Early years (1940s–1960s) Lucas was born David Helfman on April 21, 1937, in
Buffalo, New York. By the age of four, he was singing with his parents in the Buffalo area, both at venues and on local radio. At the age of nineteen, Lucas started promoting records, choosing artists such as the young
Paul Anka,
Frankie Avalon,
Sam Cooke, and
The Everly Brothers, and encouraging local DJs to play their music. He was the top record promotion man in the northeastern United States until he was drafted into the
United States Army, after which he moved to
Miami Beach, where he was a social director and performer at the Attache Hotel. and joined him for a world tour, after which Lucas moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a songwriter and producer. In
Las Vegas, he sang at the
Sahara Hotel, where he was noticed by popular singer
Doris Day, who was impressed, and signed Lucas to her record label,
Arwin Records. Lucas then recorded "So Until I See You", a song by composer
Al Lerner which became the closing theme for
Jack Paar's
The Tonight Show. Lucas then moved to New York City where he took various odd jobs, including becoming a sound engineer for his cousin, jazz musician and writer
Don Elliott. The scenes in the documentary were some of the last images recorded of Lambert, who, in 1966, was killed in an auto accident.
Jingle writer (1960s–1990s) In the late 1960s, Lucas began writing his own commercial
jingle melodies, such as
Macleans Toothpaste. He eventually passed off his engineer job to
Jay Messina, and opened his own company, David Lucas Associates, to write jingles full-time. In 1969,
Quincy Jones introduced Lucas to
Cy Coleman, who signed him to Coleman's Notable Music Publishing Company. Along with writing jingles, Lucas continued with other projects as well. He was hired by
Ahmet Ertegun as musical director for the first
rock and roll musical,
Tom Sankey's
The Golden Screw, which played at the
Provincetown Playhouse and won the 1967
Obie Award for Sankey's concept, writing, and performing. Lucas used a young tape dubber from Gotham Studios named
Walter Carlos who had an early
Moog synthesizer to compose music for
William Claxton's film
Basic Black, a work that is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. He produced the first recordings of the blues band
Raven, enabling them to secure a contract with
Columbia Records. He composed the songs "Tell Me a Story" and "Blood" for
The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (the first movie by actor
Don Johnson) and also composed the theme music for the 1970s children's series,
Jabberwocky, a show which remained in syndication for decades. In 1973, Lucas formed a new partnership with Tom McFaul, and they founded their own studio. Situated in an old spice warehouse, they called it the Warehouse Recording Studio, and it hosted such artists as
Paul McCartney and Charlie Brown. They employed a dozen people, and Lucas composed and produced thousands of jingles for many national brands, and McFaul created the "Meow" theme for
Meow Mix.
Pepsi's "Catch That Pepsi Spirit" and "Pepsi's got your taste for life"; "You look like you just heard from
Dean Witter"; Maxwell House "Coffee Made Your Way";
Coca-Cola's "You Can't Beat The Feeling" (co-written with Jayne Critelli); "Give Your Cold To
Contac"; "G.E. We Bring Good Things To Life"; "Lipton puts Summer on Ice"; and a jingle for
Mercury Cougar. In 1979,
New York Magazine referred to Lucas and McFaul as "Jingle Giants", two out of a handful of jingle writers, saying, "Two out of three major commercial jingles are written by the elite group." Lucas co-produced their first album at his Warehouse studio, and co-producer their 1976 album
Agents of Fortune, including the song, "
Don't Fear the Reaper". "Reaper" became a huge hit, and is listed at number 405 on
Rolling Stone's list of the top 500 songs of all time. In it, Lucas sang background vocals and came up with the idea of playing the
cowbell, Lucas once had a yacht built by David Macfarlane,
Alden Yachts, now the president of
reliantyachts.com, Sisu was used in the company's advertisements. In 1985, Lucas refined a recipe of his grandfather's and developed a brand of cocktail mix, "Bob's No Problem,
Bloody Mary maker". The brand launched nationally in 2010. Lucas has four grown children.
Lisa Lucas, an award-nominated child actress in the 1970s, played "Addie Mills" in several CBS holiday specials. Jason Lucas is a composer and producer in Nashville, Cristopher Lucas is a composer and performer in Idaho, and David Lucas's youngest daughter Lindsay Lucas is a singer and performer in Boston, who attended
Berklee College of Music. He is also working on a musical with co-writer Jayne Critelli, a writer/singer from Lucas/McFaul in the 1980s. According to his website, Lucas spends a great deal of time in Portland, Jamaica, sailing and working on environmental projects, such as trying to save
Winifred Beach for the local people. He operated the Frenchman's Cove resort for several years in the 1990s. He also joined his friend, Frank Clark, in sustaining "Reach Falls" and continues to support the revival of
Portland Parish. ==Awards==