Fred Mollin


Fred Mollin is an American and Canadian record producer, musician, film and TV composer, music director, music supervisor, and songwriter. He has produced records for Jimmy Webb, Johnny Mathis, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lamont Dozier and America, among others as well as composing music for Beverly Hills, 90210, Friday the 13th, Forever Knight, Hard Copy, and many more.
Mollin rose to prominence early in his career by co-producing, Dan Hill's international hit record, Sometimes When We Touch, in 1977.
As an artist, he has written and produced music for a series of children's albums, including Disney: Lullaby Album: Instrumental Favorites For Baby, peaking at #6 on January 26, 2001, on Billboard's Kid Album music chart and Disney's Princess Lullaby Album, which peaked at #23 on October 25, 2002. Mollin created the musical group, Fred Mollin and the Blue Sea Band, composing and producing albums such as, Finding Nemo-Ocean Favorites, Lightning McQueen's Fast Tracks, and others, primarily released on Disney/Pixar albums.

Early life

Fred Mollin was born in Amityville, New York to parents, Edward and Pauline Mollin, and is the youngest of three siblings.
He began playing the drums at age six, the guitar at age eleven, and formed his first band when he was thirteen years old, performing at Jr. High School and High School dances. It was after seeing the Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, that he was inspired to become a musician, singer, and songwriter. He attended Calhoun High School in Merrick, New York.
In an interview with Spirit of Harmony, Mollin cited, "When my parents would tell their friends that I was leaving high school at 16 to make a life as a musician, they would all say 'we're so sorry,' as if I was terminally ill. In that day and age, it would have sounded better if I had gone off to join the circus".

Career

At 18 years of age, Mollin moved to Toronto, Canada in 1971. His brother Larry had moved there a year before and urged Fred to come and see the creative possibilities. Mollin never looked back and in 1972, they formed Canada's first improvisational comedy group, Homemade Theatre. The 4-man troupe consisted of Fred, Phil Savath, Barry Flatman, and his brother, Larry, who also performed for three years on their own CBC Television series, Homemade Television. In 1975, Homemade Theatre was awarded a Canadian Gold Record for their novelty single, "Santa Jaws".

Record Producer

Mollin co-produced, Sometimes When We Touch, by Dan Hill, which became an international hit record in 1977. From 1977 through 1985 Mollin produced such artists as Jimmy Webb, America, and Randy Edelman. He also co-wrote and co-produced Stan Meissner’s hit single “One Chance”, which was covered by Eddie Money on his platinum album Can’t Hold Back. Mollin started a new career in 1985 as a TV and film composer, which became a full-time occupation until 1996 when he started to make the transition back to record production with the acclaimed album Ten Easy Pieces by Jimmy Webb.
Mollin relocated to Nashville in 2001, where he went back to being a full-time record producer for various artists and projects. In 2019, he started a new label, Melody Place, in partnership with Leigh Shockey, while continuing his freelance career.

''Duets'' Producer

Mollin is also uniquely known as a record producer with a long history of producing duets involving well known and iconic artists. Some of these recordings include Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, Vince Gill, Glen Campbell, Crosby and Nash, Art Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Michael McDonald, Amy Holland, David Pack, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole, Gregory Porter, Gloria Estefan, and Chris Cornell, among others. The albums by Jimmy Webb, Ten Easy Pieces, Just Across The River, and Still Within The Sound Of My Voice have the most number of guest artist duet appearances. Other notable album examples with numerous duets are Johnny Mathis’ Sending You A Little Christmas, Kris Kristofferson’s The Austin Sessions, Barry Mann’s Soul And Inspiration, Lamont Doziers Reimagination, and Rita Wilson’s AM/FM.
Mollin's most well-known duet is the 2008 duet, Billboard's #4 Country Single, Ready, Set, Don't Go'' featuring Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus.

Film & Television Music Composer

In 1987, Mollin's work on Paramount's Friday The 13th-The Series gave way to 16 uninterrupted years of composing for film and television. His most well-known TV series include Tri-Star's Forever Knight, Spelling's Beverly Hills, 90210, Paramount's Hard Copy, Columbia Pictures' The New Gidget and USA Network's TekWar. His feature film credits include Friday the 13th Part 7 - The New Blood and '. Mollin's TV movies include NBC's ', VH1's Daydream Believers-The Monkees' Story, and CBC TV's Little Criminals. He composed and performed the soundtrack for the television series Friday the 13th, mainly using synthesizers and samplersl The music was released on a soundtrack album by GNP Crescendo as the album, Friday the 13th: The Series.
Mollin won a Gemini award for Best Original Music Score for a Series, Beyond Reality, in 1991.

Children's Music

Mollin co-created the children's musical group Rugrats with Ronney Abramson and Ron Garant. The group's 1983 debut album, Rugrat Rock, was co-produced by Mollin; it won the Best Children's Album category at the Juno Award's of 1984. In 1985 they recorded a second album, The Rugrats Rock On,.
In the early 2000s, Mollin began arranging and producing a series of Disney Lullaby albums: Disney's Lullaby Album: Gentle Instrumental Favorites for Babies, 'Disney's Lullaby Album, Disney's Princess Lullaby Album, Disney's Christmas Lullaby Album, Disney's Lullaby & Goodnight, and Disney's Lullaby Album, Vol.2,.
in 2004, Mollin created Fred Mollin and the Blue Sea Band, a loose aggregate of studio musicians and guest singers Chris Stapleton, Tom Hambridge, Tim Ruppert, Lari White, Kevin Montgomery, Gunnar Nelson, Johnny Neel, and Webb Wilder, among others, primarily heard on Disney/Pixar albums:
As a songwriter, Mollin has written or co-written songs for Cher, Eddie Money, Burning Rome, Toronto, Shania Twain, Stan Meissner, and others.

Awards and Nominations

Discography