Randy Vanwarmer
| Randy VanWarmer | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Randall Van Wormer |
| Born | March 30, 1955 |
| Origin | Indian Hills, Colorado |
| Died | January 12, 2004 (aged 48) |
| Genres | Soft rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1978–2004 |
| Labels | Bearsville Records |
Randy VanWarmer (March 30, 1955 – January 12, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His biggest success was the pop hit, "Just When I Needed You Most". It reached #8 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1979 after peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks earlier that year.
He wrote several songs for the group The Oak Ridge Boys including the #1 U.S. Country hit "I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes". The song appeared on his 1981 album Beat of Love, which also included the pop tune "Suzi Found a Weapon", which hit #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He was born Randall Van Wormer, in Indian Hills, Colorado. At 15, three years after the death of his father in an automobile accident, he moved with his mother to Cornwall, England. His experiences there inspired "Just When I Needed You Most".
In a 1989 interview with Release, a now-defunct independent paper from Stanford, California, Van Warmer said that Albert Grossman, the head of Bearsville, would not let him do television or tour the United States, a strategy that did not prove successful.
His follow-up album, Terraform, was dark and (compared to his previous work) almost alternative. According to Release,Terraform sold moderately in Japan and Australia. VanWarmer would later publicly rue his decision to turn away from dreamy ballads. He made two more records at Bearsville: Beat of Love and The Things That You Dream. Beat of Love included the single "Suzi Found a Weapon", a tribute to a Bearsville public relations rep whom VanWarmer would later woo and marry, and which went to #1 in Alaska and gained a certain amount of post mortem acclaim (for example, a rave by James A. Gardner in his "Allmusic"). But Grossman died soon thereafter, and VanWarmer's future was in doubt.
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