A singer/songwriter forever tied to the beat generation, Tom Waits enjoys a cult following, but even greater success as artist whose tunes about the down and out have been covered by many of rock’s icons. Tom Waits was born December 7, 1949 in Pomona California. By the time he was in high school, he had already formed in his first band and had his first paid gig at the Heritage Nightclub in San Diego. He first played at L.A.’s Troubadour club in 1969 and soon after developed a cult following while performing at the Tropicana Hotel. In 1972 he signed to Elektra/Asyl
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um Records, and his debut album was produced by ex–Lovin’ Spoonful
Jerry Yester. Though the album sold poorly, one of its songs, “Ol’ 55,” was covered by the
Eagles on their album On the Border. Although Waits' albums found considerable commercial success in Britain beginning in the mid-1980s, even his best-selling albums—Small Change (1976) and Heartattack and Vine (1980)—failed to crack the American Top 40. His songs, however, went on to be recorded by
Bruce Springsteen (“Jersey Girl”), and
Rod Stewart (“
Downtown Train”), as well as
Marianne Faithfull (“Stranger Weather),”
Bob Seger (“Blind Love” and “New Coat of Paint,”) and
Dion “(Heart of Saturday Night.”).During the mid 80s and early 90s, Waits also appeared in a number of movies, including Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish and The Outsiders, as well as Queen’s Logic and Fisher
King. In 1992, he scored the film Night on Earth; released the album Bone Machine, which won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album; and appeared in the film Bram Stoker's Dracula, demonstrating his great range not only as a musician but as an actor as well.
After a long absence from recording, Waits released1998’s Beautiful Maladies, a retrospective of his work for Island Records. In 1999, Waits finally returned with a new album, Mule Variations. The record was a critical success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk album, and was also his first for the independent Epitaph Records' Anti label. Waits subsequently returned to the studio for more experimental work that demonstrated once again, his aversion to being musically typecast. He continues to periodically reinvent himself to this day, even as he remains the last surviving Beatnik.
