Rick Nowels

Rick Nowels, the San Francisco native enjoyed his first success writing and producing definitive solo albums for Stevie Nicks, for whom he contributed the hits “I Can’t Wait” and “Rooms On Fire,” and Belinda Carlisle, who charted with eleven Nowels-Pedden hits, including “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” and “Circle In The Sand.”

Relocating to Los Angeles, he continued to work with singular voices, penning Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You,” Anita Baker’s “Body And Soul,” and k.d. lang’s “The Consequences Of Falling” and collaborating with Madonna on several songs from her ‘Ray Of Light’ album, including worldwide smash “The Power Of Goodbye.”

Nowels went on to compose two ASCAP Songs Of The Year, “The Game Of Love” (Santana featuring Michelle Branch) in 2004 and “White Flag” (Dido) in 2005, as well as such contemporary standards as Jewel’s “Standing Still,” Dido’s “Sand in My Shoes” and “Here With Me,” NSYNC’s “I Drive Myself Crazy,” and the New Radicals’ ubiquitous “You Get What You Give.”

While dominating the pop charts, Nowels has also managed to write a string of dance floor classics, including Amber’s “Sexual (Li Da Di)”, Sonique’s “Sky,” and Conjure 1/Sinead O’Connor’s “Tears From the Moon.”

Nowels has been as successful in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe in recent years as he’s been in America, penning and producing such defining pop hits as Mel C’s “I Turn To You”, The Corrs’ “Intimacy,” Robert Miles’s “One And One,” Craig David’s “Hypnotic,” a series of charters for Ronan Keating including “Life Is A Rollercoaster,” “I Love It When We Do,” and “Lovin’ Each Day,” and contributing to the John Legend/Andre 3000 collaboration ‘Green Light’ in 2008, which earned him a Grammy nomination later that year.

In addition to his multiple ASCAP Awards (including one in 2011 for Colbie Caillat’s “Fallin’ For You”), Nowels collected a Grammy Award in 1997 for his work on Celine Dion’s 25-million selling ‘Falling Into You’ album, along with nominations for Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place On Earth” and Anita Baker’s “Body And Soul,” the latter of which won Best Song at the Soul Train Awards. Additionally, Dido’s “White Flag” earned him an Ivor Novello prize.

In recent years Spirit has successfully promoted hits and gems from Nowels’s diverse catalog, landing “You Get What You Give” in FOX’s ‘Glee,’ NBC comedy ‘Community,’ TBS’s ‘The Wedding Band’ and NBC’s ‘The Voice.’

“Heaven Is A Place On Earth”, one of Nowels’s many collaborations with Belinda Carlisle, can be heard in episodes of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and a series of independent films, including ‘Austenland’ and ‘B-Side.’

Among other meaningful placements, including “White Flag” into ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and ‘The X-Factor,’ the single “Inner Smile,” made famous by Scottish pop band Texas in 2000, was a theme song for UK soccer tournament, the Carling Cup, in 2012.