Jeff Cohen (songwriter)

Early life

Jeff Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a kid, Cohen would sing songs into a tape recorder and give the cassettes to his sisters. His musical landscape changed at the age of 13, when his mother bought him Jackson Browne’s Hold Out to take to summer camp. He graduated from Oceanside High School in Oceanside, New York in 1984 and then attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he majored in Government and English. It was during his college years that Cohen began to take guitar and song writing more seriously. He spent the spring semester of 1987 studying at Wroxton College in England before returning to the U.S. and graduating from Franklin and Marshall in 1988.

BMI

Cohen started working at BMI in licensing in 1989 where he helped upcoming bands protect their music and insure they received the royalties they were due. A year later he moved to the writer-publisher relations department, working with such talent as Jeff Buckley, Ani DiFranco, Lisa Loeb, Joan Osborne, Kara Dioguardi, Spin Doctors, Blues Traveller and many more. By 1994 he was promoted to an executive directing role. After a year spent at Warner Chappell Music in 1995, he would return as senior director of BMI in 1996, where he remained until 1999.

Musical career

Cohen is also known as Pancho’s Lament, which he founded to play concerts once a year on his birthday. He brought on friend and drummer Pete DeMeo as a co-member, and over the years, they have performed together on special, but rare occasions. Cohen’s first big break came when he landed the theme song on the WB show Jack and Jill. The track, “Truth About Romeo,” was written and recorded for the debut self-titled Pancho’s Lament album, released in late 1999/early 2000. Pancho’s Lament’s sophomore album, Leaving Town Alive, was released in early 2003. The band did a limited unreleased pressing of a third album called Three Sides to Every Story in 2008. There are still plans to release a fourth album. Cohen also co-wrote and produced an album in 2007 with Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors, called Pancho and the Kid.

Songwriting career

In August 1999, Cohen started pursuing a career as a full-time songwriter, leaving his executive position at BMI after a brief but serious illness. Following the success of Jack and Jill on the WB, Jeff went on to write several songs for other shows including Dawson’s Creek, Party of Five, One Tree Hill, Desperate Housewives, Ed, Roswell, Army Wives, Reba, Smallville, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Who Wants to Marry My Dad, Once and Again and others. In 2005, Pancho’s Lament wrote and performed the theme for I Married a Princess on the Lifetime Network. That same year, Macy Gray’s version of the Cohen-penned “Boom Boom” was the promotional commercial for the upcoming third season of ABC’s Desperate Housewives. Cohen also wrote the theme song featured on the TVLand show The Exes. Songs by Cohen have been featured in major and independent films such as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Stuart Little 2, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Aquamarine, Grandma’s Boy, Unconditional Love, See No Evil and Two Ninas.

Cohen’s songs can be heard on albums stretching across all genres of music. He co-wrote “Postcard From Paris” for The Band Perry’s 2010 debut album, a song that reached No. 5 on the Billboard country charts. Cohen also wrote the Top 5 hit “Crazy For This Girl” for Evan and Jaron, and the Top 15 country hit “Holy Water” for Big and Rich, which went to No. 1 on the CMT and GAC video charts. All three songs earned Cohen BMI awards. Laura Bell Bundy recorded four of Cohen’s songs on her debut album, including the hit single “Giddy On Up,” also a No. 1 video on CMT and GAC. Other artists who have recorded Cohen’s songs include Sugarland, Josh Groban, Macy Gray, Nick Lachey, Marc Broussard, Bethany Joy Lenz (known for her role on One Tree Hill – Cohen also produced her debut EP), Spin Doctors, Mandy Moore, multi-platinum Dutch artist Ilse DeLange (top 10 hit “Beautiful Distraction”), multi-platinum Canadian artist Doc Walker (top 10 hit “Put it Into Drive”), Richie McDonald of Lonestar (title track of Dove nominated album I Turn To You), multi-platinum South Korean artist Cho Yong Pil, multi-platinum Dutch artist Waylon (top 5 hit “Hey”), Sandi Patty, Ronan Tynan, Teitur, Three Graces, Sasha and Shawna, Amie Miriello, Toby Lightman, Chelsea Lee, Ben’s Brother, the multi-platinum Spanish artist Luz Casal, multi-platinum Australian artist Christine Anu, multi-platinum German artist Harmut Engler, and platinum Norwegian artist Torstein Sodal.