Vince Melamed CD - What Matters Most - including hit "Walk Away Joe"
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Vince Melamed: Melamed is a five time BMI Million-Performance recipient and wrote the hit songs, including Music Row Magazine’s Song Of The Year and Billboard’s 1 song, “What Mattered Most” (Ty Herndon), “She’d Give Anything” (Boy Howdy) which reached 3 on the Billboard chart, “Tell Me What You Dream” (Restless Heart), “Games” (Tina Turner), “I’ll Take That As A Yes” (Phil Vassar), among others.
 

On July 25, 2009 Vince Melamed was honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville by being invited to perform at  their Songwriter Series.  The program was recorded for inclusion in the Country Music Hall of Fame's Frist Library and Archive.  Vince performed all of his hits as well as answered questions from an appreciative audience.
To view this performance please click here (then scroll down)

 

 "I remember hearing Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley singing "Walkaway Joe" and wondering who wrote that gem?  Then I realized it was one of my best friends!
Listen to Vince Melamed singing his own material...  Essential."
                                                      J.D. Souther

2009 ASCAP Golden Note Award recipient as a master songwriter, musical innovator and distinguished recording artist.  Eagles co-writer: "How Long"  "Best of My Love"  Victim of Love"  "Heartache Tonight"  "New Kid in Town" For more info
 
 
   
LYRICS PHOTOS
   
WALKAWAY JOE (Vince Melamed, Greg Barnhill)

Momma told her baby, girl take it real slow
Girl told her momma hey I really gotta go
He’s waitin’ in the car
Momma said girl you won’t get far
Thus are the dreams of an average Jane
Ninety miles an hour down lover’s lane
On a tank of dreams
Oh if she had only seen
But fate’s got cards that it don’t want to show

And that boy’s just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her, he’s a wrong kinda paradise
She’s gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy’s just a walkaway Joe

Now somewhere on a road outta Abilene
He pulls into a station and he robs it clean
She’s waitin’ in the car, underneath the Texaco star
She only wanted love didn’t bargain for this
She can’t help but love him for the way he is
She’s only seventeen and there ain’t no reasoning
So she’ll ride this ride as far as it can go

Cause that boy’s just a walkaway Joe, born to be a leaver
Tell you from the word go, destined to deceive her
He’s a wrong kinda paradise,
She’s gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy’s just a walkaway Joe

Somewhere in a roadside motel room
Alone in the darkness she wakes up too soon
And reaches for his arm
But she’ll just keep reachin’ on
’Cause the cold hard truth revealed what it had known

That boy’s just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her, he’s a wrong kinda paradise
But it was just another lesson in life
That boy’s just a walkaway Joe

All he was was a walkaway Joe
Yeah walkaway

©1990 Songs of Universal Inc. (BMI)/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI)/WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)
 
 
 
 
 
   
VINCE MELAMED'S FULL BIO

Vince Melamed has covered a lot of territory as a sideman and session player throughout his illustrious career.  Now this world-class musician has finally settled in to record and release his debut solo album, WHAT MATTERS MOST, on Adroit Records.

Vince grew up in Los Angeles, and caught the show business bug at an early age. He formed a band at 14, and signed a record deal at the tender age of 16. His band, The Mugwumps, played every love-in and Sunset Strip club in L.A., as well as, appearing in and providing music for some low budget teen flicks. But after a short-lived brush with success, Melamed decided to enter music school at CSUN Northridge.

After graduating from college where he co-hosted a radio show, Vince was back on the road as a sideman for Danny O’Keefe, then continuing on with Bobby Womack, David Ruffin, J.D. Souther, The Eagles, Rita Coolidge, Karla Bonoff, Glen Frey, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell and Dan Fogelberg.  "I had been writing in L.A. whenever I was off the road and enjoyed some success," says Melamed, who during that time had cuts with Cher, Tina Turner and Phoebe Snow.

"I originally came to Nashville to work with Rosanne Cash, and that’s when I began to write music seriously, and was fortunate to find a niche in this community of highly supportive and creative music people," recalls Vince about his decision to relocate. So in 1986, he packed up everything and moved to Music City. Success soon followed with a flood of songs recorded by Trisha Yearwood (Walkaway Joe), John Anderson (Hillbilly Hollywood), Jill Sobule (Too Cool to Fall in Love), Boy Howdy (She'd Give Anything), Restless Heart (Tell Me What You Dream), Ty Herndon (What Mattered Most), Gerald Levert (I'd Give Anything), Jimmy Buffett (Souvenirs) and most recently, Phil Vassar (I'll Take That as a Yes). Vince is also is a founding member of the MCA Records’ group Run C&W.

When Adroit Records founder and president Jim Tract began his quest to champion Nashville songwriters for the label's "Words & Music Nashville" CD, he hooked up with his old friend and neighbor from Hollywood Vince Melamed who was now living in Nashville. Tract asked Melamed how he would feel about including "Walkaway Joe" on the CD. Vince agreed and the resulting sessions for the song revealed a genuine creative chemistry between the two. It wasn't long after that Vince revealed that he had always wanted to do a solo album and asked Tract if he'd be interested. Tract took the invitation one step further and asked Vince to sign on with Adroit Records so they could continue their creative relationship.

"I was intrigued by the quantity and, most of all, the quality of the material," says Tract. "I was also intrigued by presenting the writer's true vision of hit records by known artists that people literally had ingrained in their consciousness, in a way that was new and exciting and still enjoyable for the listener. Plus, the new material that hasn't made it to radio yet presented me with a challenge of creating a cohesive work of art in the way albums use to be.Vince was so open and easy to work with and incredibly creative, it was a real treat. It all stems from his lifetime of experience in every kind of situation imaginable. We set out to work together because we wanted it to be fun. Believe me, we had a lot of fun!"

Now, Melamed's newest effort, WHAT MATTERS MOST, includes some of his past hits, but with a different   (classic rock) twist.  "I'm basically a rock 'n' roll guy, and Jim Tract (the CD’s producer) gets that," Vince says. "Jim brought in some great musicians for the sessions."  The result is a CD that is ripe with emotion, cooks with unabated joy, and infused with an alternative sound that is contemporary, clean while raunchy at the same time, and dynamic.