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While taking acting classes during off-times and in the pursuit of a new career as a novelist, Wirtz also realized a lifelong ambition to be a comedian by studying and performing at
Hollywood's Groundlings Improv Theater, to eventually take his first steps onto the stages of Hollywood's comedy clubs,
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In 1975, dropped by
Capitol for his refusal to tour or perform publicly, he signed with producer Tom Catalano and veteran publisher Dan Crewe's RCA-distributed TomCat label, a short-lived association because of the label folding only weeks after Wirtz's first single release, "We Could Have Laughed
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During those years, after savings had run out and royalties had dwindled, Wirtz took on a gamut of jobs, including telemarketer, waiter, maître d', bloodstock agent, interpreter, voice-over artist, seminar leader and eventually sales manager for a Geneva merger and acquisition firm.
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In 2004, giving in to the plea from his daughter Nicole (by now resident in Spain) to produce her rock-band-leader boyfriend's debut album, Wirtz flew to
Barcelona and returned to the studio for the first time in many years to produce
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Forever". Having become a parent in the same year, Wirtz dropped his "loose cannon" career pursuits and, under the name of Marc Peters, became a freelance session arranger/conductor in partnership with several producers, including
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as well as releasing his own instrumentals under various pseudonyms. In 1966, he wrote and produced the single "A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass", an orchestral production credited to The Mood-Mosaic with vocals by
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239:(3 September 1943 – 7 August 2020) was a German-French pop music record producer, composer, singer, musician, author, and comedian. Wirtz is best known for the never-completed
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followed, during which Wirtz formed a co-writing partnership ("Learning 2 Live With Love", MWET/Spyderbaby (2005); "One Night Stand", MWET/Anthony Rivers (2005), and the
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and Les Hurdle. However, the production was never finished due to Wirtz's decision to concentrate on his family, leading to a 20-year hiatus from the music business.
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for a period of time. Together, they wrote and recorded the song "Barefoot and Tiptoe" under the name The
Sweetshop, erroneously believed to have been from
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when his college rock band, The
Beatcrackers, were signed to a recording contract in 1963 as Mark Rogers and the Marksmen by
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and John Beland, keyboard players Alan
Lindgren and Tom Hensley, drummers Billy Thomas and Denny Seiwell, and bassists
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In 1970, Wirtz moved to Los
Angeles to accept an invitation by his fellow expatriate producer and friend
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policy, Wirtz resigned his post at EMI Records to return to independent production. Associations with
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in the development of his stand-up comedy act. In 2010, Wirtz produced an all-new solo studio album,
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to
Interworld Music/CBS Records as writer and producer, Wirtz produced his third solo album,
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In
January 2006, Wirtz found a path back into comedy by collaborating with
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in
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concept album, a project he devised while working under contract to
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Mark Wirtz began his music career while studying art at London's
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In 1969, his creative freedom restricted by drastic changes in
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In 1967, Wirtz accepted EMI veteran producer/A&R chief
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