John Carter (singer, 1942)

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John Carter (* 20th October 1942 as John Shakespeare in Small Heath, Birmingham ) is an English singer , songwriter and music producer .

Life

In the late 1950s , Carter and Ken Lewis founded his first band, Carter Lewis & the Southerners , a skiffle band inspired by Buddy Holly . The biggest success of this group was the 1963 single Your Momma's Out of Town . The guitarist Jimmy Page belonged to this band , later with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin .

In 1965 the group The Ivy League was launched, which immediately placed three titles in the British charts (including Tossing and Turning ). John Carter left this formation in 1966 to concentrate on a career as a songwriter. Here he celebrated his first success with songs for Brenda Lee and Herman's Hermits . However, he continued to release his own singles and worked as a studio musician. As a background singer he can be heard with Tom Jones ( It's Not Unusual ), Keith West ( Excerpt from a Teenage Opera ) or The Who ( I Can't Explain ), among others .

In the 1966 million seller Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville Band , he sang the lead vocal. The song became the best-selling single of the year in England. He wrote other songs for The Flower Pot Men ( Let's Go to San Francisco ), the Troggs and Manfred Mann ( Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James ).

In 1970 he wrote the play Dreams Are Ten a Penny with his wife Gillian Shakespeare and published it himself under the pseudonym "Kincade". The title flopped in Great Britain, while it became a hit in Germany in 1972/1973 and reached number 2 in the singles charts. With Do You Remember Marilyn , Kincade achieved another top 20 hit in Germany in 1973. However, since Carter did not want to perform live, Paul and Nigel Griggs and Rick Williams, who were also under contract with Penny Farthing as "Octopus", also took over the job for future Kincade singles. From August 1973, Carter produced some similar-sounding single successes for singer John Kincade , such as Shine on Me Woman , the Kalin Twins classic When and ('Til) I Kissed You , originally by the Everly Brothers . In 1974 Carter produced the First Class ( Beach Baby ) project and also played the guitar.

John Carter is still very active in the music business today. He wrote songs for Sammy Hagar and produced Tina Turner for the piece Private Dancer . On December 6, 2004, he released a rock and pop album called A Rose by Any Other Name . He recorded this CD with many mutual friends and companions from earlier days, including Geoff Stephens , Alan Hawkshaw and Tony Burrows (the latter was lead singer for The Ivy League, The Flower Pot Men, White Plains , The Pipkins , Brotherhood of Man and Edison Lighthouse ). His wife Gil sang in the background.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956–1980 . Taurus Press, Hamburg 1990, p. 115.