Gone to the dogs: Former Las Vegan wrote song for ‘Dalmations’ sequel

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 1:50 a.m.

Clever. Cute. Comforting.

There are many ways to describe "Digga Digga Dog," the opening and closing song to Disney's big holiday release, "102 Dalmatians," the sequel to the live-action "101 Dalmatians."

But perhaps none fits more than catchy.

Even the song title has a certain je ne sais quoi that gets under the skin and refuses to leave.

As one of two writers responsible for the song, that's the kind of reaction Pamela Phillips Oland wants.

A longtime Las Vegan who now resides in Los Angeles, Oland came up with the song concept, wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music with Mark Brymer, a friend and frequent collaborator.

She also was involved with "Digga Digga Dog's," production and co-produced the vocals by Oren Waters.

"It's already one of the biggest things I've been involved with, and it's a thrill," Oland said recently from a hotel in Kauai, Hawaii, where she was on vacation with Robert, her husband of 17 years.

Disney is reported to have spent $125 million on the film, scheduled for release Wednesday, its most ever for a live-action film. With the holiday season being the second-biggest box-office revenue-grossing period of the year, there is certainly a lot riding on the film.

And with soundtracks now a key element in the marketing of films -- as well as helping to put fannies in theater seats -- each song on the album takes on even more importance. But Oland doesn't seem worried.

She said she heard that Disney employees were humming the tune weeks in advance of the soundtrack's release. Certainly a good sign.

Michael Fey, director of music and creative affairs for Disney, said, "It's a great movie song. It's a song that combines elements of soul, rock and pop and also has a highly theatrical leaning to it, especially when seen in the main context of the film."

He said that since her song opens the picture, Oland's challenge was to allude to many aspects of the story without giving away too much at the beginning, as well as to set the tone for the film.

"We wanted it to be a very energetic piece of music that was both contemporary and classic in feel to start off the picture; not only something for the kids but hopefully something the parents could appreciate as well."

When asked if he was happy with the song, Fey said, "absolutely. It's catchy," he said. "I would say that Pamela has been very effective and successful in her efforts.

"When the studio heads heard the song in context of the film, they liked it so much that they wanted to bookend the film with the song."

But this type of pressure is nothing new to Oland.

A songwriter since the late '70s, Oland once had a song of hers pitched to Frank Sinatra.

That song, "Monday Morning Quarterback," which was recorded in 1982 for the album "She Shot Me Down," turned out to be her big break. It seems when the Chairman of the Board wants to record your song, it has a way of opening doors.

It also helped when he sang her praises to all those who would listen, including a packed audience when he debuted "Quarterback" that year in Las Vegas.

"I was sitting front-row center. He introduced me, kissed me onstage and said, 'I didn't think anybody wrote lyrics like this anymore," Oland said.

A ringing endorsement that couldn't have come at a better time, considering at that point she was questioning her career choice.

"I thought at that time, 'What am I doing? I must be crazy -- I'm throwing my life away to write songs," Oland said. "Then I thought, 'Well, if Frank Sinatra says I can write songs, then I must be doing something right.' I'm going to keep at it.

"He personally gave me the courage to continue and follow my career."

As it turns out, it was a smart choice.

A few years later she had her first and only No. 1 hit, "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do," recorded by Anne Murray and Dave Loggins. It was later recorded by Whitney Houston and Jermaine Jackson, but never released as a single, she said, since Houston's record company, Arista, ever mindful of image, wanted to distance the R&B diva from the country version.

Strangely, the song originally was written for Bill Allen -- the late Steve Allen's son -- for his wedding. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, who were in attendance, heard the song and wanted a copy.

Before Oland gave it to them, however, she decided to make it more universal, replacing lyrics written for the wedding with more generalized feelings of a relationship.

"I tell writers, don't worry about writing songs for weddings. You never know what's going to happen," she said.

Which sort of ties in with her motto: Have no expectations and none of them will fail to be met.

Her expectations were never to get into songwriting.

Born in London, Oland's mother took her to elocution lessons to help develop a good accent and speaking voice.

During her lessons, in which she would recite poetry, she learned about the rhythm and rhyming of words and how to understand the language. She found it fascinating.

"Who knew my mom would form a grounding for a career later?" she said laughing.

Her family moved from London to Los Angeles when she was 9, and relocated to Las Vegas two years later. She went on to graduate from Las Vegas High School in the mid-'60s and enrolled in UNLV.

While at the university, she took a summer course in France. After completing the class, the 18-year-old went to London to see her birthplace and to decide if she wanted to live there permanently.

While there she met a 15-year-old boy who she helped counsel once a week. The boy offered to teach her to play guitar as a way of saying thanks for her help, and she obliged.

When she returned to Las Vegas, she mentioned to her father that she'd learned to play a few chords on the guitar. A musician himself, he bought her the instrument to further encourage her.

Soon she was turning angst-filled poems she had previously written into songs about tragic relationships -- all in A-minor, she said.

Oland was hooked on songwriting. But not enough to pursue it full time.

Two years later she went back to L.A. for a public relations internship and never left. After working with other PR firms, she and a friend started their own company.

A few years later she realized she had to make a choice: Stay in PR or try her hand at a "crazy career" in songwriting. She opted for the latter and found minor success -- a few disco songs she'd written were recorded -- but she mainly supported herself by taking part-time jobs.

But since the Sinatra endorsement in '82, she hasn't looked back.

Oland has written in almost every style of music for many well-known artists, including Selena, Earth Wind and Fire, Brian Wilson, Peabo Bryson, Engelbert Humperdinck, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, Reba McIntyre and the Commodores, among others.

She's also written for movies: "Coming to America," "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka"; TV: "Xena: Warrior Princess," (the critically praised musical episode, "The Bitter Suite"), "The Sopranos,"; and children's projects: "Crayola Kids Adventures," "Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories of My Childhood" and the upcoming "The Kids Ten Commandments" for TLC Productions.

George Taweel is co-founder of TLC Entertainment, a film and television production company in Studio City, Calif., which specializes in family and children's entertainment. He has worked with Oland since the early 1980s when he brought her in to do lyrics for a show on the Disney Channel.

"She was a great person to collaborate with," he said. "Not only was she thinking about particular lyrics, but she was concerned about character development and how the songs and lyrics can further character development."

Oland is currently working on two projects with Taweel, "Kid's Ten Commandments" and "The Legend of Three Trees," a film-festival animation project.

Of the "Ten Commandments" project, Taweel says, "She has written some absolutely wonderful music for the show, music that can be heard on any radio station, motion picture of Broadway stage.

"My degree is in music, so I'm pretty picky when it comes to music," he said. "There are a lot of songwriters out there, but it's rare they bring what Pamela brings, especially to the projects we've worked on. I think she's very bit as good as Tim Rice (of "The Lion King" score) or any of the other lyricists that are out there."

These days Oland is focusing on writing more musical numbers, such as "The Ark Hasn't Left Yet," which will be produced by Rob Sternin (producer of "The Nanny") next year.

She also has a book, "The Art of Writing Great Lyrics," which is a revision of the previously released "You Can Write Great Lyrics," to be re-released available in the spring.

Coupled with "Digga Digga Dog" and the that fact she's working on another song for Disney, a tune for the lovable bear Baloo for "The Jungle Book II," things seem to be going well for Oland.

But, as she said, it's been a long time coming.

"In the music business it takes a long time for anything to happen," Oland said. "Sometimes you have to wait a really long time for things to come to fruition."

But having the patience to wait until then is one of the keys to her success, she said, along with her willingness to do whatever the producers or artists wanted from her.

"It's not brain surgery; it's songwriting," she said. "It's my job and I do it till they like it."

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