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Ray Singer (born 4 July 1946) is a British record producer and owner of Singer Records. Singer was instrumental in launching the careers of Peter Sarstedt, [1] David Sylvian, Japan, and Ana Silvera.
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Ray Singer (born 4 July 1946) is a British record producer and owner of Singer Records. Singer was instrumental in launching the careers of Peter Sarstedt, [1] David Sylvian, Japan, and Ana Silvera.
Ray Singer was born in Tonbridge, Kent, England, and raised in Brighton. He first became involved in music by forming a skiffle group as a student in Brighton, and in 1964 made his first records as a singer under the wing of Jeffrey Kruger, who signed him to his independent record label, Ember Records, after seeing him sing in a charity show. Ember Records released Singer's "Tell Me Now" in 1964. [2]
He appeared on television programmes with The Who, the Small Faces, and The Kinks and was a featured artist on Gadzooks!, a weekly BBC2 TV show with Marianne Faithfull and Lulu. Always more interested in production/arrangement, he had the opportunity to work with record producers such as Shel Talmy (The Kinks, The Who) and Jimmy Miller (Traffic, The Rolling Stones), an experience that led him to eventually produce for Chris Blackwell's Island Records. He also attended the London School of Film Technique and joined Nirvana, with fellow film student, Alex Spiropolous. They were signed to Island Records and recorded "Tiny Goddess".
As a songwriter he had success with Françoise Hardy, whose version of "Tiny Goddess" ("Je Ne Sais Pas Ce Que Veux") went to number one in the French charts. Singer also went on to write and produce for the French singer Michel Polnareff.
Whilst working in Paris he discovered a busker from London, the singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt. Singer took him into the studios for Island and recorded Peter Sarstedt, an album of his compositions. From these sessions came the million selling "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" [3] Sarstedt hits that followed included "Frozen Orange Juice" and "I'm A Cathedral".
Singer was eventually to settle in London, becoming best known for his work with British singer-songwriters, including Peter Sarstedt, David Sylvian, Joan Armatrading and Ana Silvera. Some of this work was produced by his own production company, Rocking Horse Productions, which he co-founded with Simon Napier-Bell. [4]
He then went to New York where he was signed to make albums for RCA, ABC and UNI Records. He came back to London and worked mostly at Olympic Studios in Barnes with top musicians including The Average White Band's bass player Alan Gorrie and guitarist Onnie McIntyre, guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer Jim Gordon and bass player Herbie Flowers.
Singer also started producing for the German record label, Ariola Records, and had hits with "When You Walk in the Room" and "It's Only Make Believe", by the boy band Child, and subsequently had success with Joan Armatrading's "Rosie" and Robin Sarstedt's "My Resistance Is Low". He produced the first two albums for pop/rock group Japan, Adolescent Sex (1978) and Obscure Alternatives (also 1978).
He started to work with the film composer, Michael Storey, and went on to produce over one hundred television commercials, including the Levi's and Guinness commercials featuring actor Rutger Hauer. Singer's graduation from the London Film School, and his interest in movies, led him onto producing the soundtracks for the British film, Another Country , starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth and, in Hollywood, Waiting for the Light, starring Shirley MacLaine and Teri Garr. Television soundtracks followed, including the BBC adaption of John le Carré's A Perfect Spy , Anthony Horowitz's The Gift and South by South-East. The Lynda La Plante series, Civvies, won an Ivor Novello Award for best music.
Singer set up his own recording studio in London and his own label, Singer Records. The success of the Wes Anderson movie, The Darjeeling Limited , with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Anjelica Huston, which featured Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To, My Lovely", led to Singer Records releasing The Lost Album by Peter Sarstedt, which has become an iTunes best seller.
Other artists featured on Singer Records are Suggs from Madness, Toyah Willcox and Imaani from Incognito.
He worked on singer-songwriter Ana Silvera's album, The Aviary, [5] co-produced alongside Brad Albetta.
Herman's Hermits are an English pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester and fronted by singer Peter Noone. Known for their jaunty beat sound and Noone's tongue-in-cheek vocal style, the Hermits charted numerous transatlantic hits in the UK and in America, where they ranked as one of the most successful acts in the Beatles-led British Invasion. At the pinnacle of their popularity in 1965, the group logged twenty-four consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the US Billboard chart, and reached number one with the singles "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am". Their other international hits include "I'm Into Something Good", "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", "Silhouettes", "Wonderful World", "A Must to Avoid", "There's a Kind of Hush", "I Can Take or Leave Your Loving", "Something's Happening" and "My Sentimental Friend", all of which were produced by Mickie Most. They also appeared in four films, two of which were vehicles for the band.
Japan were an English new wave band formed in 1974 in Catford, South London by David Sylvian, Steve Jansen (drums) and Mick Karn, joined by Richard Barbieri (keyboards) and Rob Dean the following year. Initially a glam rock-inspired band, Japan developed their sound and androgynous look to incorporate electronic music and foreign influences.
William Harrison Withers Jr. was an American singer and songwriter. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1981). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more.
Jon Hassell was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various world ethnic traditions with modern electronic techniques. The concept was first articulated on Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics, his 1980 collaboration with Brian Eno.
David Sylvian is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly electronic sound made them an important influence on the UK's early-1980s New Romantic scene.
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Andonis Michaelides, better known as Mick Karn, was an English-Cypriot musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/new wave band Japan. His distinctive fretless bass guitar sound and melodic playing style were a trademark of the band's sound.
Peter Eardley Sarstedt was a British singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He was the brother of singers Eden Kane, a teenage pop idol and Clive Sarstedt, with both of whom he also recorded and performed as The Sarstedt Brothers.
"Where Do You Go To?" is a song by the British singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt. Its recording was produced by Ray Singer, engineered by John Mackswith at Lansdowne Recording Studios and released in 1969. The music has been described as "a faux European waltz tune," and the arrangement is a very simple one of strummed acoustic guitar and bass guitar, with brief bursts of French-style accordion at the start and the end. The arranger and conductor was Ian Green.
Clive Robin Sarstedt, who also recorded as Clive Sands, Wes Sands, and Robin Sarstedt, was a British pop singer and instrumentalist active from the late 1950s. He was best known for his UK hit "My Resistance Is Low", a version of a song written and originally recorded by Hoagy Carmichael. He was the younger brother of singers Eden Kane and Peter Sarstedt.
Philip John Palmer is a British rock sideman and session guitarist who has toured, recorded, and worked with numerous artists. He is best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Dire Straits.
Ana Silvera is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer.
"Down to Zero" is a 1976 song by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. It features pedal steel guitar by B. J. Cole and drums by Kenney Jones of the Faces.
John Anthony Mackswith is an English sound engineer.
Whatever's for Us is the debut album of British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. The album was a collaboration between Armatrading and singer-songwriter Pam Nestor. At the time the two were musical partners and wrote over a hundred songs together. Armatrading sings lead vocals and plays piano and acoustic guitar, while Nestor co-wrote most of the songs.
Secret Secrets is the ninth studio album by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, released on 4 February 1985 by A&M. The album was recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, in Willesden, London. It reached number 14 on the UK Album Chart and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry for sales in excess of 60,000 copies. The album peaked at number 18 in Australia. The album had little success with singles, with its only charting hit, "Temptation", stalling at no.65 on the UK Singles Chart.
What's Inside is the fourteenth studio album by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. The album was written, arranged and produced by Armatrading, co-produced by David Tickle and recorded at the A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood. The strings were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, with the Kronos Quartet's contribution recorded at The Plant Recording Studios, Sausalito, California and The Memphis Horns recorded at Kiva Recording Studio, Memphis, Tennessee. The album was released in 1995 by RCA and was Armatrading's only album for the label. She had left A&M in 1992 after an eighteen-year association with the company.
Wind of Time is the fourth album by Dutch recording artist Loona and produced by DJ Sammy. It was released in 2005 via Universal. This album marks the third and final Loona album release through Universal, and also the final one, produced by DJ Sammy, after they separated professionally and privately. The album includes the first and only single "Tears in Heaven".
Jennifer Maidman is a British musician, singer, producer, songwriter, actor and author who has collaborated extensively with many internationally well known groups and artists. Her work appears on hundreds of recordings from 1976 onwards and she has received numerous awards, including a platinum award from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for the album 'Hormonally Yours', on which she worked as part of the band Shakespears Sister. She was a core member of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra from 1984 until 2007. She is best known as a bass guitarist but also sings and plays guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, ukulele, cuatro and Chapman Stick. In June 2016, her website announced that she was working on a solo album in Woodstock, New York featuring amongst others, Jerry Marotta, Annie Whitehead, and David Torn. The album, entitled 'Dreamland' was released on 1 August 2017 and features Marotta, Torn and Whitehead, with guest contributions from Paul Brady and Robert Wyatt amongst others. Since 2017, she has also been collaborating frequently with New York-based arts cooperative The Secret City. In 2021, she reunited with Joan Armatrading for a live stream concert at the Asylum Chapel in London. In 2022, the concert was broadcast in the UK by the BBC and released as a double album on CD and streaming services.
England's Lane is the ninth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt. Released in 1997, it was produced by Brian Hodgson, a childhood friend of the singer. The album featured the sequel to his 1969 hit "Where Do You Go To ", titled "The Last of the Breed", continuing the story of the fictional Marie-Claire.
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