Gary Osborne (born 1949 in London) is an English singer and songwriter. He chaired The Songwriters Executive of the British Academy Of Songwriters Composers and Authors for 12 years during which time he was also chairman of The Ivor Novello Awards. [1]
Born in London in 1949, Osborne is the son of the late musical director Tony Osborne. [2] He was educated in Switzerland and entered the music industry at the age of 15. As a teenage songwriter Osborne had recordings by Timi Yuro, Nana Mouskouri and Val Doonican and at age 17 had his first US chart entry with "On The Other Side" by The Seekers, which he wrote with Tom Springfield.
Osborne was influenced by lyricist/producer Norman Newell whom he knew via family connections in his youth. [3]
Osborne's early career included presenting the 1960s radio show Cool Britania on the BBC World Service and a stint with RCA Records in its A&R department. In the early 1970s, he was active in television jingles, writing and performing hundreds of songs for brands including Pepsi, Ultra Brite, Shredded Wheat and Abbey National. [4]
Osborne and Paul Vigrass recorded two albums, both produced by Jeff Wayne. Their first was Queues, in 1972, containing the hits "Forever Autumn", "Men of Learning" and "Virginia (Be Strong)". Their second and last was Steppin' Out, with the hit "Gypsy Woman". "Men of Learning" peaked at #84 in Australia in 1972. [5] The duo did release a belated UK single in 1975 (also produced by Wayne) on CBS 3170 with "Take it Away" on the A side and "Hangin' in, Hangin' Out" (co-written by the duo and Wayne) on the B side.
Osborne went on to collaborate with Elton John throughout the 1978 album A Single Man , and on parts of the albums 21 at 33 , The Fox , Jump Up! and Leather Jackets . The three biggest singles co-written by Elton John and Osborne were "Part-Time Love" from 1978, "Little Jeannie", a U.S. million-seller in 1980, and the worldwide hit "Blue Eyes" from 1982. [4] Osborne was the principal lyricist on the best-selling concept album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds which has sold in excess of 15 million albums and performed half a dozen sold-out UK arena tours as well as touring in Europe and Australia.[ citation needed ]
Osborne's collaboration with Richard Kerr yielded the US hit "I'm Dreaming" for Jennifer Warnes and "Making The Best of a Bad Situation" for Millie Jackson's Still Caught Up album, as well as cuts by Jimmy Helms, Cliff Richard, Peter Cetera, The Edwin Hawkins Singers and The Righteous Brothers. He co-wrote four songs for Albert Hammond's album Somewhere in America (1982). [6]
"I Am the Future", written with Lalo Schifrin for the soundtrack of the movie Class of 1984 , was performed by Alice Cooper. Other films featuring Osborne songs include My Own Private Idaho , Stardust , Every Day's a Holiday , Summer Lovers , The Legacy and Oh! Heavenly Dog .[ citation needed ]
Osborne's credits as a backing vocalist include "Sugar Baby Love" by The Rubettes, "You Can Make Me Dance" by Rod Stewart and The Faces, and "Part-Time Love" by Elton John. More recent work includes the 2006 UK top-3 hit "Checkin' It Out" by Lil' Chris.[ citation needed ]
The 37th Annual Grammy Awards were presented on March 1, 1995, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Bruce Springsteen was the night's biggest winner with 4 awards, including Song of the Year while opening the show with his Grammy nominated hit.
Bernard John Taupin is an English lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin co-wrote the majority of John's songs, dating back to the 1960s.
Harold Lane David was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick.
Carole Bayer Sager is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter, and painter.
David Sneddon is a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician and music producer of contemporary pop music. He began his career performing on stage and television, singing lead roles in stage musicals in Glasgow. In 2002, he won the first series of BBC One music competition Fame Academy. He released his first single "Stop Living the Lie" in 2003 which was a UK number one hit single selling over 250,000 copies, making it Britain's twelfth-highest selling single of 2003. Sneddon's debut album Seven Years – Ten Weeks was released in April 2003 and reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. He achieved three more UK Singles Chart singles – "Don't Let Go", "Best of Order", and "Baby Get Higher". His song "Baby Get Higher" was a hit on the dance floor for Almighty Records and a chart hit for VanVelzen in 2006, and also for Emin Agalarov.
Pauline Matthews, better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English pop singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records.
Albert Louis Hammond OBE is a British-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter and record producer. A prolific songwriter, he also collaborated with other songwriters such as Mike Hazlewood, John Bettis, Hal David, Diane Warren, Holly Knight and Carole Bayer Sager. Hammond's son Albert Hammond Jr. is a guitarist in American rock band the Strokes.
A Single Man is the twelfth studio album by English musician Elton John. Released in 1978, it is the first album for which Gary Osborne replaced Bernie Taupin as lyricist. It is also the first of two John albums that, on the original cut, have no tracks co-written by Taupin.
Anthony Peter Hatch is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer.
David Justin Hayward is an English musician. He was the guitarist and frontman of the rock band the Moody Blues from 1966 until that group's dissolution in 2018. He became the group's principal vocalist and its most prolific songwriter over the 1967–1974 period, and composed several international hit singles for the band.
21 at 33 is the fourteenth studio album by British musician Elton John. It was released on 23 May 1980, through MCA Records in the US and The Rocket Record Company in all other territories. The album was co-produced by John and Clive Franks, and was primarily recorded in August 1979 at Super Bear Studios in Nice, France. The record was the first since Blue Moves (1976) to feature lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, while John also continued to experiment with other lyricists, including Gary Osborne and Tom Robinson. Contributors to the album include members of Toto and the Eagles, as well as Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson, marking their first appearance on an Elton John album since Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975).
This is a summary of 1990 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
Vernon Gosdin aka Country music's "The Voice", was an American country music singer. He had 19 top-10 solo hits on the country music charts from 1977 through 1990. Three of these hits went to Number One: "I Can Tell By the Way You Dance ", "Set 'Em Up Joe", and "I'm Still Crazy".
Jump Up! is the sixteenth studio album by English musician Elton John. It was released in 1982 by The Rocket Record Company except in the US and Canada, where it was released by Geffen Records. In the United States, the album was certified gold by the RIAA in November 1982.
The Thom Bell Sessions is an EP recorded by Elton John in the second half of 1977, but was not released by MCA Records until June 1979.
"Somewhere Out There" is a song released by MCA Records and recorded by American singers Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the soundtrack of the animated feature film An American Tail (1986). The song was written by James Horner, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil, and produced by Peter Asher and Steve Tyrell. It reached number eight in the United Kingdom, number six in Ireland, and number two in both the United States and Canada.
John Gregory Bettis is an American lyricist, best known for his long-term songwriting partnership with Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters. He wrote the lyrics for "Top of the World", a hit for both Lynn Anderson and the Carpenters. He wrote several more hits for the Carpenters, including "Only Yesterday", "Goodbye to Love","Yesterday Once More" and "I Need to Be in Love". He later wrote hits for other artists including: Madonna, Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Conway Twitty, Diana Ross, Westlife, Jennifer Warnes, Peabo Bryson, Maria Vidal, George Strait ("Heartland"), Juice Newton, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Louise Mandrell, 38 Special, New Kids on the Block, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton and Whitney Houston.
Richard Buchanan Kerr was an English singer-songwriter and composer, who co-wrote "Mandy", "Looks Like We Made It", and "Somewhere in the Night" and "I'll Never Love This Way Again", for Dionne Warwick.
"Part-Time Love" is a song written by English musician Elton John with lyrics by Gary Osborne. It is the sixth track off his 1978 album, A Single Man. It is also the opening track of side two. It proved to be one of the most popular singles the pair wrote, along with 1982's "Blue Eyes" and the 1980 US million seller "Little Jeannie". It was banned in the Soviet release of the album along with another song, "Big Dipper". The single reached No. 15 in the UK and peaked just outside the Top 20 in the US at No. 22.
"Amoureuse" is a French language composition by Véronique Sanson introduced on her 1972 album of the same name. Rendered in English the song became a hit single for Kiki Dee and – as "Emotion" – for Helen Reddy.