He was born in
New York City and later moved to
Silver Spring, Maryland. He played piano and accordion, and performed in various local bands in his teens, as well as starting to write songs. One of his songs came to the attention of New York music publishing company
Shapiro Bernstein, who started to employ him as a staff songwriter. This in turn led to his introduction to
Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, the
record producers and writers behind the success of
The Four Seasons. Randell began working for the Four Seasons as a writer and arranger in the early 1960s. Gaudio's associate,
Al Kasha, introduced Randell to lyricist Sandy Linzer. The duo wrote several Top 10 songs for
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, including "Working My Way Back to You" (also a hit for
The Spinners in 1979, and in
Ireland for
Boyzone in 1994), "
Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'Bout Me)", and, with Bob Crewe, "Let's Hang On!". Randell and Crewe later co-wrote Valli's solo hit "
Swearin' To God". In 1965, Randell and Linzer wrote and
produced most of the songs for the
R&B girl group,
The Toys, including their singles "A Lover's Concerto" (adapted from
Minuet in G major, a
classical music piece), and "Attack!" Another song written by the duo, "
Can't Get Enough of You Baby", was first recorded by
The Four Seasons and later covered by the Toys and the garage band
? and the Mysterians and, in 1998, was a #27 hit when covered by
Smash Mouth. Randell and Lizner also wrote
Jay and the Techniques' "
Keep the Ball Rollin'". Linzer and Randell wrote two songs recorded by
The Monkees, "
I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" and "The Day We Fall in Love", and "Penny Arcade" by
The Cyrkle. They later wrote "Native New Yorker", performed by
Odyssey on the soundtrack of the film
Eyes of Laura Mars; it was later featured in the film
The Nanny Diaries and the final year of
HBO’s
Sex and the City. Other co-writes include "
Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache", a major UK hit in 1968 for
Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon, and
Samantha Sang's 1978 chart hit "You Keep Me Dancin'". In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Randell worked in
A&R for several companies, including
Epic,
RCA, and
Frank Zappa's
DiscReet Records, for whom he produced
Tim Buckley's album
Sefronia. He also produced the
Iron Butterfly album
Scorching Beauty. Later in the decade, he co-wrote and arranged the album
Get Dancin’ by
Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes. In 1980 he co-wrote the
Star Wars-themed album
Christmas in the Stars, which featured singer John Bongiovi (later
Jon Bon Jovi). In 1985, he teamed up with songwriter and singer Biddy Schippers and formed the duo
Randell & Schippers, who recorded a number of successful electronic dance tracks including
Alice in Wonderland. The pair later married. In recent years they have worked together on the GI Jams project, which aims to develop and spotlight songwriting talents in the
U.S. military. ==References==