Michael Boddicker
Michael Lehmann Boddicker is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player "Synthesizer" and MVP Emeritus, he was awarded a Grammy as a songwriter for "Imagination" from Flashdance in 1984. He is the president of The Lehmann Boddicker Group.
Early life and education
Boddicker grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His parents, Jerry and Arlene Boddicker operated a music school and store in Cedar Rapids, which served students in all of Eastern Iowa. His mother was a nationally recognized accordionist.While still attending high school in Cedar Rapids in 1971, Boddicker enrolled full-time at the local Coe College, studying electronic music. By 1972, he continued studies at Coe College, focused on music composition and he started taking jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin. By 1973, he enrolled in 20th-century composition at the University of Iowa. That same year in 1973, Michael purchased a powerful portable semi-modular synthesizer, the ARP 2600.
By 1974, Michael moved to Los Angeles, and finds Paul Beaver as a mentor.
Career
He was able to purchase a Minimoog and a Moog System 15 modular synthesizer by 1975. As a result of his purchase, he was asked by Bob Moog to demonstrate their newest synthesizer, the Polymoog, at the 1975 summer National Association of Music Merchants convention.He quickly found work as a session musician, and by 1977 appeared playing synthesizer, vocoder, accordion and keyboards on albums by many notables such as Quincy Jones, Randy Newman, The Manhattan Transfer and The Bee Gees.
One of Boddicker's earliest soundtrack collaborations of note was a score for a short experimental claymation film made by Gumby creator Art Clokey entitled "Mandala". Soon after that he entered the mainstream with work on such films as Saturday Night Fever, Battlestar Galactica and The Wiz.
Boddicker is a Board Member of The Society of Composers and Lyricists, of Beverly Hills, California. He owns an audio post production facility, Sol7, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
In 2019, he co-founded the Los Angeles synthesizer music festival, Synthplex.
Personal life
Boddicker officially changed his name to Michael Lehmann Boddicker when he married singer/conductor/actress Edie Lehmann in 1995. He has four children, two of the children he had with Edie Lehmann. They live in Los Angeles, California.He sued Michael Jackson's estate in 2016, alleging that he was unpaid for work and services provided early in his professional relationship with Michael Jackson.
Awards
He was awarded a Grammy Award as a songwriter for "Imagination" from the movie Flashdance in 1984.In 1991, in recognition of his achievements, contributions and furtherance of electronic music in the recording industry, he was presented with an honorary doctorate of music from Coe College.
In 2003, Boddicker was inducted to the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.
Film music
Among his film score credits as a composer are the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, the score for The Adventures of Milo and Otis, and additional music for Bulletproof, "The Magic Egg: A Computer Odyssey" an Omni Max computer animated film, "Get Crazy", "White Water Summer", "F/X2 " with Lalo Schifrin, and "Starfire".His contributions as a composer can also be heard in the film "Battlestar Galactica" which including the BattleStar Galactica theme song produced and arranged by Michael Boddicker. "Freejack", Michael Jackson's "Black or White", and "HIStory" video produced by and additional music underscore and "THE FLY" eleven cues to augment or replace the original score.
Artists that have recorded his songs and compositions include Lani Hall, Earth, Wind and Fire, Patti Austin, Michael Jackson, Isao Tomita's & YMO's Hideki Matsutake, Kitaro, Laura Branigan and David Hasselhoff.
Performer
As a session musician he played synthesizer on, among others, Michael Jackson's This Is It, HIStory, Thriller, Bad, "P.Y.T. ", Off the Wall, Dangerous, Black or White, and We Are the World; Earth, Wind & Fire's Let's Groove; Lionel Richie's Hello, You Are, Running with the Night; Dazz Band's Let It Whip; Randy Newman's The Natural and Short People; Kenny Loggins' Footloose; Barbra Streisand's Somewhere; Cheap Trick's Surrender; The Jacksons' Shake Your Body; Pointer Sisters' He's So Shy; and Diana Ross's Missing You.| Year | Song | Album | Artist | Performed | Notes |
| 1976 | I Heard That!! | Quincy Jones | |||
| 1976 | I'll Be Good to You | The Brothers Johnson | |||
| 1977 | Roots soundtrack | Various | Synthesizer | With Quincy Jones, performed on keyboard. | |
| 1977 | Little Criminals | Randy Newman | named as "Mike Boddicker" | ||
| 1977 | Superman | Barbra Streisand | named as "Mike Boddicker" | ||
| 1978 | Sounds...and Stuff Like That!! | Quincy Jones | Synthesizer | ||
| 1978 | Please Don't Keep Me Waiting | Totally Hot | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1978 | Dancin' 'Round and 'Round | Totally Hot | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1979 | Off The Wall | Michael Jackson | |||
| 1979 | No One Home | Lalo Schifrin | |||
| 1981 | Landslide | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1981 | Stranger's Touch | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1981 | Falling | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1981 | Love Make Me Strong | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer, piano, vocoder | |
| 1981 | Silvery Rain | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | Synthesizer | |
| 1981 | Carried Away | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | PPG Wave 2 | |
| 1981 | The Promise | Physical | Olivia Newton-John | ||
| 1982 | Let It Whip | Dazz Band | |||
| 1982 | You Are | Lionel Richie | Lionel Richie | ||
| 1982 | Muscles | Diana Ross | Synthesizer | ||
| 1982 | Wanna Be Startin' Somethin | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Synthesizer, background vocals | |
| 1982 | Baby Be Mine | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Synthesizer, background vocals | |
| 1982 | Billie Jean | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Emulator | |
| 1982 | Human Nature | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Emulator | |
| 1982 | P.Y.T. | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Emulator, vocoder | |
| 1982 | The Lady in My Life | Thriller' | Michael Jackson | Emulator | |
| This Is It | Michael Jackson | ||||
| 1984 | Chicago 17 | Chicago | |||
| 1984 | Missing You | Diana Ross | |||
| 1984 | Penny Lover | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | ||
| 1984 | Running with the Night | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | Synthesizer, vocoder | |
| 1984 | Stuck on You | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | ||
| 1985 | We Are The World | USA For Africa | Synthesizer, programming | . | |
| 1985 | Greatest Love Of All | Whitney Houston | Whitney Houston | ||
| 1985 | Somewhere | The Broadway Album | Barbra Streisand | ||
| 1986 | Chicago 18 | Chicago | |||
| 1986 | They Don't Make Them Like They Used To | Tough Guys | Kenny Rogers | ||
| 1986 | Dancing On The Ceiling | Lionel Richie | |||
| 1987 | Bad | Michael Jackson | |||
| 1989 | Back on the Block | Back on the Block | Quincy Jones | drum machine | |
| 1989 | Setembro | Back on the Block | Quincy Jones | M1 pads, synth pads | |
| 1989 | I'll Be Good to You | Back on the Block | Quincy Jones | Synthesizer, programming | |
| 1989 | The Places You Find Love | Back on the Block | Quincy Jones | Synthesizer, programming | |
| 1989 | Birdland | Back on the Block | Quincy Jones | Synthesizer, programming | |
| 1991 | Black Or White | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1991 | Jam | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1991 | Heal the World | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1991 | Will You Be There | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1991 | Keep The Faith | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1991 | Gone Too Soon | Dangerous | Michael Jackson | ||
| 1995 | Earth Song | Michael Jackson | |||
| 1995 | Michael Jackson | ||||
| 1996 | They Don't Care About Us | Michael Jackson |
Julio Iglesias - "Everytime I Fall"
"Love Is On Our Side Again"
"Hold On To You"
"To All The Girls I Loved Before"
Pia Zadora - "On This Day"
"What Do You Do"
"Sometimes Miracles"
Angela Bofill - "Delicious"
Randy Newman - "Short People" "Land Of Dreams"
"Four Eyes" LP
"I Love L.A."/"Trouble In Paradise" LP
"The Natural"
Roberta Flack- "OOH OOH OH OH "
Englebert Humperdinck- "Radio Dancing"
"Lady Lolita"
"One & One Makes Three"
"Alone In The Night"
"How Do I Stop Loving You"
June Pointer - "Put Your Dream "
Neil Diamond - "Baby Can I Hold You"
"This Time"
"Courtin' Disaster"
"If I Could See You Again"
"Baby It's Gonna Be"
"Heart Light"
Patti LaBelle - "A Matter Of Trust"
"Need A Little Faith"
Jeffrey Osborne/Dionne Warwick - "Take Good Care"
Janet Jackson - "Rhythm Nation" Long Form Video
Celine Dion - "I'm Loving Every Moment"
"Love By Any Other Name"
"I Feel Too Much"
Rickie Lee Jones - "Rickie Lee Jones" LP
"Pirates" LP
"Girl At Her Volcano" LP
"The Magazine" LP
"Flying Cowboys" LP
Michael Rogers - "I Got Love"
"Rock Me Baby"
"Soul Survivors"
"Stop Stealing My Heart"
"Let's Have A Good Time"
"Same Old Song"
David Hasselhoff - "Looking For Freedom"
"Je T'Aime"
"Lonely Is The Night"
"Sheltered Heart"