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John Carter | |
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| Birth name | John Nicholas Shakespeare |
| Born | 20 October 1942 |
| Origin | Small Heath, Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, record producer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
John Nicholas Shakespeare (born 20 October 1942), [1] known as John Carter, is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer.
Mainly popular in the 1960s and early 1970s, Carter's craftsmanship can be heard at work with:
Under the name John Shakespeare he also composed scores for British films, including-
He wrote "Bell Hop," a production library track which became famous as the theme tune to the BBC sitcom Terry and June and The Number One Theme for British European Airways.
Carter met his future songwriting partner Ken Hawker at school in Birmingham. They formed a skiffle band in the 1950s called LVI. It was then they began writing songs together: "We began to write real Buddy Holly take-offs. Which was good, it got us excited about songwriting." In 1960 the duo went to London and presented themselves under their songwriting pseudonyms John Carter and Ken Lewis. Terry Kennedy became their manager and convinced them to start their own band as an outlet for their songs. In 1961 the first single by Carter-Lewis and the Southerners was released, "Back on the Scene". But the band never broke through and their main claim to fame remains a brief stint that Jimmy Page did as their lead guitarist. [3] In 1964 they met Perry Ford, who worked as an engineer in a small recording studio in Denmark Street, London. They noticed their voices blended well and started recording demos together, resulting in a single on Pye Records, "What More Do You Want" as the Ivy League. Their luck changed when Herman's Hermits recorded "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" [3] and took it to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. [4] In the UK it was a smaller hit for Goldie and the Gingerbreads. [8] [9]
They then provided backing vocals for "I Can't Explain", by the Who. [10] In 1965 and 1966, The Ivy League scored four UK chart hits, including "Tossing and Turning", which reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart and "Funny How Love Can Be" being their other top 10 hit. [11] By early 1966 Carter decided he had had enough of touring and was replaced by Tony Burrows from The Kestrels. That year he married Gill Shakespeare who would later write lyrics for some of his songs. Carter concentrated on songwriting, providing hits for Peter and Gordon and Brenda Lee. He found a new songwriting partner in Geoff Stephens, resulting in "My World Fell Down", recorded by The Ivy League, [12] later to be covered by Gary Usher's Sagittarius [13] and Dutch band The Buffoons.
Carter sang lead on the New Vaudeville Band's hit single "Winchester Cathedral", [14] a traditional pop pastiche that became a U.S. chart-topper. He also released a single "White Collar Worker", recorded with Mickey Keen and Robin Shaw, as The Ministry of Sound. Early in 1967, Ken Lewis quit the Ivy League and started writing and recording again with Carter. One of the first results was "Let's Go to San Francisco", released as the Flower Pot Men. [3] As was the case with "Winchester Cathedral", when the recording, made by session musicians, became a hit, a band had to be assembled for live appearances.
In late 1967, Carter and Lewis formed Sunny Records as their production company. Starting early 1968 Carter's output became more and more confusing. Songs intended for the Flowerpot Men were released as Friends, Haystack and Dawn Chorus, only to be re-released in this century as the Flowerpot Men. The 'touring' Flower Pot Men were forced by Deram Records to record songs by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook. As Mark Frumento wrote in the liner notes of the retrospective Flowerpot Men album Listen To the Flowers Grow (compiled by Carter): "At this point Deram decided that the Flower Pot Men name was no longer commercial and the next single, "Piccolo Man" was released as 'Friends'.... The final Flowerpot Men single was released in 1969, but this time the writing team Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway were behind the production". After one abortive attempt the remains of the Flowerpot Men changed their name to White Plains.
The 1970s started with a disappointment when Mary Hopkin became runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Knock, Knock Who's There?", which Carter had written with Stephens.
In the following years Carter released records under many names: Stamford Bridge (number 47 with "Chelsea"), [7] Scarecrow and Stormy Petrel. He also released a single "Cowboy Convention" as the Ohio Express, an American bubblegum group. A hit came in 1974 with "Beach Baby" – Carter/Shakespeare by First Class in 1974. The record also charted in Europe, Australia and South Africa. [5] Another song written by Carter and his wife Gill Shakespeare was "Dreams Are Ten A Penny" by Kincade which was successful on in Europe. After two First Class albums, Carter started concentrating on writing advertising jingles. Among his work are commercials for British European Airways, Vauxhall Motors, and, for Rowntree's, the 1974 children's song "Please Yourself" which introduced a band of four toy characters based on the four different types of Tots sweets: Jerry Joe, vocals (Jelly); Tom, guitar (Tiger); Tim, drums (Teddy); Candy-Doll, keyboards (Candy). His last shot at a hit single was in 1977 as Starbreaker with "Sound of Summer", which itself began life as music in a commercial for Butlin's.[ citation needed ]
In more recent times, Carter has been managing the marketing of his back catalogue through Sunny Records, releasing many songs that were never released at the time of recording. [3] This includes Stamford Bridge's albums Come Up And See Us Sometime and The First Day of Your Life (1997).
Carter worked with Micky Keen and Robin Shaw and as a result of this collaboration they released two albums, Men From The Ministry and Midsummer Nights Dreaming (2005).
In late 2005, Carter released the compilation album; John Carter – A Rose by any Other Name (2005). [15]
In the mid-eighties, John served on the Council of the British Academy of Composers and songwriters and the council as a writer-member of the Performing Right Society.[ citation needed ]
He currently runs with his wife Gill, his own publishing company and record production company, which concentrates on compiling and promoting his enormous back-catalogue of songs and records.[ citation needed ]
In 2012 Carter teamed up with the Brazilian songwriter Salomao Hamzem, who is also a musician and a producer. As writers, they wanted to try something a bit different so hit on the idea of writing songs together in English and Portuguese. When Carter and Hamzem were thinking about names for the band, they came up with the idea of combining the first part Salomao's surname of Hamzem and the last part of Carter making 'Hamzter'. That's why the hamster has become their mascot.[ citation needed ] Their first album A Friend in Need (2016) was a result of this collaboration, followed by Coming Home (2017) and their third album, Time Will Tell (2018). [16] In 2019, they are planning to release their next album.
With Ivy League members Perry Ford passing in 1999, and Ken Lewis in 2015, Carter is the last surviving member of the original 1960s trio.
Mary Hopkin, credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles' Apple label.
The Flower Pot Men were an English pop group created in 1967 as a result of the single, "Let's Go to San Francisco", recorded by session musicians, becoming a major UK Top 20 and Continental Europe hit in the autumn of 1967. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.
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.
James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with various artists, most extensively Janet Jackson. They have written 31 top ten hits in the UK and 41 in the US. In 2022, the duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category.
Anthony Burrows is an English pop singer and recording artist. As a prolific session musician, Burrows was involved in several transatlantic hit singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of which were one-hit wonders, including "Love Grows " by Edison Lighthouse, "United We Stand" by Brotherhood of Man, "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains, "Gimme Dat Ding" by The Pipkins and "Beach Baby" by The First Class. During 1970, four singles by four different acts with whom he performed all charted at or near the top of the UK Singles Chart and additionally reached the top 20 in the United States.
The First Class were a British pop music studio-based group, put together by songwriter and record producer John Carter. They are best known for their hit song "Beach Baby," a top 20 hit in both the US and UK, and #1 in Canada..
Carter-Lewis and the Southerners were an early-1960s rock band, formed by the Birmingham-born musicians Ken Lewis and John Carter.
Kincade was an English band that was formed in 1972. In that year, they had their hit single, "Dreams are Ten a Penny", but the band itself did not exist at the time. The song was written by John Carter and his wife Gill. Carter also sang all the vocals and played the guitar on the record. The song was released by the British record producer on the Penny Farthing Records label. Although the record was unsuccessful in the UK, it reached the #2 in Germany, spent six months on the charts there, and sold a million copies.
George Ivy Hunter, known as Ivy Jo Hunter, was an American R&B songwriter, record producer and singer, most associated with his work for Motown in the 1960s.
Michael Brown was an American keyboardist and songwriter, most notable for his work with the Left Banke. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of violinist and arranger Harry Lookofsky.
Geoffrey Stephens was an English songwriter and record producer, most prolific in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a long series of hit records, often in conjunction with other British songwriters including Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Roger Greenaway, Peter Callander, Barry Mason, Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Les Reed.
The Music Explosion was an American garage rock band from Mansfield, Ohio, discovered and signed by record producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz.
John Carter & Ken Lewis are English songwriters, who wrote many hits in the 1960s for various pop bands. They were published by Southern Music, and operated out of their recording studios in London's Denmark Street.
Kenneth Alan James Hawker known as Ken Lewis, was an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered one of the more successful songwriters of the 1960s as a result of his collaborations with John Carter. His biggest success was "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", which was a 1965 US number 2 hit single for Herman's Hermits.
"Knock, Knock Who's There?" is a song written and composed by John Carter and Geoff Stephens, released on Apple Records. It was originally sung and recorded by the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin and was the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1970, where it came second. The single version was produced by Mickie Most and reached No. 2 on the UK charts.
Neil Landon was an English singer, who has been credited with singing on a number of hits in the UK Singles Chart. In addition, he was a singer and songwriter with the band Fat Mattress, which he co-founded with guitarist/singer Noel Redding.
"Let's Go to San Francisco" is the only UK-charting single by the British pop group The Flower Pot Men. The song was written and produced by John Carter and Ken Lewis, engineered by John Mackswith and released in 1967 on 7" single format. Carter also sang the lead vocal in the recording. It is regarded as a work of the 1960s California Sound.
The Ivy League were an English vocal trio, formed in 1964, who enjoyed two top 10 hit singles on the UK Singles Chart in 1965. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.
"Slip Away" is a song written by William Armstrong, Marcus Daniel, and Wilbur Terrell and performed by Clarence Carter, featured on the 1968 album This Is Clarence Carter.
Perry Ford was an English pop singer, songwriter, producer and session musician, best known as a member of the Ivy League.
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