PAMELA’S BIO
By Steven McClintock for McJames Music
It is a sweet time for my friend and songwriter/lyricist Pamela Phillips Oland. Her first break was writing for Frank Sinatra and becoming his last lyricist when he recorded “Monday Morning Quarterback”. At that time, Mr. Sinatra also commissioned Pamela to write the song “Barbara” for his wife. The rest is history… having 500+ songs recorded in a wide range of genres, including pop, R&B, rock, country, jazz and musical theater including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Selena, Anne Murray, Peabo Bryson, Reba McIntyre, The Jacksons, and Gladys Knight, just a few of the artists who’ve recorded 3X-Grammy-nominated Oland’s songs.
Skip to present day, when her hit musical “Soldier of Orange” – co-written with composer Tom Harriman and script writer Edwin DeVries —is currently the most successful musical in Dutch history! The musical is in its 7th year of a sold-out run at the Theater Hangaar in Amsterdam, with over two million tickets sold and two “Best Musical” awards. The cast album spent 17 weeks on the Dutch pop charts, topping at #7. An English-language version is in the works for London. Oland and Harriman are currently developing an arena type of show for artist Loreta Frankonyte. Pamela has recently completed the song cycle “Forbidden” with Peruvian rock artist Santino dela Tore, is working on an R&B show with Preston Glass, and a rock show “Touch Me!” with Moscow-based film composer Dmitry Rybnikov, among other projects.
Recent cuts include the current #7 jazz duet, “You’ve Got That Something!” – by sultry Karen Souza duetting with Toku, Tokyo’s mutitalented singer/fugelhorn player, as well as Souza’s “In The Blink Of An Eye”“. Recently she had a Billboard #7 Dance/Club Charts single “Forever” by Ralphi Rosario featuring Frankie; a popular Danish single “Don’t Stop” with Jorgen Thorup; and rock alternative cuts with White Apple Tree, Simon Lynge, and Michael Learns to Rock.
Her film and TV projects have included opening and closing themes for Disney’s “102 Dalmatians,” Genie Award-nominated “Center of My Heart” (as Best Song in a Motion Picture) from “Blizzard;” themes to “Gideon,” “Coming To America,” “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” “J*A*G,” “The Sopranos,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Crayola Kids Adventures,” and dozens of others.
The author of “The Art of Writing Great Lyrics” and “The Art of Writing Love Songs” – two popular music industry books; Pamela Oland has lectured on lyric writing across the U.S. and abroad. She taught “Advanced Lyric Writing” for 8 years at UCLA Extension’s music program, for songwriter accreditation. She has written 14 musicals and recently finished her first novel, The Downfall of Oliver Hepz.
She is a teacher to many and a friend to most.
— Steven McClintock
Pamela is currently signed with the indie publishing team of McJames Music Inc.