Albert Hammond

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Albert Hammond (2015)

Albert Hammond (born May 18, 1944 in London ) is a singer-songwriter and music producer . He wrote hits like The Free Electric Band , It Never Rains in Southern California , The Air That I Breathe and One Moment in Time .

life and career

Beginnings

Albert Hammond was born in London in 1944 as one of three children . Just a few months after his birth, his parents took him back to Gibraltar , where his family's roots lie. At the age of nine, Hammond sang in the church choir. Around the same time, his uncle made the first demo recordings with him. At the age of 14 Hammond made his first appearances with his friend Richard Cartwright, they appeared as Albert & Richard in Gibraltar and Spain . In 1960 he left school and formed the band The Diamond Boys with Cartwright and other musicians, including his brother Leslie. Their repertoire consisted of English and Spanish language rock and roll , and the band was very popular in Spain.

During this time they sent their first recordings New Orleans and Fool in Love to England, where they were released by Parlophone . A few months later, The Diamond Boys went on a tour of Morocco where they performed in various clubs in Casablanca . Back from the tour, they won first place at the Circo Price Music Festival in Madrid . This event brought the band in contact with RCA , where they released their second single.

breakthrough

At the age of 18, Hammond moved back to England, where he met radio host Mike Hazlewood in 1966 . Together the two wrote songs for other performers; Hammond composed and Hazlewood contributed the lyrics. The first world hit of the two was in 1968 Little Arrows , interpreted by Leapy Lee .

In 1966 he founded the group The Family Dogg with Steve Rowland , Mike Hazlewood and the singer Christine Holmes . It existed until 1972 and brought out the albums A Way of Life (1969) and View from Rowland's Head (1972). She had a hit in 1970 with the rare bird composition Sympathy (number 2 in the Dutch charts).

Hammond moved to the USA , where he made his breakthrough as a singer in the fall of 1972 with It Never Rains in Southern California, also made in collaboration with Hazlewood . The song rose to number five in the US charts and number nine in Germany and was then frequently covered, for example by Sonny & Cher (1974) or by Smokie (2000).

It was followed by other solo hits from Hammond such as The Free Electric Band (1973), Peacemaker (1974), I'm a Train (1974), Everything I Want to Do (1974) and Down by the River (1975) - one of the first songs against pollution of rivers by industry.

In addition to English titles, Hammond also recorded numerous songs in Spanish. He ended his solo career for the time being in 1982 with the album Somewhere in America . In 1987 the two-man album Hammond & West was released , but the single Give a Little Love could no longer build on the old successes.

Songwriting

At the end of the 1980s it became quieter around Hammond as a singer, he mainly concentrated on songwriting. He wrote world hits like The Air That I Breathe ( Hollies ), 99 Miles from LA ( Art Garfunkel ), One Moment in Time ( Whitney Houston ), When I Need You ( Leo Sayer ), Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now ( Starship ) , To All the Girls I've Loved Before ( Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias ), I Don't Wanna Lose You , Way of the World ( Tina Turner ) and When You Tell Me That You Love Me ( Diana Ross ). In 2008 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame .

In addition to Mike Hazlewood, he wrote songs for Tom Jones , Joe Cocker , Celine Dion , Chris de Burgh , the Carpenters and Ace of Base together with Diane Warren , John Bettis and Hal David , the former partner of Burt Bacharach , and he also worked with the German singer Sandra Schwarzhaupt .

From 2010

Albert Hammond (2013)

Together with Duffy he wrote and produced most of the tracks on their second album Endlessly , which was released in 2010 . In November 2010 a new album was released with Legend . It includes Hammond's classics that have been re-recorded with well-known duet partners. Also includes a duet with his son Albert Hammond Junior , who is guitarist for The Strokes . In October 2013 Hammond's live album Songbook 2013 - Live in Wilhelmshaven was released .

Since 2013 Hammond has been playing more concerts with his band again; most of them in German-speaking countries, Great Britain and Ireland, but also in the Netherlands, Belgium and Gibraltar. In 2016 he also visited Scandinavia and South Africa with his Songbook tour and in 2017 made a guest appearance at the Steinegg Live Festival near Bozen in South Tyrol . At the beginning of 2017 he released his Songbook DVD Live in Berlin . The music for the musical Matterhorn ( libretto by Michael Kunze ), which had its world premiere in February 2018 at the Theater St. Gallen , is Hammond's first work in the field of music theater.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / monthly data
(Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1972 It Never Rains in Southern California - - - - US77 (15 weeks)
US
First published: 1972
1973 The Free Electric Band DE40 (4 months)
DE 		- - - US193 (4 weeks)
US
First published: 1973
1975 Albert Hammond DE30 (1 month)
DE 		- - - -
First published: 1974
1975 99 Miles from LA DE32 (2 months)
DE 		- - - -
First published: 1975
2016 In symphony DE30 (3 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: 2016

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

  • 1976: When I Need You
  • 1976: My Spanish Album
  • 1977: Wed album de recuerdos
  • 1978: Albert Louis Hammond
  • 1981: Your World and My World
  • 1982: Somewhere in America
  • 1986: Hammond and West (with Albert West )
  • 2005: Revolution of the Heart
  • 2007: When I Need You / Somewhere in America
  • 2010: Legend (2 CDs)
  • 2012: Legend II
  • 2013: Songbook 2013 Live in Wilhelmshaven

Compilations

  • 1976: Greatest Hits
  • 1976: Albert Hammond canta sus grandes éxitos en español e inglés
  • 1977: New Gold Disc
  • 1979: The Albert Hammond Collection
  • 1988: The Very Best of Albert Hammond
  • 1989: Best of Me
  • 1995: Greatest Hits (2 CDs)

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / monthly data
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US USTemplate: chart table / maintenance / charts non-existent
1972 Down by the River
It Never Rains in Southern California 		DE8 (15 weeks)
DE 		AT11 (2 months)
AT 		CH4 (13 weeks)
CH 		- US91 (7 weeks)
US
First published: June 1972
It Never Rains in Southern California
It Never Rains in Southern California 		DE9 (22 weeks)
DE 		- CH5 (9 weeks)
CH 		- US5
gold
gold

(16 weeks)US
First published: September 1972
1973 If You Gotta Break Another Heart
It Never Rains in Southern California 		- - - - US63 (6 weeks)
US
First published: February 1973
The Free Electric Band
The Free Electric Band 		DE4 (26 weeks)
DE 		AT2 (3 months)
AT 		CH4 (14 weeks)
CH 		UK19 (11 weeks)
UK 		US48 (11 weeks)
US
First published: April 1973
The Peacemaker
The Free Electric Band 		DE17 (10 weeks)
DE 		- - - US80 (4 weeks)
US
First published: July 1973
Half a Million Miles from Home
Albert Hammond 		- - - - US87 (5 weeks)
US
First published: November 1973
Everything I Want to Do
Albert Hammond 		DE7 (25 weeks)
DE 		AT6 (4 months)
AT 		- - -
First published: December 1973
1974 I'm a train
Albert Hammond 		DE2 (18 weeks)
DE 		- CH3 (15 weeks)
CH 		- US31 (12 weeks)
US
First published: January 1974
Air Disaster
Albert Hammond 		- - - - US81 (4 weeks)
US
First published: June 1974
1975 New York City Here I Come
Albert Hammond 		DE28 (7 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: February 1975
99 Miles from LA
99 Miles from LA 		- - - - US91 (6 weeks)
US
First published: February 1975
These Are the Good Old Days
99 Miles from LA 		DE14 (9 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: October 1975
1981 When I'm Gone
Your World and My World 		DE50 (12 weeks)
DE 		- CH12 (5 weeks)
CH 		- -
First published: February 1981
1987 Give a Little Love
Hammond and West 		DE40 (9 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: December 1986
with Albert West

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

  • 1970: Follow the Bouncing Ball (with Steve Rowland)
  • 1972: Names, Tags, Numbers & Labels
  • 1973: Si tienes que destrozar otro corazón
  • 1973: Rebecca
  • 1974: We're Running Out
  • 1975: Down by the River - Newly Recorded Version
  • 1975: Lay the Music Down
  • 1975: Cerca del Rio
  • 1976: Échame a mi la culpa
  • 1976: Moonlight Lady
  • 1976: Ansiedad
  • 1976: When I Need You
  • 1977: Terminado
  • 1977: Eres toda una mujer
  • 1978: Enredao
  • 1981: Your World and My World
  • 1982: The Light at the End of the Line
  • 1983: Albert Hammond (EP)
  • 1987: Air Disaster (with Albert West )
  • 1987: Secrets of the Night (with Albert West)
  • 1989: Under the Christmas Tree
  • 1989: Where Were You

swell

  1. ^ Albert Hammond. (No longer available online.) Songwriters Hall of Fame, archived from the original on April 2, 2014 ; accessed on March 8, 2014 .
  2. ^ Albert Hammond - Songbook 2013 - Live in Wilhelmshaven. Retrieved March 8, 2014 .
  3. ^ Hammond in Steinegg - The New South Tyrolean Daily Newspaper. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  4. ^ Hypertension Music: Songbook DVD Live. In: online store. Hypertension Store, January 20, 2017, accessed November 17, 2017 .
  5. ↑ blick.ch: “Matterhorn” - Singing summiteers at the St. Gallen Theater
  6. ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums US
  7. ↑ a b gold / platinum database US
  8. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .

Web links

Commons : Albert Hammond  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hammond, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English musician and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England