Rob Hegel: Songwriter

This story is the first of an occasional series on American songwriters whose work will live on, entertaining people for years. Our first features singer-songwriter Rob Hegel.

  

Early Days

 

Rob Hegel: Just as I Am

 

Rob Hegel is a multi-talented songwriter, producer, arranger, performer, label owner, and novelist. A native of suburban Dayton, Ohio, he began his career before he finished high school. By the mid-1960s, he was already writing songs. He wanted to get into the music business. When he turned fifteen, he did what any young guy would do (if he had the nerve): He bought a plane ticket and flew to New York to meet his musical heroes and anyone else who might help him write and sing. He had no contacts and little money, but he had nerve and confidence. He began searching for people who worked in the industry. He talked his way into their offices.

He ended up at the doorstep of the notorious Morris Levy, owner of Roulette Records and the Birdland jazz club. Fortunately, Levy agreed to speak with the kid from Ohio and give him some advice. Rob boldly told Levy he wanted to record.

“It was impressive, but I had nothing to relate it to,” Rob said. “I had no clue what recorders were. All I knew was my dad’s Wollensak tape recorder. I stopped by some studios and talked to the engineers. I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

Levy was cordial, but he didn’t sign the kid. Instead, Levy talked about the music business.

“Later, I found out that he was in the Mafia,” Rob said. “That was quite a shock.”

He returned to Ohio and continued writing and recording songs on a cassette recorder. He kept the recordings.

After graduating from high school in 1966, he joined a local garage band called The Chandells. They played gigs around Dayton and built a following. Rob sang lead, played the organ, and wrote songs. Soon, Rob and other members enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where they continued to perform and changed the band’s name to Bittervetch. Again, Rob served as the lead vocalist. The group played gigs around the city, and Rob learned what people liked to hear. The group entered a contest for best band in the Cincinnati area and won it, beating 800 competitors. While he was still in college, he was asked to join a band called Me & The Other Guys. He accepted and wrote material for the group. Their manager booked time at the King Records studio in Cincinnati. (In the late 1960s, King still operated a studio on Brewster Avenue in the Evanston neighborhood.) He pulled two songs from his demos, “I Don’t Care” and “When You Wake Up in the Morning.” The A side was “I Don’t Care.” The group cut the rhythm tracks on King’s multi-track recorder. Rob came in later to lay down his vocals. “Nothing came of the 45,” he said, but one thing stands out. “I met James Brown. As I was recording, he came into the studio and listened. He said, ‘Not bad for a white boy.’ I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I was scared. The top soul star in the country had just given me a compliment.”

After graduating from the university’s Conservatory of Music, Rob stayed in Cincinnati. He wanted to enter the record business, and he did, though not as he had expected. He became a regional promotion man for RCA Records, where he met many performers, radio program directors, and independent label owners. Among them was former WCOP disc jockey Shad O’Shea of Counterpart Records, who also operated Counterpart Creative Recording.

“I knew right away that Rob was a talented guy,” O’Shea once said. “He could write well, much better than most of the other bands’ writers. His songs immediately caught my attention.”

Still wanting to record as an artist, Rob sent some demos he had cut to the director of RCA’s national promotion. The director approved a deal, and soon Rob was recording a single for RCA, with Shad producing him for the company. The song was “New York City Girl.” The commercial pop sound of “New York City Girl” should have been a hit, but it was lost in a wave of other releases. “The record was good, but they (RCA engineers) took the middle and the end off,” he said.

He recorded other things for RCA, including “Hello Jekyll, Goodbye Mr. Hyde.”  

When he moved to California, where he now lives, he continued to write. “Don Kirshner signed me to a publishing contract,” Rob said. “With Amanda George, we wrote songs for a number of television shows.” They included NBC’s The Kids from C.A.P.E.R, A Year at the Top (a Norman Lear project), the theme song for the pilot episodes of  Say Uncle and Stick Around, and the theme for Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.

The Kirshner connection was a coup. It brought Rob together with other writers and new projects. Kirshner was one of the biggest names in the record business, publishing songs by some of the best writers in modern music and creating The Monkees and The Archies.

Perhaps Rob’s best-known achievements are his songs that reached the Top 40 and the disco charts. He wrote Air Supply’s “Just as I Am” and the top-ten disco hit “Sinner Man” for Sara Dash. He also wrote “Do It for Our Country” for the film Grease 2. Rob wrote "Just As I Am" with Dick Wagner.

Now, Rob continues to write and produce. He wrote a couple of songs for a Hindi-language recording, a major language of India. “Thank God for Google Translate,” he said.

He has focused on his record label, Red Lips. His performers include The Trembletones, The Robert Band Band, and Rowdy McCarran. And, of course, Rob is another Reds Lips artist. He has explored the smooth jazz genre with albums such as Moods, More Moods, and Impressions.

(More information is available at robhegel.com.)

One of his latest projects is an EP from country singer Michael Braun. The project is exceptional—a five-star recording for Rob’s Red Lips Records. Braun has built a large following in Las Vegas, where he performs regularly. Braun’s songs include “The G.O.A.T.” and “Love Is a Ball and Chain.”

Rob has also written a symphony. Because he can’t afford to hire a large orchestra, he used AI to help. It worked perfectly, in part because of Rob’s ability to use the digital tool.

“There are creative people who use AI as a tool, as a writing partner. Some people say the market is flooded with junk, but we’re in a movement where AI has become what it is. I think that, in the long run, talented people will rise to the top. There’s always been garbage in the record business. This time is no exception.”

He hasn’t stopped looking back on his career, either. “I had all these audio cassettes from the 1970s, when I wrote melodies for my early songs. I bought a machine to digitize them. I found all the melodies I had written so long ago. I’m finding all the music I've made in my life. I’m reimagining it, using different instrumentation. It’s constant creativity in 2026.”

However, some things remain the same for songwriters. “Being a writer is tough sometimes. You write a love song, and the woman in your life says, ‘Did you write that for me? I know you did.’ You don’t dare tell her you didn’t. On the other hand, she might say, ‘Who did you write that about? It must have been your old girlfriend.’” He laughed and added, “Sometimes you can’t win.”

  Discography

 

                 Albums

·         1980 – Hegel, RCA Records

·         2005 – Masters & Demos – Chapter 1, Gear Fab Records

·         2009 – Hegel 2 - Displays, Red Lips Records

·         2012 – Road Signs, Red Lips Records

·         2015 – Make It Magical, Red Lips Records

·         2019 - Tommy, Judy and Me + 23 for the record, Red Lips Records

 

        Recordings

·         1966 – “Bigger Fool” b/w “A Girl Like You,” Pixie Records

·         1967 – “I Don't Care,” Hinda Records

·         1973 – “New York City Girl” b/w “Clock in the Tower", RCA Records

·         1974 – “Hello Jekyll, Goodbye Mister Hyde,” RCA Records

·         1980 – “Tommy, Judy and Me,” RCA Records

·         1980 – “We're Lovers After All,” RCA Records

·         1982 – “Just as I Am,” Mercury Records

·         1985 – “In a Gadda Da Vida,” (as MADDOG), Kama Sutra Records

·         2009 – “It's Almost Christmas," Red Lips Records

·         2015 - “Tired of Waiting”

·         2023 - “Something Is Going to Happen”

Discography and photo courtesy Rob Hegel, Red Lips Records

Rob Hegel performs his hits.

Rob Hegel, composer of hits by Air Supply and other groups, continues to write and produce great music. His latest, the self-titled Michael Braun, is available on Spotify and other platforms as well as a CD.