John Vallins | |
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Birth name | John McIntyre Vallins |
Born | Melbourne, Australia | 19 January 1950
Occupation(s) | Songwriter, bassist, pianist |
Years active | 1966–present |
Website | Official website |
John Vallins (Born 19 January 1950) is an Australian songwriter and musician best known for his 1970s song "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late".
One of only a handful of Australian songwriters ever to make No. 1 on the American Billboard charts, the song reached the top position in May 1978 sung as a duet by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. [1] It was a top ten hit in both Canada and the UK and certified gold by the RIAA and the BPI. It was also covered by English band Silver Sun in 1998 and reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
Vallins grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, and in his early teens formed The Kinetics with school friends [Steve Groves, Ian Manzie and Ken Leroy. The band had some success on the local charts and worked the many dances and clubs that sprang up in Melbourne in the mid-1960s, splitting in 1967. During the next few years, Vallins worked with many bands including a re-formed Kinetics with Ian Manzie, John Wickman and Mal Nichols, the Trap with Yvonne Barrett on vocals, an unnamed band with musicians Gil Mathews, Gary Mobely and Alan Turnbull and the Vibrants with Penny Parsons, Geoff Skewes, Mick Hamilton and Trevor Courtney. It was also around this time that he began working as a studio musician.
In 1971, Vallins travelled to London to join friends Steve Groves and Steve Kipner in the band Tin Tin which achieved a top 20 chart success in the US with "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" produced by Maurice Gibb. Managed by Robert Stigwood, Tin Tin joined the Bee Gees on an extended tour of the United States where their set consisted mostly of songs from their well received new album Astral Taxi . After Tin Tin split, Vallins spent much of the seventies working in London as a studio musician, and had hits in several European Countries as a solo artist. While working and writing with Steve's father Nat Kipner they produced tracks for various artists. It was around this time they wrote "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late". Returning to Australia in the late '70s, Vallins and fellow Aussies Gary Keady and John Phelps started the band World, along with London studio musicians Adrian Wyatt and Eric Cairns. Much of the band's repertoire was devoted to music written by John and Gary Keady for what was the genesis of a rock opera titled Star Lord.
Vallins moved into writing music for advertising in the 1980s, working firstly out of Albert Studios, where he worked with producers Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop. Later at EMI Studios, he produced and wrote tracks for clients like American Express, Apple Inc., Dilmah Tea, De Beers, Domino's Pizza, 2Day FM, 2JJJ, 2SM, 2WS, Streets, Bulmers, McDonald's, Nestle, John Walker, Smith's Crisps, and more. As well as having written songs for Australian, European, Asian and South American headliners and American singers such as Barry White, in the '90s Vallins started his own music production company in Australia concentrating mainly on music for advertising, but also co-writing songs for various TV Series and Movies including the score of the Tristan Malls film Billy's Holiday , and Gary Keady's cult film Sons of Steel with songs also featured in the World Music Festival in Japan.
His songs have been covered and performed by a wide range of artists around the world including Johnny Mathis, Deniece Williams, Patti Austin, Tom Jones, Barry White, Mark Bautista, Sarah Geronimo, Silversun and Acker Bilk as well as many European, Asian and American Country Music Stars.
Vallins continues to work from the comfort of his studios in the Northern Rivers District of New South Wales, and has recently completed new compositions with senior Nashville writers as well as a new album with local country band Gunnado. He takes great interest in working with, and supporting young writers, partially in conjunction with his annual workshop at Camp Creative Bellingen which is patroned by David and Gillian Helfgott, and is a long term board member and presenter at local radio station 2BBB FM Radio.
June Deniece Williams is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC.
Stephen Alan Kipner is an American-born Australian songwriter and record producer, with hits spanning a 40-year period, including chart-topping songs such as Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words", and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle", for which he won an Ivor Novello Award for International Hit of the Year. Other hits he has writing credits on include Chicago's "Hard Habit to Break", 98 Degrees' "The Hardest Thing", Dream's "He Loves U Not", Kelly Rowland's "Stole", The Script's "Breakeven" and "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", American Idol Kris Allen's top 5 debut "Live Like We're Dying", Cheryl Cole's "Fight for This Love", Camila Cabello's "Crying in the Club" and James Arthur's "Say You Won't Let Go".
Tin Tin was a pop rock band, which first formed in Australia as the Kinetics in 1966. They relocated to the United Kingdom in 1969 and were renamed as Tin Tin, which comprised Steve Kipner, Steve Groves, John Vallins and Geoff Bridgford (drums). In 1970 they issued a single, "Toast and Marmalade for Tea", which was a No. 10 hit on the Go-Set National Singles Chart in June the following year. It also reached No. 20 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next single, "Is That the Way?" (1971), peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" is a song performed by singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, written by Nat Kipner and John Vallins. The single was a comeback of sorts for Mathis, because his last U.S. top 10 hit had been 1963’s "What Will Mary Say" and his last U.S. #1 hit had been 1957's "Chances Are."
"Toast and Marmalade for Tea" is a song by the Australian rock group Tin Tin, and was written by Steve Groves and produced by Maurice Gibb. It was a top 20 U.S. hit in 1971.
Neo Wave is the second album by the British power pop band Silver Sun, released in 1998. It contains a cover version of the Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams number-one US hit "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late".
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late is a 1998 EP and single by the British power pop band Silver Sun. The title track is a cover of the John Vallins song that was a US No. 1 hit for Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. It was the biggest commercial success to date for the band reaching No. 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
That's What Friends Are For is an album by American singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, released in July 1978 by Columbia Records. The project was a continuation of the pairing of the artists that began on his previous LP, You Light Up My Life, which included "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late", the duet that was on its way to number one on three different charts in Billboard magazine as the recording sessions for this album got underway.
Astral Taxi is the second and final album released by the Australian rock band Tin Tin, released in December 1971. It was produced by Billy Lawrie, and Maurice Gibb was the executive producer.
"Have You Heard the Word" is a song attributed to the Fut. Written by Steve Kipner and Steve Groves, it is the band's only single. Most of the vocals were sung by Maurice Gibb, in the style of John Lennon. The B-side "Futting" was an instrumental. It was released as a single on 7 March 1970 but did not chart.
You Light Up My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on March 13, 1978, by Columbia Records. While this LP includes three new songs, it doesn’t stray too far from the format of his albums of recent years in covering established material, including a standard, a country number, something from Broadway, and a few soundtrack tunes.
Tears and Laughter is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 1980 on the CBS Records label. The title summarizes how the album is thematically organized, with the back cover labeling side one as "Tears" and side two as "Laughter".
The Best of Johnny Mathis 1975–1980 is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the fall of 1980 by Columbia Records. This collection is similar to his last major compilation, 1972's Johnny Mathis' All-Time Greatest Hits, in that it excludes many of his American radio hits of this period in favor of songs that made the UK singles chart or contemporary hits by other people.
The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 1981 by Columbia Records. The back cover of the album notes that there are four new tracks. A cover of the Commodores hit "Three Times a Lady" had been released on the UK version of his 1980 album Different Kinda Different, which was retitled All for You, but the Mathis rendition of the song makes its US debut here.
Celebration – The Anniversary Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 1981 by the CBS Records division of Columbia. Two of the covers on this release had not previously been included on any Mathis album: Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic" and a new version of Mathis's 1976 song "When a Child Is Born" that was recorded with Gladys Knight & the Pips and reached number 74 on the UK singles chart during a two-week run that began on December 26, 1981.
Better Together: The Duet Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 8, 1991, by Columbia Records and featured three new songs alongside eight other pairings that were previously released.
The Very Best of Johnny Mathis is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 2006 by Sony BMG and peaked at number six on the UK albums chart that same year. This collection has nine of his 17 UK singles chart entries, including his number-one solo version of "When a Child Is Born" and his number-three duet with Deniece Williams, "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late".
The Ultimate Collection is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 2011 by Sony Music Entertainment and reached number 17 on the UK albums chart that same year. This collection has 13 of his 17 UK singles chart entries as well as two tracks from his unreleased 1981 album I Love My Lady: the title song and "Something to Sing About".
Live by Request: Johnny Mathis is a live television concert by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that aired on May 28, 1998, on the A&E Network as part of its Live by Request series. According to the television industry magazine Broadcasting & Cable, the network "recorded its best ratings ever--a 2.3 rating/1.6 million homes according to Nielsen Media Research"—for the broadcast.
Nathan Kipner was an American songwriter and record producer with a considerable career in Australia. He is remembered as the producer of the Bee Gees' first hit "Spicks and Specks". He was the father of Steve Kipner who is also a songwriter and music producer.