Harriet Schock (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, teacher, author, and actress. She made three albums for a major label in the 1970s, scoring gold and platinum awards for her Grammy-nominated "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady". She later moved into teaching and soundtrack work. In the 1990s, she resumed her recording career.
Biography
Early years
Harriet Schock – née Schoch – was born in Dallas, Texas and raised in North Dallas, one of the two children of dermatologist Arthur Schoch and his wife the former Elizabeth Lubbes. The couple also have an older daughter, Sandra. Schock was taught by her father to play the piano by ear at age 4, then formally studied the piano throughout her school years. She wrote her first song in the seventh grade, and went on to write music for skits performed at her high school. She attended the Hockaday School, graduating in 1958. While earning her BA in English from UT Austin, Schock wrote songs for campus shows. After completing her BA in 1962, Schock worked as a copywriter, first in Dallas and then in Los Angeles. In the middle of the 1960s, she married Dallas-based actor Warren Hammack, and the two later relocated to Los Angeles.
Singer-songwriter
Schock had intended to use her university background as a dramatist, but after moving to Los Angeles she began to perform her original compositions at local clubs. At a songwriting workshop sponsored by ASCAP, Schock met Roger Gordon of the publishing arm of Colgems Records. After Gordon scouted one of her club gigs, she was signed as a songwriter to Colgems. At this point she left her final copywriting job. According to Schock, she wrote her first two albums by composing songs over the weekends and then taking her songs in to Colgems the following Monday. Her first recorded composition: "That's the Way It is With You", was recorded for the Partridge Family album Bulletin Board which was released in 1973. That same year Schock's divorce from Hammack was finalized.
She was scouted by 20th Century Records at the Ice House in Pasadena, after her inaugural recording deal with Columbia Records fell through. She signed with 20th Century Records in 1974, and went on to record three albums for the label: Hollywood Town, She's Low Clouds (both 1974), and You Don't Know What You're In For (1976). She was named as Cashbox's Best New Female Artist two times. Her songwriting expertise was reviewed in 1977 by Roger Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times: "Schock offers a sort of applied feminism [via] lyrics which [without] rhetoric...cut to the heart of contemporary fears and uncertainties. She deals primarily in the area of love relationships...with a gratifying openness, vulnerability and integrity. Schock's solid, melodic pop music is efficient but not mechanical [with] strong choruses and assured dynamic variations."
In 1975, Helen Reddy scored a No. 8 Billboard Hot 100 with a Schock composition: "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady". Reddy's success alerted several other artists to the potential of Schock's compositions, which then appeared on albums by Charlene, Roberta Flack, Howard Johnson, Jeannie Kendall, Abbe Lane, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Johnny Mathis, and Snuff.