Michael Z. Gordon

Michael Z. Gordon's songwriting career was kick-started in 1962 after scoring a Top 40 hit with a song he wrote called "Surfer's Stomp" with his band "The Mar-Kets" (later simplified to "The Marketts".) It scored regional attention on the West Coast after being released by the small Union record label and was then picked up for national distribution by the larger Liberty records. The group also scored a full-length album deal with Liberty as a result. 6 months later he cracked the Top 20 with his new band, "The Routers" with the rousing hand-clap driven "Let's Go!" which remains a staple at sporting events worldwide to this day. While on tour with The Routers he wrote his biggest hit for The Marketts, "Out of Limits", which went to #3 nationally and earned him his first BMI award for Instrumental of the Year. The Routers also appeared as themselves in the 1964 film "Surf Party" starring Bobby Vinton and fellow surf-rockers "The Astronauts", further cementing Michael's place in the annals of the surf-rock genre. The Marketts scored another Top 20 hit in 1966 with their recording of Neal Hefti's "Batman Theme", which managed to hit the charts before the "official" TV show version! He later teamed up with songwriter Jimmy Griffin (from the band "Bread") and wrote over sixty songs including "Apologize" (most famously recorded by Ed Ames) which earned him his second BMI award. His songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Cher, Annette Funicello, Los Straitjackets, The Electric Prunes, Agent Orange, Lesley Gore, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, The Ventures & Brian Hyland, Michael went on to contribute music for movies and TV including "Pulp Fiction", "The Outsiders" 2005 re-release, "Inherent Vice", "The Wonder Years", "21 Jump Street" and the Tom Hanks HBO series, "From the Earth to the Moon". He still writes music, although his primary focus since 2001 has been producing feature films with his company Americana Films. His many film projects include "Narc", starring Ray Liotta and Jason Patric, "In Enemy Hands" starring William H. Macy and Scott Caan and "Dirty Little Trick" starring Michael Madsen and Dean Cain. One of his final film projects is a documentary of his life and career entitled "Out of Limits: The Michael Z. Gordon Story", due for release in 2018.