Composer and music producer Sidney Woloshin has died at the age of 72. Woloshin passed away on Nov. 5, at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. He had been ill with pneumonia.
Woloshin is most famous for "You Deserve a Break Today," the McDonald’s jingle he co-wrote for Needham Harper & Steers (now DDB), Chicago, in 1971. For the same agency, Woloshin also produced State Farm’s "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," which was written by Barry Manilow.
Woloshin was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1928, and grew up in Worcester, Mass. He graduated from Boston University’s College of Music with a master’s degree in ’51, enlisting in the Air Force not long thereafter.
Woloshin began his advertising career as a broadcast producer, joining the William Esty Company following his ’55 discharge from the Air Force. He went to J. Walter Thompson, New York, around ’57, and it was there that he started to put his musical skills to use. In ’67, Woloshin and singer/arranger Kevin Gavin founded music house Gavin & Woloshin. In ’73, Woloshin opened his own shop, New York-based Sid Woloshin Inc.
About three years ago, Woloshin became a founding partner in New York-based audio/video production/postproduction house Soundz Nu, with Adam Charity, Elvis Herbert and Dick Selinka. While music house Sid Woloshin remained open, the composer/producer worked primarily at Soundz Nu.
Until very recently, Woloshin worked regularly. As co-founding partner Charity put it, although "Sid was about 45 years older than us, he was 21 for life." Woloshin was known as a mentor in the music business, and Charity echoed many others’ sentiments when he stated, "He helped a lot of people."
Former assistant producer and business manager Annette Coscia testified to Woloshin’s support of younger musicians’ fledgling careers. Coscia, now a freelance music producer, worked at Sid Woloshin for 13 years, starting in ’72. She said, "Barry Manilow worked for him, so did Jon Silbermann and David Horowitz." Silbermann founded music house JSM and is now a managing partner at DVD authoring/integration house Zuma Digital, New York, while David Horowitz is president of New York-based David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA). Coscia pointed out, "He started a lot of musicians that went on to become arrangers and have their own music companies."
Coscia continued, "He was known for paying everybody their due and being very fair. The singers and musicians liked him; I really don’t know anybody who had anything bad to say about him."
The word "mentor" was applied to Woloshin by many of his colleagues. New York-based freelance composer Hunter Murtaugh also praised him: "He was great to me; he was a bit of a mentor. He told a lot of great stories. He was a sweet man with great musical taste. He knew advertising and he did it all. Back then, some of the accounts he did music for were some of the biggest in the business."
Horowitz, who was a freelance composer for Sid Woloshin in the mid- to late-’70s, commented, "Sid’s company … was really the top. I freelanced for him for about three years, and aside from being a perfect gentleman, he was a great musician and a great producer. What really impressed me, though, is that he really understood advertising and music for advertising. He was great with clients." Horowitz added, "When I started my own company in ’79, he was very supportive and he gave me great advice. He really cared about people, and people liked working with him."
Horowitz’s observations were seconded by Carla Hall, now managing partner/executive producer at DiMassimo Brand Advertising. Hall worked with Woloshin for 10 years starting in ’86, and she said, "I feel like everything that I learned, I learned from Sid Woloshin—in business, in art, in advertising."
Hall continued, "Every day I refer to something that he taught me. … He was a very important entity in the business. … Sid always stood for what he believed; he didn’t need a committee to decide for him. The music business is a little shady sometimes, but everybody always knew that when you worked for Sid Woloshin, he was always fair, and honest and just. He had a tremendous respect for the artist, which is sometimes lacking today. He was an artist as well."
Hall added, "It will not be the same without him, and we’ll miss him every day."
Warren Pfaff, executive vice president of McCaffery Ratner Gottlieb & Lane, New York, a longtime friend and colleague, also had high praise for Woloshin. "There was no one I could turn to who had Sid’s taste, his class, his timing, and the way he worked with people. Everyoneflactors, musiciansflthey always wanted to do their best for Sid. He was a very magical kind of person."
Pfaff said that that although Woloshin was best known for jingles, he had also written instrumental music for clients like Macanudo cigars (via Pfaff’s own now defunct agency Warren Pfaff). "On top of that, he was a crack producer," stated Pfaff.
Woloshin always encouraged other composers and producers. In fact, according to Pfaff, originally "Sid was going into business strictly as a producer. He didn’t want to compose because he didn’t want the composers he hired to feel that he was competing with them. So I said, ‘Well, that’s swell, Sid, but I want you to take a crack at this. I don’t have to know who wrote what. I’ll just pick the music. I trust you, and I think you might very well do the best job by the lyric.’ " Pfaff’s faith in Woloshin was not unfounded: "Sure enough, he did," recalled Pfaff. "His composition was just head-and-shoulders above the others. I learned later it was, indeed, his."
Woloshin is survived by his wife, Sylvia; his sister Norma Basch of Edgemont, New York; his children, Jonathan, of Chappaqua, New York, and Ellen, of New York City; and his grandchildren, Jake and Julia.
