Mark Barkan

Who is Mark Barkan?

Mark Barkan is an American songwriter and producer. He was also a musical director for the television show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

He has written numerous songs including Lesley Gore's Top 5 hit "She's a Fool;" the often covered "Pretty Flamingo," which was a hit single for Manfred Mann in 1966; "I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter," which was a hit for Connie Francis in 1963; and "The Tra La La Song," which entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969.

Barkan also wrote songs for many other artists and was involved in "cult" bands as well. He and Ritchie Adams co-wrote songs for The Archies, The Monkees, and for many other recording artists in the late 60's. The team of Barkan and Adams was instrumental on the Banana Splits project, and they also wrote and produced all the songs for Toomorrow, an obscure 1970 musical sci-fi thriller, produced by Don Kirshner, which starred Olivia Newton-John as a band member.