June 3: Danny Wilde of The Rembrandts - "I'll Be There For You" - is 57-years-old today.

 

Photo courtesy of  The Rembrandts Website)

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Born June 3, 1956 in Maine, Danny Wilde was the founding member of the power-pop band The Quick. Wilde then started the band Great Buildings in 1981 and released an album, Apart From The Crowd.

After the band's demise Danny Wilde pursued a solo career. His first solo album release in 1986, The Boyfriend, did well, producing two pop singles "Isn't It Enough" & "Body To Body." Wilde then released Any Man's Hunger in 1988. It featured popular tracks such as "Time Runs Wild" and "Wouldn't be the First Time,” and reached #176 on the U.S. album charts, his only solo album to chart in the U.S.

Wilde followed it with the release of the self-titled album Danny Wilde in 1989. The album's only single "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" gained fair radio play.

In the 1990s Wilde found major commercial success, forming The Rembrandts with Phil Solem. Solem and Wilde recorded a self-titled album largely in Wilde's home studio. From this album, the group had their first success during 1990 with "Just the Way It Is, Baby,” which scored at number 14 on the Billboard singles chart. The self-titled album scored number 88 on the album charts.

Their next album Untitled, of 1992, featured the minor successes "Johnny Have You Seen Her" and "Chase the Clouds Away.” Another track from the album, "Rollin' Down The Hill,” was used in the film Dumb and Dumber.

"I'll Be There for You," the theme for the sitcom Friends, reached No. 1 the Hot 100 Airplay chart for several weeks before being released as a single and peaking at No. 17 U.S. Billboard charts. In the U.K., the single reached No. 3 in 1995 and No. 5 in 1997.

The success of Friends has caused a greater awareness of the band, and to greater sales of their recorded albums. An earlier, previously unreleased version of "I'll Be There For You" with different lyrics was included on their Unreleased Stuff album.

In 1997, the duo split, with Solem returning to Minneapolis to concentrate on his band Thrush. In 1998, Wilde released the album Spin This, credited to "Danny Wilde + The Rembrandts.”

In 2000, Solem and Wilde reunited, and released the album Lost Together as The Rembrandts the following year. In 2005, the band released an album of re-recorded favorites called Choice Picks. In 2006, Rhino released a collection called The Rembrandts' Greatest Hits, a 20 song career-spanning retrospective that included material from the lone Great Buildings album, Apart From The Crowd.

The duo continues to write new songs and tour, while also working on material and producing for other artists, including Plain White T's, Katie & Katie, Gin Blossoms, Evan & Jaron, and Glen Phillips (Wilde) and Thrush, Catchpenny, Christo Savalas, Matt Dodge, producer John Fields, Dez Dickerson, Joey Molland, and The Melismatics (Solem).

In 2000, Wilde sang lead vocals on Canadian jazz-flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook's cover of the Crowded House hit "Fall at Your Feet,” from Cook's album Free Fall.

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For more about Danny and The Rembrandts, visit this Website:

http://dannywilde.therembrandts.net/

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