Charles Blackwell | |
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 Blackwell in the 1960s | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 20 May 1940 London, England |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Music arranger, record producer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1960–present |
Charles Blackwell (born 20 May 1940) [1] is an English arranger, record producer and songwriter.
Born in London, Blackwell taught himself to play the piano and to write arrangements. He started working as an arranger with record producer Joe Meek at the age of eighteen, and became one of the most prolific studio arrangers and record producers of the 1960s and 1970s, with a string of hit records to his credit, [2] including "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton; [3] "What's New Pussycat", [4] "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" by Tom Jones; [5] and "Release Me", [6] "A Man Without Love" [7] by Engelbert Humperdinck. In addition, he was involved in the recordings of "Hold Me" for P.J. Proby, [8] and in a number of hits by Kathy Kirby, including "Secret Love". [9] Blackwell also regularly arranged and conducted studio recordings for francophone artists, including Art Sullivan, [10] [11] [12] Michel Polnareff ("Love Me Please Love Me"), [13] and Françoise Hardy ("Je Veux Qu'il Revienne" / "Only You Can Do It"). [14] He composed a number of hits for Hardy. [15] He had many hits with TV producer Jack Good producing for Decca Records these included The Vernon Girls, Jess Conrad, Jet Harris and Karl Denver.
He has a huge roster of artistes that he has recorded with, including Shirley Bassey, Lena Horne, Buddy Greco, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Anka, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot, Lulu, Vera Lynn, Slim Whitman, Bobby Goldsboro, Dionne Warwick, Gene Pitney, Brook Benton, Del Shannon and Jackie DeShannon. [2] While in Australia in 1963 he produced "Proud of You", the biggest hit of Sydney vocalist Jay Justin's career. Charles arranged the title song for the 1960s TV series Fireball XL5 , and wrote several film scores including A Place to Go (1963) and Some Girls Do (1969). He also worked with Burt Bacharach on two Peter Sellers' films, What's New Pussycat? (1965) and After the Fox (1966). He wrote the music and lyrics for the 1962 UK chart-topper "Come Outside" recorded by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richards. [16] The million selling "Tchin Tchin" by Richard Anthony was also composed by him. [17] Also in 1962 he was musical director for a Jimmy Savile song "Ahab the Arab" which, today (2022), would be regarded as too offensive to broadcast. It was released on the Decca record label.
In 1974, he arranged and conducted the Luxembourgian entry ("Bye Bye I Love You") at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton. [18]
In the 1990s, he co-wrote a number of hits in Europe for David Hasselhoff. [2]
In 2005, he was the arranger and musical director of the African dance stage show Sun Dance. More recently he was commissioned by the European Parliament to orchestrate and conduct the Anthem of Europe ("Ode to Joy" by Beethoven) with a 70-man orchestra, for a new recording that is played at every parliamentary sitting. [19]
MAM Records was a British record label launched in 1970 by the management company Management Agency & Music Ltd. (MAM). It was founded by Gordon Mills and Tom Jones and distributed by Decca Records. The first single released on MAM was "I Hear You Knocking" by Dave Edmunds in 1970. Later that year, Gilbert O'Sullivan started his run of hit singles on MAM with "Nothing Rhymed", and he also provided MAM with its first hit album in 1971 with Himself. Other hit albums such as Back to Front, I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter, and A Stranger In My Own Back Yard followed.
Gordon William Mills was a successful London-based music industry manager and songwriter. He was born in Madras, British India and grew up in Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. During the 1960s and 1970s, he managed the careers of three highly successful musical artists - Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Gilbert O'Sullivan. Mills was also a songwriter, penning hits for Cliff Richard, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, Freddie and the Dreamers, the Applejacks, Paul Jones, Peter and Gordon and Tom Jones, most notably co-writing Jones's signature song "It's Not Unusual" with Les Reed.
John Barry Mason was an English singer and songwriter. A leading songwriter of the 1960s, he wrote the bulk of his most successful songs in partnership with Les Reed. Mason gained many gold and platinum awards for his work including five Ivor Novello Awards, the most recent of them in 1998.
Charles Calello is an American arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, and singer born in Newark, New Jersey. Calello attended Newark Arts High School and the Manhattan School of Music, in New York City. His track record of successfully collaborating with various artists to produce or arrange Billboard hit songs led to his nickname in the industry as the "Hit Man."
James George Tomkins, known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English guitarist.
Michael William Sammes was an English musician and vocal session arranger, performing backing vocals on pop music recorded in the UK from 1955 to the 1970s.
Arnold George Dorsey, known professionally as Engelbert Humperdinck, is a British pop singer who has been described as "one of the finest middle-of-the-road balladeers around". He achieved international prominence in 1967 with his recording of "Release Me".
Leslie David Reed was an English songwriter, arranger, musician and light-orchestra leader. His major songwriting partners were Gordon Mills, Barry Mason, and Geoff Stephens, although he wrote songs with many others such as Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Peter Callander, and Johnny Worth.
"The Way of Love" is a song written by Jacques ("Jack") Dieval, with English lyrics by Al Stillman. It was originally a 1960 French song titled "J'ai le mal de toi", and it was first recorded in English by Kathy Kirby in 1965. The best-known English version was by Cher whose recording reached No. 7 in the US. Other variations of the song include "Parlez-moi de lui" and "It's Impossible".
"Release Me", is a popular song written by Eddie "Piano" Miller and Robert Yount in 1949. Four years later it was recorded by Jimmy Heap & the Melody Masters, and with even better success by Patti Page (1954), Ray Price (1954), and Kitty Wells (1954). Jivin' Gene [Bourgeois] & the Jokers recorded the tune in 1960, and that version served as an inspiration for Little Esther Phillips, who reached number one on the R&B chart and number eight on the pop chart with her big-selling cover. The Everly Brothers followed in 1963, along with Lucille Starr including a translation in French (1964), Jerry Wallace (1966), Dean Martin (1967), Engelbert Humperdinck (1967) who was number one on the UK Singles Chart and many others in the years after such as Jewels Renauld (2022).
"Come Outside" is a song written by Charles Blackwell. A recording credited to Mike Sarne with accompaniment directed by Charles Blackwell featuring Wendy Richard reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1962. The track stayed at number one for a fortnight during the weeks commencing 28 June and 5 July 1962. The song was placed twelfth on the chart of overall single sales for the calendar year 1962 in the UK.
"Mon amie la rose" is a poem written by Cécile Caulier and Jacques Lacome, originally performed in song by French singer Françoise Hardy in 1964. It became one of Hardy's most popular songs, and was collected on her album Mon amie la rose.
John Stanley Livingstone Harris was a Scottish composer, producer, arranger, conductor, and musical director. He lived in the United States from 1972 until his death.
Mon amie la rose is a studio album by the French popular singer Françoise Hardy, released in France in November 1964 on LP Disques Vogue. Published without a title except for her name on the cover this album has colloquially become known by the title of its most successful song, "Mon amie la rose".
L'amitié is the fifth studio album by French singer-songwriter Françoise Hardy, released in November 1965 on Disques Vogue. Like many of her previous records, it was originally released without a title and came to be referred to, later on, by the name of its most popular song. The album includes several French adaptations of English-language songs, along with Hardy's own compositions.
Ray Singer is a British record producer and owner of Singer Records. Singer was instrumental in launching the careers of Peter Sarstedt, David Sylvian, Japan, and Ana Silvera.
"Eternally" is a song with music by Charlie Chaplin, and words by the English lyricists Geoff Parsons and John Turner. The music was initially composed for Chaplin's film Limelight (1952) and titled "Terry's Theme"; the film won an Oscar for "Best Original Dramatic Score" at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973.
"Storm in a Teacup" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker, recorded by the British group The Fortunes and released as a single in 1972.
"Winter World of Love" is a song recorded by Engelbert Humperdinck, which was released on his eponymous album and as a single in 1969.
Peter Michael Sullivan was a British record producer, active mostly during the 1960s, and most often associated with records by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck.
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