Allan Clarke (musician)

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Allan Clarke on the Dutch TV show AVRO's Top Pop in 1974

Harold Allan Clarke (born April 5, 1942 in Salford , England ) is a founding member and lead singer of the 1962 Manchester pop band The Hollies . In 2010 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

Career

Allan Clarke and his childhood friend Graham Nash made music together when they went to school in Manchester . After playing in various formations in the 1950s and early 1960s, they formed The Hollies in December 1962 .

The Hollies (1962-1971)

In addition to Clarke and Nash, the group initially consisted of lead guitarist Victor Farrell, called Vic Steele , bassist Eric Haydock and drummer Don Rathbone . A short time later Steele was replaced by Tony Hicks , in 1963 Bobby Elliott came as a drummer for Rathbone.

Clarke was the lead singer of the Hollies, whose trademark was polyphonic harmony singing. Occasionally he also played guitar and harmonica. Her own compositions were mostly written by Clarke, Nash and Hicks, first under the pseudonym L. Ransford , later as Clarke-Nash-Hicks . In 1966, Clarke and his colleagues supported the recording of the Everly Brothers album Two Yanks in England , which consisted largely of cover versions of songs by the Hollies that Clarke had co-written.

The Clarke-Nash-Hicks team composed the albums For Certain Because (1966), Evolution (1967) and Butterfly (1967), including songs written by Clarke alone such as Lullaby To Tim (dedicated to his son but sung by Nash), Heading for a Fall , Water on the Brain and Would You Believe? appeared under the team name. Clarke has also written pieces with Nash, including Try It , Wishyouawish , Tomorrow When it Comes , Jennifer Eccles and Wings .

Due to differences over the musical direction, Graham Nash left the Hollies in 1968 and joined David Crosby and Steven Stills to form the folk-rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash ( Neil Young later joined them). Terry Sylvester joined the Hollies as a replacement from Swinging Blue Jeans .

With Nash's departure, Clarke got the role of a front man for the Hollies from 1968 . He was the only lead singer on the Hollies Sing Dylan album , which reached # 3 on the UK album charts in 1969. He appeared as the sole author of the pieces he wrote My Life Is Over With You , Goodbye Tomorrow , Not That Way at All , Marigold , Mad Professor Blyth , Separated , Row the Boat Together and Hold On . With the new husband Terry Sylvester he wrote a. a. the songs Gloria Swansong , Look at Life , I Wanna Shout , Man Without a Heart and Perfect Lady Housewife .

Separation from the Hollies in 1971

In 1971 Clarke had to leave the Hollies because he wanted to record a solo album against the will of the other members. At the Hollies he was replaced by the Swedish singer Mikael Rickfors .

After his departure, the Hollies had international success with their song Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress from the 1971 album Distant Light , which Clarke had written with Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and for which he was the lead singer and played guitar The place in the US singles chart was the highest ranking they have ever achieved in the US. Terry Sylvester sang the lead part on the Hollies' tours.

Solo career

In 1972 and 1973, Clarke released two solo albums: My Real Name Is' Arold ( Epic ) and Headroom ( EMI ).

Even after his return to the Hollies in 1973, Clarke released various solo albums and singles relatively unsuccessfully. The album Allan Clarke was released in 1974, two years later I've Got Time . In 1978 he left the Hollies for a short time and recorded the solo album I Wasn't Born Yesterday . The album Legendary Heroes , which was released in the USA in 1979 , was released a year later in the UK with a different order of the pieces under the title The Only One . His last solo album, Reasons to Believe , was only released in Germany in 1990 by Polydor .

He also appeared as a guest musician, e.g. B. 1977 with the Alan Parsons Project (album: I Robot ).

Clarke appeared as a surprise guest at a Crosby & Nash concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011. The two earlier Hollies sang Bus Stop .

In 2018 he played the harmonica with the American band The Textones .

In 2019, Allan Clarke released a new solo album Resurgence ( BMG ) at the age of 77 .

The Hollies (1973-1999)

In 1973 Allan Clarke returned to the Hollies. In the following years they recorded a few more albums. By 1978, Clarke wrote most of the Hollies' songs.

His last chart success with the Hollies was in 1993 with Nik Kershaw 's The Woman in Love

For the Buddy Holly tribute album Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) , Clarke contributed the vocals to a new version of Peggy Sue Got Married with the Hollies and Graham Nash in 1996 . "Buddy Holly and The Hollies" were named as interpreters.

Partly due to ongoing vocal cord problems, Clarke retired from the music business in 1999. At the Hollies he was initially replaced by the former lead singer of Move , Carl Wayne , after his death in 2004 by Peter Howarth.

Chart successes with The Hollies and honors

The Hollies were represented in the British music charts with 30 singles (and two re-releases ) . Of these, 17 recordings reached the top 10 and two ( I'm Alive - 1965 and He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - 1988 re-release) reached the top.

Her 1967 album The Hollies' Greatest Hits reached number one on the UK Albums Chart in August 1968

In the US, 23 singles reached the singles charts , six of them made it into the top 10.

On March 15, 2010, Clarke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other (former) Hollies members Graham Nash, Tony Hicks, Eric Haydock, Bobby Elliott, Terry Sylvester and Bernie Calvert .

Discography

Solo albums

  • My Real Name Is' arold (1972)
  • Headroom (1973)
  • Allan Clarke (1974)
  • I've Got Time (1976)
  • I Wasn't Born Yesterday (1978)
  • Legendary Heroes (1979)
  • The Only One (1980)
  • Reasons To Believe (1990)
  • Resurgence (2019)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family Tree. The Hollies, accessed August 5, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Siegfried Schmidt-Joos , Barry Graves : Rock-Lexikon . Rowohlt , Reinbek near Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-499-16320-9 , p. 360 f .
  3. ↑ a b c d David Roberts: British Hit Singles & Albums . 19th edition. Guinness World Records Limited, London 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , pp. 255 .
  4. ↑ The Textones. Old Stone Gang. Guitar Girl Magazine, July 10, 2018, accessed August 6, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Jack Malvern: Hollies star Allan Clarke wins a deal at 77 using music app. The Times , July 13, 2019, accessed June 22, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The Hollies. 2010. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , accessed August 6, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Clarke, Allan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clarke, Harold Allan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Salford , England