Murray Neville Thom (born 19 July 1957) is a New Zealand businessman and music producer. He is best known for his collaboration with pianist Carl Doy, which resulted in their Together 10-CD collection being featured as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002. [1] Locally, his production company, Thom Productions is best known for the 12x platinum [2] Great New Zealand Songbook and The Great New Zealand Cookbook, which have also been released in numerous versions for other countries. [3]
Thom joined CBS Records International as a sales representative in 1979. He was appointed Managing Director of CBS in 1981, at that time the youngest CBS managing director in the world. [4] Thom left the corporate life to establish his own business [5] in 1986. [4]
He signed New Zealand recording artist Dave Dobbyn [6] who had featured on the Footrot Flats album and together they produced the Loyal album. [4]
Thom discovered pianist Carl Doy playing in the lobby of an Auckland hotel in 1987 and together they produced their first album Piano By Candlelight in 1987. [4] They have produced a number of recordings specifically for China. [7] In the USA, the Together collaboration with Doy was packaged into a 10 CD and book collection, [8] which Oprah featured on her show as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002. [1]
In 1996 after seeing Rob Guest performing in the leading role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, [9] Thom signed Guest to a recording contract. [10] Guest's album Unmasked was released in 1997 by Thom. [11]
Thom was the creator and executive producer of The Great New Zealand Songbook released in 2009. [12] The album went on to become certified 12x platinum. [13] Thom followed up with The Great Australian Songbook released in 2011. [3]
Thom collaborated with Neil Finn to re-record the war song " Blue Smoke", [14] which was released on Anzac Day 2015, with proceeds going to the Returned Services Association. [15]
In 2019 Thom and Tim Harper produced The Offering Project, [16] which was a collaboration between twelve New Zealand recording artists and twelve of New Zealand visual artists. [17] The concept was to record well known gospel hymns that were also interpreted by visual artists, [18] with all the proceeds going to the work of the Salvation Army in New Zealand. [19]
Following the release of The Great Australian Songbook, Thom produced The Great New Zealand Cookbook [20] – instead of 40 recording artists writing their lyrics, this was 80 cooks, chefs and bakers handwriting their recipes. [21] The book won the 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook award for ‘Best Easy Recipes’. [22]
Further publications were produced including The Great Australian Cookbook (2016), [23] The Great South African Cookbook (2016), [24] The Really Quite Good British Cookbook (2017), [25] with front cover art by Sir Peter Blake, [26] and America The Great Cookbook (2017). [27]
Thom released his memoir Eat, Drink & Be Murray in 2019. [28]
Thom's hobby is sailing and in 2005 won the World Laser Master Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil. [29]
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Murray Neville Thom (born 19 July 1957) is a New Zealand businessman and music producer. He is best known for his collaboration with pianist Carl Doy, which resulted in their Together 10-CD collection being featured as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002. [1] Locally, his production company, Thom Productions is best known for the 12x platinum [2] Great New Zealand Songbook and The Great New Zealand Cookbook, which have also been released in numerous versions for other countries. [3]
Thom joined CBS Records International as a sales representative in 1979. He was appointed Managing Director of CBS in 1981, at that time the youngest CBS managing director in the world. [4] Thom left the corporate life to establish his own business [5] in 1986. [4]
He signed New Zealand recording artist Dave Dobbyn [6] who had featured on the Footrot Flats album and together they produced the Loyal album. [4]
Thom discovered pianist Carl Doy playing in the lobby of an Auckland hotel in 1987 and together they produced their first album Piano By Candlelight in 1987. [4] They have produced a number of recordings specifically for China. [7] In the USA, the Together collaboration with Doy was packaged into a 10 CD and book collection, [8] which Oprah featured on her show as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002. [1]
In 1996 after seeing Rob Guest performing in the leading role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, [9] Thom signed Guest to a recording contract. [10] Guest's album Unmasked was released in 1997 by Thom. [11]
Thom was the creator and executive producer of The Great New Zealand Songbook released in 2009. [12] The album went on to become certified 12x platinum. [13] Thom followed up with The Great Australian Songbook released in 2011. [3]
Thom collaborated with Neil Finn to re-record the war song " Blue Smoke", [14] which was released on Anzac Day 2015, with proceeds going to the Returned Services Association. [15]
In 2019 Thom and Tim Harper produced The Offering Project, [16] which was a collaboration between twelve New Zealand recording artists and twelve of New Zealand visual artists. [17] The concept was to record well known gospel hymns that were also interpreted by visual artists, [18] with all the proceeds going to the work of the Salvation Army in New Zealand. [19]
Following the release of The Great Australian Songbook, Thom produced The Great New Zealand Cookbook [20] – instead of 40 recording artists writing their lyrics, this was 80 cooks, chefs and bakers handwriting their recipes. [21] The book won the 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook award for ‘Best Easy Recipes’. [22]
Further publications were produced including The Great Australian Cookbook (2016), [23] The Great South African Cookbook (2016), [24] The Really Quite Good British Cookbook (2017), [25] with front cover art by Sir Peter Blake, [26] and America The Great Cookbook (2017). [27]
Thom released his memoir Eat, Drink & Be Murray in 2019. [28]
Thom's hobby is sailing and in 2005 won the World Laser Master Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil. [29]
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cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (
link)