Singer, producer, and composer Steve Tyrell delivers warm, throaty performances steeped in affection for classic American pop and standards. His professional path opened in the late 1960s, beginning with an A&R role before he guided B.J. Thomas to success on the enduring single “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” Along the way he penned several chart-topping pop numbers and contributed scores to motion pictures and television programs. During the 1990s he gained recognition as an interpreter of pop standards through his work on Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride series and the release of his own debut solo album in 1999. Over the following twenty years he continued issuing distinguished vocal recordings while producing Rod Stewart’s Grammy-winning collection Stardust and sustaining a long-running engagement at New York’s Café Carlyle. Standout tribute projects include the 2008 album Back to Bacharach and the 2021 set Shades of Ray: The Songs of Ray Charles.
Raised in Texas, Tyrell first gained experience performing with regional R&B groups around Houston before moving to New York at eighteen and securing a staff position at Scepter Records. Serving as the label’s head of A&R and promotion, he advanced the landmark Burt Bacharach and Hal David recordings made by Dionne Warwick and brought B.J. Thomas to the roster, overseeing the hits “Hooked on a Feeling” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” He later established himself as a songwriter, co-authoring the gold-selling chart-topper “How Do You Talk to an Angel” for the Heights and the Jamie Walters single “Hold On,” while also supplying music for films such as Mystic Pizza, Midnight Crossing, and The Brady Bunch Movie, as well as various television projects.
Tyrell resumed live performing in 1991 with his rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight” for the Father of the Bride soundtrack, adding two further tracks to the 1995 sequel Father of the Bride, Pt. 2. His 1999 standards collection A New Standard reached the Top Five on the jazz charts and remained listed there two years later. He issued the follow-up Standard Time in 2001, the seasonal album This Time of the Year in 2002, and This Guy’s in Love in 2003.
Around the same period he launched an enduring residency at New York’s celebrated Café Carlyle, an ideal setting for his ongoing survey of the Great American Songbook. In 2005 he saluted one of his influences with Songs of Sinatra on the Hollywood label, then released The Disney Standards the next year. His seventh album, Back to Bacharach, arrived in 2008 and highlighted his admiration for Burt Bacharach’s catalog.
Tyrell returned in 2012 with the standards collection I’ll Take Romance on Concord, followed a year later by It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn. The 2015 release That Lovin’ Feeling revisited Brill Building-era material from the 1960s. Marking his thirteenth season at the Café Carlyle, he issued A Song for You in 2018, a program of romantic numbers associated with Fats Waller, Leon Russell, Van Morrison, and additional writers. The tribute album Shades of Ray: The Songs of Ray Charles appeared in 2021.
