Hi Summer was a British television variety show made by London Weekend Television and shown on UK television in 1977 by ITV, the oldest commercial network in the UK. [1] A total of eight episodes were made and featured a cast that included Leslie Crowther, [2] Lena Zavaroni, [3] Carl Wayne, Pearly Gates, Anna Dawson, Derek Griffiths, [4] Chris Quinten and Stephanie Lawrence. This travelling variety show featured sketches, topical comedy and musical numbers that were recorded both in studio and on location (Stratford upon Avon, Crystal Palace, Knebworth House among others). The theme tune was composed by Lynsey de Paul, [5] [6] and sung by Carl Wayne and was released as a single in 1977 [7] [8] as well as later that year on the album TV Themes (A Selection Of Top Television Series). [9] De Paul's theme was later re-used on commercials for TV Times .
Lynsey de Paul was an English singer-songwriter and producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting with UK top 10 single "Sugar Me", and became the first British female artist to achieve a number one with a self-written song. She represented the UK in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, coming second and scoring another chart-topping hit in Switzerland, and had a successful career as a two-time Ivor Novello Award-winning composer, record producer, actress and television celebrity.
Carl Wayne was an English singer and actor. He is best remembered as the lead singer of The Move in the 1960s.
Lena Hilda Zavaroni was a Scottish singer and television show host. At age 10, with her album Ma! , she was the youngest person in history to have an album in the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Later she starred in her own television series, made numerous TV guest-star appearances, and appeared on stage. From the age of 13, Zavaroni suffered anorexia nervosa and developed clinical depression when she was 15. Following an operation to cure her depression, Zavaroni died at the age of 35 from pneumonia on 1 October 1999.
"Won't Somebody Dance with Me" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul in 1973, which was awarded an Ivor Novello Award in 1974. Her original version of the ballad made the UK, Irish and Dutch Top 20s, and the song was featured in Michael Winner's remake of the film The Big Sleep, The Muppet Show, and the 1970s version of the New Mickey Mouse Club.
"Rock Bottom" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in English by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran. It was also written and produced by de Paul and Moran and released on the Polydor record label. Originally it was written for the group Blue Mink; and submitted unbeknown to de Paul and Moran as an entry for A Song For Europe by the publishers; when it was selected, de Paul agreed to perform the song if Moran would join her. On 9 March 1977, "Rock Bottom" was selected to represent the UK at the A Song for Europe 1977 event held at the New London Theatre, presented by Terry Wogan.
"No, Honestly" is a song written, performed and produced by Lynsey de Paul, that was the theme for London Weekend Television's comedy series of the same name, although the single release was a slightly different version from that used for the TV theme.
"My Man and Me" is a song written, recorded and produced by the British female singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul for her second album, Taste Me... Don't Waste Me, and released as a single backed with de Paul's smoochy version of "Dancing on a Saturday Night" on 21 February 1975.
Tigers and Fireflies is an album recorded in 1978 and released by Lynsey de Paul in April 1979 on the Polydor record label in the UK, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and South America. It was launched at a special event at the Mayfair Club in London, with de Paul looking similar to the 1940s film star Veronica Lake. The album was recorded at Long View Farm Studios with additional recording at Mediasound Studios, New York and produced by Rupert Holmes. In his 1986 biography, Justin de Villeneuve, de Paul's manager at the time wrote "I gave Rupert Holmes a call in New York. He agreed to see me if I flew to America. Polydor, with the prospect of the involvement with Holmes, agreed to up the budget". The collaboration between de Paul and Holmes on Tigers and Fireflies was mentioned on the Ray Shasho Show, when Shasho interviewed Holmes on his BBS radio show on 7 August 2018. The story behind the recording of the album was also discussed in the book Dervish Dust: The Life and Words of James Coburn. Speaking to Music Week about the album, Jim Cook said "Throw away all of your preconceived ideas about Lynsey de Paul" and the Scottish press reported "Nifty production by Rupert Holmes has the petit blonde back on form Not a weak song on the album".
Surprise is the first album released by Lynsey de Paul on the MAM record label in 1973. In Australia, the album name was changed to Sugar Me, after de Paul's first hit single. All of the songs on the album were written or co-written by de Paul, who was accompanied by some of the UK's leading session musicians including Terry Cox, Ralph McTell, Ray Cooper, Jeff Daly, John Gustafson, Chris Rae, Danny Thompson, Gary Boyle, Barry de Souza, Dick Katz, Robert Kirby, Francis Monkman, John Richardson and violinist Johnny Van Derrick. The album front cover is a portrait photo of de Paul photographed by Clive Arrowsmith, and a gatefold sleeve with illustrations provided by de Paul, a nod to her previous career of designing album sleeves and song lyrics.
Before You Go Tonight also known as Take Your Time is a Lynsey de Paul album recorded in 1976 for Jet Records, but shelved out of spite by then manager Don Arden, and not released until 1990. Then it appeared as a CD release in Japan on Century Records, and again on the Vivid Sound under licence from Trojan Records. The album was originally called Singer-Songwriter and was finally released on de Paul's music store as Take Your Time, albeit with a slightly different track listing. All of the songs were written by de Paul, except the amusing "You've Either Got It or You Ain't", which was co-written with David Jordan. The album was produced by de Paul. The track "If I Don't Get You The Next One Will" was released as a single in 1976 and this version is included. "My One and Only" is de Paul's version of a song recorded and released in 1975 by her label mates at the time, the British female vocal trio Bones.
"You Give Me Those Feelings" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul, and produced by de Paul and Jon Kelly. It was released as a non-album single, with the B-side "Beautiful" also composed by de Paul, on Polydor in August 1977, as the follow-up to the European hit single "Rock Bottom". The German and French releases of the single both had picture sleeves. The romantic song makes clever use of vocal overdubbing and has a false ending making the shorter version more radio friendly that the whole song, which clocks in at over four minutes. The song was play listed by a number of British radio stations. It is listed as one of the songs of 1977 in a German music database as one of the songs of the year 1977.
"Hollywood Romance" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and David Jordan. It was released as a single on Polydor Records on 20 October 1978 in a picture sleeve, almost six years to the day after the release of their last hit collaboration "Getting a Drag", and it was play-listed on BBC Radio 1. The record label for this single was unusual in that it was printed in silver instead of the usual Polydor red label. The release was announced in a full page advert "Hollywood Romance - a new single from a very special lady" published in Music Week. In Japan, it was released in February 1979 in the same picture sleeve cover with the title in Japanese added, plus the lyrics were included on the back cover. It was listed as a major release in Hong Kong. It was also released as a track on the 1978 BBC transcription album Servicio Latinoamericano de la BBC vol. 44 together with "Don't Take Love for Granted" by Lulu and "Got to Get You into My Life" by Earth, Wind and Fire.
"House of Cards" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue and is one of their most covered songs. It was first released as a single by Chris Kelly on the CBS label on 7 April 1972, credited as being written by Rubin and Green (Blue). The song was a radio hit in Italy, receiving multiple plays on national radio stations.
"So Good to You" is a song that was written by Lynsey de Paul, and first released by Zakatek as the B-side to his 1973 single, "I Gotcha Now", which also penned by de Paul. The single was released on 2 March 1973 and both songs were produced and arranged by de Paul. Her own version appeared in October 1973 as the B-side to her award-winning single "Won't Somebody Dance with Me", which was arranged by Christopher Gunning and produced by de Paul. In Japan and some South American countries, however, "So Good to You" was released as the A-side of the single release with "Won't Somebody Dance with Me" being relegated to the B-side on its release in 1974. AllMusic lists "So Good to You" as one of De Paul's song highlights. It was also a radio hit in Italy and ranks as one of de Paul's biggest songs there according to Radiocorriere magazine. It is still played on radio stations around the world.
"Hi Summer" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and recorded by Carl Wayne as a single released on the DJM/Weekend label on 5 August 1977. The B-side of the single is another song composed by de Paul, "My Girl and Me". Both songs were produced by de Paul with "Hi Summer" being published by Standard Music. It was used as the theme tune to the popular Sunday night prime time ITV variety programme Hi Summer, which also featured Carl Wayne as one of the performers. The song received good reviews, with notable British DJ and music critic James Hamilton writing "Ultra-brite and bouncy TV theme really does get ‘em jiving" for his weekly disco music feature in Record Mirror. That issue of Record Mirror also contained a half page advert for the single. Music Week also featured a full-page advert for the single. College DJ Andy Davids promoted an uptempo television theme playlist at the time, that included "Hi Summer" along with the theme tunes from "Happy Days" by Pratt & McClain as well as the Muppet Show.
Love Bomb is the fourth album released in 1975 by the British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul, and her second album released on Jet Records in the UK and Polydor in Germany, Australia and Japan. In the US and Canada, it was released in January 1976 on Mercury Records. The album was recorded at the Marquee Studios, London, England, produced by de Paul and arranged by Tony Hymas, with Terry Cox playing drums, John Dean percussion, Chris Rea guitar and Frank McDonald bass. The striking sleeve cover photo of de Paul in U.S. military style clothing was taken by Brian Aris.
"My One and Only" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and first recorded by the female vocal trio Bones. It was released as a single in 1974 in the UK on Jet Records, and on Polydor in France, Germany and Italy. The recording was produced by de Paul. The song is about a summer holiday romance and is influenced by the style of 1960s girl groups such as the Shangri-Las. Bones performed the song on British television as guests on the Granada TV programme, Rock On With 45, on 16 January 1975. The B-side of the single, “Baby Don’t Make Me Cry”, was a doo-wop sounding song co-written by de Paul and Barry Blue, and again it was produced by de Paul.
"All Night" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker. De Paul released her version of the song on 27 April 1973 as her third single released on MAM Records, with arrangements by Martyn Ford and John Bell and produced by de Paul. The song is listed in the U.S. Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries and in the "The Directory of American 45 R.p.m. Records" It features an uncredited male vocal. A slinky, sexy song, it compares a love relationship to that of the spider and a fly. The single is backed by the more socially aware song "Blind Leading the Blind", composed and produced by de Paul. The song was an unusual release since neither the A-side or the B-side featured as tracks on her debut album. "Surprise" had been released a little more than a month earlier - presumably it was not included since "All Night" has a very different style than the tracks on Surprise.
"Taking It On" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker, and originally published by ATV Music. Although de Paul recorded her own demo version of the song in 1972, her version of the song was not released until 2013 on her Anthology CD album Sugar and Beyond. De Paul also arranged and produced this recording.