Jonathan Elias (born 1956) is an American composer best known for his film soundtracks.
Background
Elias was born in New York City in 1956. He is of Jewish-Hungarian background.[1] Elias started playing piano at the age of six, and was composing his own music by twelve, inspired in part by Broadway musicals. He liked rock music, but also admired Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.[2]
He and his brother, Scott Elias, founded the music and advertising firm Elias Music in 1981.[4][1]
He met John Barry (of James Bond soundtrack fame) in the early 1980s, and began working with him on several movie soundtracks, including Jagged Edge and A View to a Kill. It was during the A View to a Kill sessions in 1985 that Elias met and became friends with the members of pop group Duran Duran (they performed the title song for the movie).
While working on the soundtrack to the film 9½ Weeks the year after that, Elias co-wrote the single "I Do What I Do" with Duran Duran's bassist John Taylor, who performed the vocals — his first solo venture. The song went to #42 on the UK Singles Chart, and to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Elias and Taylor also co-wrote and co-produced the melancholy piano instrumental "Jazz", released on the b-side of the single. Elias and Taylor went on to co-write an album's worth of additional unreleased material together that year, which would eventually be collected on Taylor's 1999 album Résumé.[5]
Elias produced an album for Grace Jones and co-produced (with Daniel Abraham) Duran Duran's 1988 album Big Thing. He also returned to play Moog synthesizer on Duran Duran's 1995 album Thank You.
In 1989, Elias recruited the entire Duran Duran lineup for his first solo album, called Requiem for the Americas. The most recognizable of Duran Duran's contributions to the album was vocalist Simon Le Bon's solo track "Follow In My Footsteps", which also featured The Bangles vocalist Susanna Hoffs on backup vocals. John Taylor played bass on "The Chant Movement", with other Duran members adding their instrumental touches on various tracks. Other vocalists on the album included Grace Jones, Toni Childs, Michael Bolton, Patti Scialfa, and Jon Anderson.
1990s—2000s
Elias then worked with the band Yes on their 1991 album Union. Many band members were not speaking to each other, and the disjointed working atmosphere and the involvement of outside musicians (which allowed the piece to be finished at all) led to an uneven album which was generally unpopular with critics and fans. Elias was often blamed for the album's failure.[6]
In 1992, Elias moved to California, and shifted his focus from movies and rock music to advertising. His firm Elias Arts has won an Emmy Award for the "Move" theme for Nike Inc., and has garnered dozens of Clio Awards and other advertising trophies for work for top-line corporations such as Ford, GM, Nissan, Audi, Infiniti, Mercedes, AT&T, NASDAQ, IBM, Apple, Sony, Levi's, and Adidas.
In 1992–1993, he composed the fanfare for the 1993 Columbia Pictures logo debuting with the 1993 film Last Action Hero, and is still used till this day.
Elias married Patty Kelly, a model from Deer Park, Long Island who was working in London at age 20 when she became the lead in the iconic MTV music video "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer. The couple had two children, Lilli and Jack Elias (born in ~1996 and ~2001 respectively) and later divorced. In a 2013 interview, Patty explained that the two were not aware of their MTV connection, with him having done the signature guitar riff for the channel idents and her performing in this music video, until "maybe on our second or third date".[9]
Discography
Solo albums
Requiem for the Americas: Songs from the Lost World (1990)
