Don Peake(I)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Prolific and versatile musician Donald Geoffrey Peake was born on June
7, 1940 in Los Angeles, California. Peake began his long and
distinguished music career in 1961 as a lead guitarist for the Everly
Brothers. Don holds the distinction of being the first white guitarist
to play with the Ray Charles Orchestra, with whom he both recorded for
and toured with for ten years. Peake played guitar on the classic Phil
Spector recordings "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by the Righteous
Brothers and "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner. He's
the lead guitarist on the Jackson Five hit songs "ABC" and "I Want You
Back." Among the other artists Don has played guitar for are John
Lennon, the Commodores, Jan and Dean, the Mamas and the Papas, Marvin
Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, the Beach Boys, Billy Preston,
Diana Ross, and Sonny and Cher. He's a member of an elite group of
musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." Peake studied guitar with
legendary guitarists Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and Joe Pass.
Moreover, Don did the arrangements for Bobby Darin's hit rendition of
Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," Gloria Gaynor's hugely successful
disco album "Love Tracks," Jermaine Jackson's "Let's Get Serious"
album, and the smash disco song "Don't Take Away the Music" by Tavares.
Peake has worked as an arranger for such artists as Roy Orbison, Kenny
Rankin, the Monkees, Wayne Newton, Sonny and Cher, Minnie Ripperton,
the Fifth Dimension, and Hank Williams, Jr. Don collaborated with
director Wes Craven on the scores for the cult horror favorite "The
Hills Have Eyes" and the equally creepy "The People Under the Stairs."
Peake did the chillingly effective scores for the fright features "The
Prey," "The House Where Death Lives," the made-for-TV vampire picture
"I, Desire," and "Sandman." In addition, Don did the scores for the
Academy Award-winning short live movies "Violet" and "In the Region of
Ice." Peake scored 77 episodes of the hit TV series "Knight Rider,"
which he worked on for three and a half years. He studied composition
and orchestration with Paul Glass and Dr. Albert Harris and conducting
with Broadway maestro Samuel Krachmalnick. Peake has served on the
Board of Directors of the Society of Composers and Lyricists and as a
judge for the Grammy Awards in the arranging category. He's also a
member of both the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences and the Television Academy. Don Peake was inducted into
the Musician's Fall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee on November 26,
2007.