[2] At the age of nineteen, Lucas started promoting records, choosing artists such as the young Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Sam Cooke, and The Everly Brothers, and encouraging local DJs to play their music.

[1] He made ends meet by selling vacuum cleaners during the day, and attending night school to learn about mutual funds.

While in Miami, he met jazz drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich,[3] and joined him for a world tour, after which Lucas moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a songwriter and producer.

[1][4][5] Lucas then moved to New York City where he took various odd jobs, including becoming a sound engineer for his cousin,[6] jazz musician and writer Don Elliott.

[1] He worked with artists such as Laura Nyro, Ravi Shankar (produced by Timothy Leary), Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, Janis Ian, Jimmy Smith, Bill Evans, Roger Kellaway, Mel Tormé, and Terry Gibbs.

He eventually passed off his engineer job to Jay Messina, and opened his own company, David Lucas Associates, to write jingles full-time.

[9] Lucas used a young tape dubber from Gotham Studios named Walter Carlos who had an early Moog synthesizer to compose music for William Claxton's film Basic Black, a work that is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"[3] In 1971, Lucas produced a four-song demo for the band Stalk-Forrest, which led to them being signed by Columbia's Clive Davis as Blue Öyster Cult.

In 2010, Lucas wrote the song "Inside my Heart", which was sung by actress Kyra Sedgwick for The Miracle Project of Hollywood to benefit autism.

[30][31] In 1985, Lucas refined a recipe of his grandfather's and developed a brand of cocktail mix, "Bob's No Problem, Bloody Mary maker".

[18] According to his website, Lucas spends a great deal of time in Portland, Jamaica, sailing and working on environmental projects, such as trying to save Winifred Beach for the local people.