Seth Swirsky
Seth Swirsky
Songwriter, author, recording artist, noted baseball memorabilia collector
Seth Swirsky is a songwriter, author, recording artist and noted baseball memorabilia collector.
At the age of 20, he wrote the national jingle for Thomas' English Muffins. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1982, Swirsky wrote the Grammy-nominated worldwide hit Tell It To My Heart with Ernie Gold for Taylor Dayne (Billboard Pop Singles Chart for six months in 1988, reaching #7). The song won him an ASCAP songwriterÕs award for being one of the most performed songs of the year. Seth also wrote Dayne's follow-up top ten hit, Prove Your Love, with Arnie Roman. That song was a #7 Billboard pop hit as well as a #1 dance hit and also a top ten hit around the world.
Seth's song Love Is a Beautiful Thing was recorded by Al Green and was Green's last charted single (#56 in the UK). Al Green's version of this song was featured in the movies such as The Pallbearer (1996), Legally Blonde (2001), and Two Weeks Notice (2002). Tina Turner's version of the same song (it has been recorded by numerous artists) was on the 5-million selling Princess Diana Tribute Album in 1997. In addition, this song was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's wedding song.
Other songs by Seth include: Instant Pleasure for Rufus Wainwright, featured in Adam Sandler's Big Daddy (1999); Did You Give Enough Love with Arnie Roman for Celine Dion (a top 20 song in Canada); Tear it Up with Gardner Cole for Michael McDonald; After All for Air Supply; Not Gonna Be the One for Olivia Newton-John's Greatest Hits album, Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971Ð1992 (which reached #2 in Australia and #12 in the UK) and Christmas Lullaby for Faith Evans; Hard On Me (with Jack Ponti) for the late 1980s German heavy metal band, Bonfire. Seth has also written songs for Jane Weidlin of The Go-Gos, Peter Allen, Lara Fabian, The Four Tops, Brenda K. Starr, The Spinners, Rita Coolidge and Wild Orchid.
In 2005, Seth Swirsky's own album, Instant Pleasure won Best Pop Album at the Los Angeles Music awards. His album She's About to Cross My Mind recorded with Mike Ruekberg under the group name THE RED BUTTON, was released in February 2007. The first song from the CD, Cruel Girl, charted #1 in Billboard Magazine as "Coolest Song In The World This Week" (July 22, 2007).
Seth's baseball collection includes the ball that went between Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series, Reggie Jackson's 3rd home run ball from the 1977 World Series, a ball signed by The Beatles the night they played Shea Stadium in 1965, Tom Seaver's 1969 World Series jersey, the only known surviving ball from the second game of Johnny Vander Meer's two consecutive no-hitters and the letter written by Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banning Shoeless Joe Jackson from playing Major League Baseball. Many pieces in the collection were featured in baseball retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art and the Bronx Museum of Art in 2004.
Baseball Letters, the first of Seth's three baseball books, was published in 1996. This bestseller consists of his handwritten correspondence with Major League baseball players including Ted Williams, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Whitey Ford. Every Pitcher Tells A Story (1999), his second book, contains his correspondence with Major League baseball pitchers including Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Tom Glavine. Something to Write Home About (2003), the third book in the trilogy, consists of letters from both ballplayers and fans of the game like Sir Paul McCartney, President George W. Bush, President George H. W. Bush, Senator Ted Kennedy, journalist Tim Russert, sportscaster Bob Costas, and Peter Tork of the Monkees.
Seth writes political articles for The Huffington Post and PoliticalMavens.com. One of the articles he wrote for the Huffington Post, "Why I Left the Left," was reprinted on RealClearPolitics and other sites and proved so popular that it led to an invitation for lunch at the White House with Karl Rove.
The Last Giant, Seth Swirsky's 17 minute film of on-camera reminiscences of 1930s major league baseball All-Star Harry "The Horse" Danning, was a 2007 Finalist in the Washington, D.C. International Film Festival and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's 2nd Annual Film Festival.
His upcoming documentary, A Year In The Life, consists of his many interviews with people who have a story about themselves and The Beatles. Participants include Gerry Beckley of the band America; Felix Cavaliere of The Young Rascals; journalist Cameron Crowe; Rod Davis of John Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen; Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas; legendary rock photographer Henry Diltz; writer/director Nora Ephron; TV personality Bob Eubanks; Art Garfunkel of Simon and Garfunkel; Justin Hayward of Moody Blues; former first daughter Luci Baines Johnson; Ray Manzarek of The Doors; Peter Noone of Herman Hermits; artist Klaus Voormann, who did the cover art for The Beatles album Revolver; Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys; actor Henry Winkler; and many more.
Seth's works have been written about in The New York Times Week In Review, Newsweek, and People Magazine among others. USA Today did a feature story on him in 1997. He has been a guest on many major talk shows, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld on the Fox News Channel. He is an occasional guest on ESPN's Outside The Lines.
In 1999, he was featured in a PBS documentary about his life as a "manic expressive" called The Passion of Play.
For lots more on Seth and his projects, visit his website.