diorama, and is a major departure from their previous, grungy sound which was featured on Frogstomp, which was released in 1995. This more progressive type...

", "Tuna In The Brine", and "Luv Your Life
Luv Your Life
"Luv Your Life" is the third single by Australian rock band Silverchair from their fourth album Diorama, which was released in 2002. The song was released as a single and a video was made in which the band was portrayed as animated characters...

".

Music in film and television

Parks has also scored a number of motion pictures, including Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

's Follow That Bird, Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...

's The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes is a 1990 American mystery film, and a sequel to the 1974 film Chinatown.Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also features Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Frederic Forrest, Pia Gronning, David Keith, Rubén Blades, Tracey Walter and Eli Wallach...

and Goin' South
Goin' South
Goin' South is an American western-comedy film, directed by and starring Jack Nicholson. The 1978 film also starred Mary Steenburgen in her movie debut and included Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi , Richard Bradford, Veronica Cartwright, Danny DeVito and Ed Begley, Jr.At the beginning, the...

, Casual Sex?
Casual Sex?
Casual Sex? is a 1988 comedy film about two female friends who go to a holiday resort in search of the perfect man. It was directed by Geneviève Robert, and stars Lea Thompson, Victoria Jackson, Andrew Dice Clay, and Jerry Levine....

, Private Parts
Private Parts (1997 film)
Private Parts is a 1997 American biographical comedy film produced by Ivan Reitman and released by Paramount Pictures. Written by Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko, the film is an adaptation of the 1993 best-selling book of the same name by radio personality Howard Stern, who stars as himself. It...

, Popeye (with Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

), and The Company.

Disney hired Parks to arrange Terry Gilkyson
Terry Gilkyson
Hamilton H. Gilkyson III , better known as Terry Gilkyson, was an American folk singer, composer, and lyricist.-Biography:...

's Academy Award nominated song "The Bare Necessities" for the 1967
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....

 feature The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...

. Parks had four songs featured in the 1987
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....

 direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

 Disney film, The Brave Little Toaster
The Brave Little Toaster (film)
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 animated adventure film adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name by Thomas Disch. The film was directed by Jerry Rees and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is set in a world where household appliances and other electronics have the ability to speak...

. He worked closely with David Newman on the film's score as well. He composed the theme song for Rudy Maxa's Savvy Traveler radio program on NPR.

The HBO Family series Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson. Johnson's most popular book, it led to a series of books, and inspired many adaptations.-Plot:...

, is narrated by Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct...

 with music and lyrics written and sung by Parks.

Parks composed the faux-psychedelic song "Black Sheep" (a parody of Smile and Brian Wilson's style in general) for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 music comedy film written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly...

, sung by John C. Reilly
John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...

, who portrays the titular character.

Other career

Parks has taken small TV and film roles including appearances in Popeye, The Two Jakes, and as Leo Johnson
Leo Johnson
Leo Johnson is a character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. He is portrayed by Eric Da Re.Leo is a trucker who also moonlights as Twin Peaks' primary source of narcotics, which he obtains from the Renault Brothers, and traffics it over the Canadian/US...

's defense attorney Jack Racine in episode #2005 of Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

.

Parks wrote a series of children's books (Jump (with Malcolm Jones), Jump Again and Jump on Over), based around the Br'er rabbit
Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit is a central figure in the Uncle Remus stories of the Southern United States. He is a trickster character who succeeds by his wits rather than by brawn, tweaking authority figures and bending social mores as he sees fit...

 tales, illustrated by Barry Moser
Barry Moser
Barry Moser is a renowned artist, most famous as a printmaker and illustrator of numerous works of literature.Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1940, Moser studied at the Baylor School, Auburn University, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and did graduate work at the University of...

, and loosely accompanied by Parks' own album Jump!. The books contain sheet music for selected songs from the album.

Parks was given the job of heading the audio/visual department of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 records in September, 1970.
This department was the earliest of its kind to record videos to promote records.

New projects

Parks has completed work with Brian Wilson on a new narrative song cycle entitled That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative).

He also contributed to the new record by The Shortwave Set
The Shortwave Set
The Shortwave Set are a British alternative pop band whose debut album, The Debt Collection, was released in 2005 on Independiente Records. The band's music combines sample-based music with more traditional songwriting and instrumentation to create a sound the group have described as "Victorian Funk"...

, titled Replica Sun Machine, which features a 24-piece orchestra and further input from John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

. This was released on the 12th of May 2008 by Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound (record label)
Wall of Sound is an independent record label based in London, England. It is part of the [PIAS] Entertainment Group, a European independent music company....

.

Parks worked with Inara George
Inara George
Inara Maryland George is a Los Angeles, California-based singer-songwriter, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark...

 on a record released in 2008, An Invitation, and they performed two songs together on 8 January 2008 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...

 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, as part of the program Concrete Frequency: Songs of the City.

Parks is a guest musician on Echo by Mari Iijima
Mari Iijima
is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has released over 20 original albums to date. She writes and produces most of her own music, is a multi-instrumentalist, and is an accomplished piano player. After being signed to JVC Victor in 1982, Mari first became known for her voice-acting role as Lynn...

, released in August 2009. Iijima sang "Calypso," on Parks' album Tokyo Rose.

In 2009, Parks performed in The People Speak
The People Speak (film)
The People Speak is a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout U.S...

 a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...

's "A People's History of the United States
A People's History of the United States
Chapter 7, "As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs" discusses 19th century conflicts between the U.S. government and Native Americans and Indian removal, especially during the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren....

”. Parks performed with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 and Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...

 on the documentary broadcast on Dec. 13, 2009 on the History Channel. They played Do Re Mi and reportedly a couple of other Guthrie songs that were excluded from the final edit.

Parks performed as a guest artist on the Grant Geissman
Grant Geissman
Grant Geissman is a crossover jazz, contemporary jazz and new age guitarist and an Emmy-nominated composer for network TV series and TV movies. An in-demand studio musician, he has recorded extensively for several labels since 1976, and he can be heard playing guitar on the theme for Monk and...

 Cool Man Cool album released in 2009

Singles

  • "Number Nine / Do What You Wanta", 1966, single 45
  • "Come to the Sunshine / Farther Along", 1966, single 45
  • "Donovan's Colours, Pt. 1 / Donovan's Colours, Pt. 2" 1968" single 45 (under the pseudonym George Washington Brown)
  • "The Eagle and Me / On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak to Me" 1970, single 45
  • "Occapella / Ode to Tobago" 1972, single 45

Solo albums

  • Song Cycle
    Song Cycle (album)
    Song Cycle is a 1967 album by Van Dyke Parks that encompasses a number of genres, including psychedelic, folk, baroque, and experimental rock and pop. The release was Parks' debut album, and was produced by future Dreamworks Records co-founder Lenny Waronker.The album's material explores...

    , 1968 album
  • Discover America
    Discover America (album)
    Discover America is a 1972 album by Van Dyke Parks released by Warner Bros., featuring Parks' take on Calypso music. Though only his sophomore release, it was considered a major departure from his debut record, 1968's psychedelic and folk-inspired Song Cycle...

    , 1972, album
  • Clang of the Yankee Reaper
    Clang of the Yankee Reaper
    Clang of the Yankee Reaper is a 1975 album by Van Dyke Parks, containing only one original Parks composition. It continues his exploration of Calypso music started in the previous album Discover America...

    , 1975 album
  • Jump!, 1984 album
  • Tokyo Rose
    Tokyo Rose (album)
    Tokyo Rose is a 1989 album by American musician Van Dyke Parks. The album concerns the intersection between Japanese and American cultures, particularly as reflected in the competitive "Trade War" of the 1980s...

    , 1989 album
  • Fisherman & His Wife, 1991 Book with cassette.
  • Idiosyncratic Path: Best Of Van Dyke Parks 1996
  • Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove
    Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove
    Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove is a 1998 live album by Van Dyke Parks, containing reworkings of several of his previous compositions as well as many interpretations of other musicians work...

    1998 album

Compilation albums

  • "The All Golden/Music for a Datsun TV commercial" on The 1969 Warner-Reprise Songbook, Loss Leaders promo series, 1969
  • "Ice Capades Commercials" on Record Show (Son of Songbook), Loss Leaders promo series, 1969
  • "On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speaks to Me" on Loonie Tunes & Merrie Melodies, Loss Leaders promo series, 1972
  • "G-Man Hoover" on Burbank, Loss Leaders promo series, 1972
  • "Come To The Sunshine" on Deep Ear, Loss Leaders promo series, 1974
  • "Clang Of The Yankee Reaper" on The Works, Loss Leaders promo series, 1975
  • Arranged and conducted three instrumental pieces on the Hal Willner
    Hal Willner
    Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...

    -produced Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
    Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
    Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill is a 1985 tribute album to German-American composer Kurt Weill. It was executive-produced by Hal Willner and John Telfer, and produced by Hal Willner and Paul M...

    , 1985
  • "On the Rolling Sea When Jesus Speaks to Me" on On the Rolling Sea: A Tribute to Joseph Spence, charity tribute album 1994 (song previously released)
  • "Keep Me In Your Heart" on Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon
    Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon
    Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon is a tribute album released in 2004 to the late Warren Zevon by many famous musicians. It includes two unreleased Zevon songs: "The Wind," sung by actor Billy Bob Thornton; and "Studebaker," sung by Warren's son Jordan Zevon.The album's title comes...

    , tribute album 2004
  • "Greenland Whale Fisheries
    Greenland Whale Fisheries
    "Greenland Whale Fisheries" is a traditional sea song. In most of the versions collected from oral sources, the song opens up giving a date for the events that it describes . However, the song is actually older than this and a form of it was published as a ballad before 1725.The song tells of a...

    " on Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys
    Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys
    Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys is a compilation album of sea shanties performed by a wide array of artists, ranging from Sting to Bryan Ferry, representing a variety of genres. The artists cover a large number of diverse songs of the sea, at times adding elements...

    (2006)
  • "Sail Away Lady" on Hal Willner's The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited, tribute album 2006
  • "Yellow Magic Carnival" on a Japanese release Tribute to Haruomi Hosono
    Haruomi Hosono
    , also known as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese popular musician, best known internationally as a key member of the rock band Happy End and the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra.-Biography:...

    , 2007

With Brian Wilson

  • Smiley Smile
    Smiley Smile
    Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by The Beach Boys, issued in 1967. Released in the place of the much-touted Smile, Smiley Smile is widely considered to be under-produced, and it was received with indifference and confusion upon its unveiling...

    (1967)
  • Orange Crate Art
    Orange Crate Art
    Orange Crate Art is a 1995 album by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks released on Warner Bros. Records, where Parks has been contracted since 1967....

    Brian Wilson
    Brian Wilson
    Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

     & Van Dyke Parks (1995)
  • Smile
    Smile (Brian Wilson album)
    Smile, sometimes typeset with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, or referred to as Brian Wilson Presents Smile is a solo album by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Van Dyke Parks released on September 28, 2004 on CD and two-disc vinyl LP...

    (2004)
  • That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative) (2007)
  • The Smile Sessions (1967/2011)

Other albums

  • Replica Sun Machine
    Replica Sun Machine
    Replica Sun Machine is the second album by The Shortwave Set.Work began on the album shortly after the release of The Debt Collection. In an interview for Swedish television, singer and songwriter Andrew Pettitt said that by February 2007 the album was completed as far as they were concerned...

    by The Shortwave Set
    The Shortwave Set
    The Shortwave Set are a British alternative pop band whose debut album, The Debt Collection, was released in 2005 on Independiente Records. The band's music combines sample-based music with more traditional songwriting and instrumentation to create a sound the group have described as "Victorian Funk"...

     with Danger Mouse
    Danger Mouse
    Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...

     and John Cale
    John Cale
    John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

  • So Damn Happy by Loudon Wainwright III
    Loudon Wainwright III
    Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...

  • Strange Weirdos
    Strange Weirdos
    Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up is the official soundtrack album to the 2007 Judd Apatow film Knocked Up, and the eighteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released on May 22, 2007 on Concord Records.- Track listing :# "Grey in...

    by Loudon Wainwright III
    Loudon Wainwright III
    Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...


As producer

  • Phil Ochs
    Phil Ochs
    Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...

    , Greatest Hits
    Greatest Hits (Phil Ochs album)
    Greatest Hits was Phil Ochs' seventh LP and final studio album. Contrary to its title, it offered ten new tracks of material, mostly produced by Van Dyke Parks, and was released in 1970...

  • Steve Young, Switchblade of Love
  • The Mighty Sparrow, Warner Brothers
  • The Esso Trinidad Steel Band, Warner Brothers

As arranger

  • Rufus Wainwright
    Rufus Wainwright
    Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...

  • Kristian Hoffman
    Kristian Hoffman
    Kristian Hoffman is an American musician. His sister is writer Nina Kiriki Hoffman.-History:Singer/songwriter Kristian Hoffman first emerged during the late 1970s as songwriter and keyboardist for New York City cult favorite the Mumps, and was also an active figure in the No Wave, performing...

  • Inara George
    Inara George
    Inara Maryland George is a Los Angeles, California-based singer-songwriter, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark...

  • Joanna Newsom
    Joanna Newsom
    Joanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...

    , Ys
    Ys (album)
    Ys is the second album by Joanna Newsom. It was released by Drag City on November 14, 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. The album was named after the city of Ys, which according to myth was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean...

  • The Bare Necessities
    The Bare Necessities
    "The Bare Necessities" is a song, written by Terry Gilkyson, from the animated 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli. Originally, it was written for an earlier draft of the movie that was never produced. The Sherman Brothers, who wrote the...


External links

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