1979 Lauren Wood – Lauren Wood

Lauren Wood’s career began in the mid ’70s when she formed a band called Rebecca and the Sunnybrook Farmers. In 1972, she provided back-up vocals on Frank Zappa’s album The Grand Wazoo. In 1973, Lauren Wood formed the band Chunky, Novi and Ernie with her cousin Novi Novog and bassist Ernie Emerita They released two albums both co-produced by Ted Templeman. “Underground”, from the 1973 album was covered by Montrose on Paper Money (1974).

In 1979, she released her first self-titled album on Warner Bros. Records. Although this is a solo album, the words “Featuring Novi and Ernie” appear in the lower right corner of the cover and the photo has Wood flanked by her bandmates. Guests included Michael McDonald, Little Feat members Bill Payne and Fred Tackett, Steve Lukather, Ronnie Montrose, Jim Keltner and Patrick Simmons. The duet “Please Don’t Leave” went to #5 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and #24 on the Pop Singles chart.

After her follow-up album, Cat Trick, Wood vanished from the music scene. However, she spent time writing and performing songs for television and movie soundtracks, including “Fallen,” the song used in Pretty Woman, which has been covered by musicians such as Johnny Mathis, Larry Coryell, and Nicolette Larson. Larson would later record two more songs written by Wood for her 1988 album Shadows of Love. These two tracks were “Work on It” and “Where Did I Get These Tears”.

In 1998, Wood founded her own record label, Bad Art Records. On this label, she released her third album, Lauren Wood, in 1998 and Love, Death & Customer Service in 2006.