Joshua Kadison

Joshua Kadison first took up the piano and began writing songs at age twelve. Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, and Gershwin shaped his approach, yet his sorrowful strain of adult contemporary pop drew just as much from Elton John. After his mother died, he abandoned his Hollywood Hills residence and moved to Nashville, where SBK Records offered him a recording contract. His first album, Painted Desert Serenade, appeared in 1993 and reached platinum certification inside two years, thanks chiefly to the Top Ten single “Jessie,” the ballad for which he remains best known. The track also succeeded across Europe, a market that embraced his later releases more warmly than the United States ever did.