Clarence Ranjith Jeyaretnam better known as Clarence Jey is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage who has had music chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, co-wrote the song Friday that was covered by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert on the Grammy-winning record Blow Your Pants Off, and worked on various award-winning US television shows including an Emmy-nominated show.
Life and career
Jey spent some of his childhood in Australia, performing with local bands and composing and producing music at his studio in Melbourne where he wrote and produced the theme song and additional music for the 2007 US Emmy-nominated Discovery Kids animation television show, Growing Up Creepie. This led to his relocation to Los Angeles, California. Upon his relocation, he produced music for guitarist and former member of American bands Poison and The Winery Dogs, Richie Kotzen. He has since composed music and written songs for television shows including Lego City Adventures, Common Law, America's Got Talent, Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew and The Newsroom. Jey's songs and music have been used on commercials including the US retailer, Kohls and Vodafone, and performed by artists such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas. In 2011, Jey was part of ARK Music Factory and in association with Patrice Wilson was instrumental in one of the largest internet viral sensations in history, "Friday", by Rebecca Black, which had over 200 million YouTube hits. He co-wrote and produced/engineered the controversial song, which reached the US Billboard Hot 100 and iTunes Top 20 in March 2011, garnering mostly negative media coverage, while being referred to as 'genius' by media executive, Simon Cowell. "Friday" was covered by the cast of Fox network's show Glee, that resulted in their version of "Friday" entering the Hot 100 as well as the iTunes Top 10. In 2013, the US Late Night host Jimmy Fallon's Grammy-winning second album, Blow Your Pants Off, included "Friday", as performed by Fallon and Stephen Colbert. Jey has also worked in film. In 2014, he produced and composed songs, and was music supervisor for the martial arts actorJean-Claude Van Damme film, Full Love, which premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Jey worked with the US reality show, Famous in 12 produced by Harvey Levin of TMZ on The CW network, where he was invited to assist the up-and-coming artist to find her dream. In 2015, Clarence Jey produced music for Grammy winning R&B Group, All-4-One's record, "Twenty+", which was released in July, 2015. In 2016, Clarence Jey composed music and wrote lyrics for the musical theater show "Jambalaya The Musical", along with his production partner, Jeff Barry, American songwriter and the winner of Ahmet Ertegün Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Clarence Jey was involved in part of the music in the Hallmark Channel movie titled "My Christmas Love", as well as Australian TV comedy series Please Like Me. 2017 saw Clarence Jey being awarded "Tamil American Pioneer", an award which recognizes North American Tamil Pioneers in certain fields by the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, an organization of North American Tamil community. Two other winners of the award included Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Palani Kumanan and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district who also served for U.S President, Barack Obama's Election campaign. In 2018, Jey achieved additional U.S Billboard Charts success with a song titled "Wasted" on New Zealand Roots Reggae Band Katchafire's Album 'Legacy', which debuted at Number 3.. On National French Fry Day 2018, YouTube sensation Miranda Sings in collaboration with Dunkin Donuts, released an adapted version of Jey's hit song, Friday, as part of the Dunkin Donut Fries marketing strategy. In July 2018, Roger McGuinn, the lead singer of The Byrds, recorded and released his cover of Jey's classic song "Friday" on his first studio album in 14 years, 'Sweet Memories', which also featured some of The Byrds' greatest hits, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!". 2019 saw Jey and his writing partner Jeff Barry compose and write songs for Lego City Adventures, a computer-animated television series, produced by The Lego Group, for Nickelodeon television.
