Trade Martin
Trade Martin
A native of New Jersey, is a distinctive American vocalist & songsmith, New York studio guitarist, arranger, conductor and record producer.
While a high school freshman in the late 1950s, Martin composed, arranged & produced his first professional solo recordings at a Linden, N.J. studio with his own band and background singers. During the next few years he has played guitar and vocalized many Elvis song demos for his first manager, Ed E. Miller, who had written Presley’s smash hit, “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck.” In 1960 Martin was signed to Roulette’s Gee records who released his noted guitar “Beyond The Sea” instrumental titled, “Lamer” which preceded Bobby Darin’s number one hit version of (“Beyond The Sea”).
Trade is widely known for discovering Larry Chance and the Earls (1961) “Life Is But A Dream” and recording the group on his own ROME Record label while he was still a “teen.” His charted vocal single was, “That Stranger Used To Be My Girl (Coed Records, 1962) which he performed on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and enabled him to star in Alan Freed’s Miami “Rock ‘n Roll Show.”
Trade wrote the late 60s classic, “Take Me For A Little While” which was recorded by many artists including (Vanilla Fudge), (Cher), (Patty LaBelle) (Dusty Springfield) (Jackie Ross) (Dave Edmunds – The Sopranos Season 4 – Episode 6– Everybody Hurts) and was recently used as the basis of Kanye West’s “Ghost Town” single release. (2019) Martin is also noted for his classic Northern Soul vocal recordings that include, “Work Song” “Moanin’” & “16 Tons” (RCA, 1965 & 1966) besides “She Put The Hurt On Me” (Stallion, 1968) and a number of others.
Martin who has been a member of 802 AFM, SAG & AFTRA since the early 60s, is also revered for his many major original T.V. & Radio commercials, (Prudential, TWA, Enjoli, Reunite Wine, Pan Am, Exxon and more.), his unique lead vocals have been heard on many jingles and Pepsi spots along with his outstanding orchestral film scoring which include, “Made For Each Other” & “Hail To The Chief.”
In the 70s, Trade arranged and produced recordings for legendary artists including DJ, Murry The K and the famous folk singer, Joan Baez. In 1974, Martin discovered & 1st produced & mixed the B.T. Express’ major hit, “Do It till You’re Satisfied” (1974) and later that decade, arranged & produced the Grammy award winning “Live At San Quentin” (Artist: B.B. King) which included Trade’s original internationally well-known anthem, “Peace To The World” (1991).
During the mid-nineties Martin concentrated on composing, arranging & producing many vocal blues duets with the great and legendary B.B. King (The all original duet CD will be released soon) along with a movie role in “West New York” opposite “Goodfellow’s” Frank Vincent and Soprano’s Vincent Pastore.
Currently, Trade composes songs with many co-writers and records on almost a daily basis, releasing his latest contemporary recordings every few weeks. Trade records are presented on his own Innovation Digital Of America label which is distributed by Universal Music Group (UMG).
Most of Martin’s material can be heard and viewed on YouTube. Trade is preparing to perform for some of his favorite veteran’s, cancer and children’s charities while he is also creating unique science fiction movie concepts and experimenting with the ultra-futuristic nuclear & solar generated quantum sound spectrum for some forthcoming unique music projects.