Bob Wayne, MBA '73

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Bob Wayne, MBA ’73, has just completed his autobiography, "Reel To Real Tales...Notes From Both Sides of the Recording Console."

Over the years, Wayne has juggled a myriad of roles in the music business: recording studio owner; director and chief engineer at Sunburst Recording; record producer (Rhino Records and Shout Factory Entertainment); lead vocalist for 1950’s parody rock 'n' roll band Big Daddy; and recording arts instructor at UCLA Extension as well as West L.A. and L.A. City Colleges.

After earning his MBA, Wayne became a market researcher for Preview House (also known as A.S.I. Market Research) in Hollywood, California.  While there, he analyzed audience responses to T.V. pilots, commercials and, finally, his life-long passion - music.

In 1976, Wayne traded his clerical desk in for a recording console with the opening of Sunburst Recording, which he moved to Culver City, California in 1982.

“In over forty years of operation,” Wayne said, “Sunburst served as a premiere local recording facility and one of the most popular commercial studios in the greater Los Angeles area.”

Wayne’s studio production credits include well over three hundred albums - winning a Grammy in 2002 for his work on George Carlin’s “Napalm and Silly Putty.”  A Grammy finalist four times, Wayne has worked with such diverse talents as Adam Sandler, Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), Ska bands Fishbone and Hepcat, Richie Havens, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, Dr. Demento, Firesign Theatre, television pioneer Steve Allen and jazz greats Plas Johnson, Al McKibbon, Ernie Andrews and Barbara Morrison, among others.  Wayne also has a long list of T.V. and film credits, including a gold record for his work on the 1996 Miramax / Hollywood Records soundtrack for the film “Swingers” (starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau).

Big Daddy, a 1950’s rock 'n' roll parody band, formed in 1982 by Wayne, along with longtime musician collaborators, including Marty Kaniger, gained popularity with the release of four albums on Rhino Records from 1983 to 1992 followed by “The Best of Big Daddy” in 2000.

In 1985, the eight-piece ensemble had a top 20 national hit in the UK with a remake of the Bruce Springsteen classic “Dancing In The Dark.” The following year, Big Daddy was honored as a Clio finalist for their original musical composition, “My Kind of Zoo,” written and performed by the band for a T.V. and radio jingle promoting the then newly renovated Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  The jingle also won both New York and Chicago Film Festival awards that same year.

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Wayne and Big Daddy toured in the U.S. and internationally with T.V. and live performances in the UK, Germany and Australia.  After a few years of inactivity, the band reformed in 2012 to record their sixth album, “Smashing Songs of Stage and Screen,” which was released the following year on Mash King Records.  Rhino also released a Big Daddy album in 2014, a retrospective on the group titled “Cruisin’ Through the Rhino Years.”

Wayne continues his involvement in music with Big Daddy, as well as analog tape restoration and consulting for various clients including UCLA's Powell Library.  He spent much of 2020 through 2022 writing his autobiography, “Reel To Real Tales...,” and is now looking for an established publishing company.