Alan A. Freeman

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Alan A. Freeman (born September 28, 1920 in London , † March 15, 1985 in Surrey ) was a British music producer .

Freeman is best known for being the producer of Petula Clark from 1949 to 1963 , when Tony Hatch took over the role from him. Hatch made Petula internationally known, but it was Freeman who had promoted her musical career since she was 17.

Alan Freeman's dream had always been to have his own record label and release his own records. In 1949 he was working as a representative for Eddie Kazner's music publishing house when he inherited a little money and was therefore able to start realizing his dream. His friend Joe Henderson knew the young Petula Clark, whose father Leslie wanted to help her to a record career. Joe introduced Alan to Leslie, who then invested some of his (or Petula's) money in the new label.

The label, Polygon Records , was Alan's valiant attempt to get a foothold in the UK record market at a time when it was dominated by brands like Decca and HMV ( EMI ). The first recordings were actually made for the Australian market, where Alan had contacts and wanted to practice a bit first.

He got Polygon up and running by 1950, and in the five years the label had existed more than 180 records had been made, all produced by Alan. 50 of the titles were from Petula. In 1955 it was time for a change. The label had small successes, including some chart hits (the biggest of which was The Little Shoemaker by Petula Clark at number 7), but the big breakthrough was a long time coming.

Alan was contacted by New Zealand businessman Hilton Nixon , who had a dream similar to Alan. Hilton had founded Nixa Records but had problems with distribution and sold part of his company to Pye Radio . Polygon was merged with Nixa under the label Pye Nixa Records . Alan continued to produce records but had to share the responsibility with others. In 1959 the company dropped the 'Nixa' and became Pye Records .

Petula was still recording records for Pye but hadn't had a hit since 1958. But Alan found a song that got her career in Great Britain back on track: the song “Seemann” by Werner Scharfenberger and Fini Busch , with which Lolita had a huge hit in Germany and the rest of Europe . Norman Newell wrote (under the pseudonym David West ) an English text for Sailor - and they landed Petula's first number 1 hit in Great Britain (on February 23, 1961).

Petula's records were then produced by Tony Hatch, and she started a world career with Sailor with two different number 1 hits each in Great Britain and the USA . She has never forgotten the man who made it possible for her to make records for the first time and even called him from Australia in the late 1970s to congratulate him on his 50th birthday.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alan A. Freeman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
2. ^ Petula Clark Downtown . Richard Buskin in Sound on Sound magazine online. Retrieved October 3, 2016.