Mickie Most

Mickie Most (born June 20, 1938 as Michael Peter Hayes in Aldershot , England , † May 30, 2003 in London ) was an English producer , record label owner and music publisher who had a major influence on pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.

youth

He lived with three siblings in the British garrison town of Aldershot and left school at the age of 15. Even then he was interested in the music industry , although his only relationship with music was the American troop broadcaster AFN . He taught himself to play the guitar on the London Underground .

Career as an interpreter

Most Brothers - Whistle Bait

Together with Alex Murray, Most founded the skiffle duo Most Brothers in 1958 , which was also allowed to perform in the famous " The 2i's Coffee Bar " in London's Soho. They even won a recording deal with Decca, which resulted in the singles Whistle Bait (November 1957), It Takes A Whole Lotta Lovin 'to Keep My Baby Happy (March 1958) and Don't Go Home (June 1958), which did not hit the charts. had been. Together with Cliff Richard and the Kalin Twins , they toured England from October 1958, but broke up soon afterwards. He kept the duo's name as his own and called himself Mickie Most from then on.

Most then met the South African Kristina Frisco, who was on vacation in England. The wedding with her already took place after emigrating to her homeland. Here he founded the cover band Mickie Most & his Playboys (or Minutemen ) in Johannesburg , which re-enacted American rock hits. A first recording session in South Africa took place on May 18, 1959, when the single Give Me More / Rumors was created. By 1962 they had eleven successive top hits in the South African charts, produced by Most itself. These included Mickie Most & the Playboys with D In Love (1961) or the last single Hamba Kahle Twist (isiZulu for "go safe") at the end of 1962 .

When Most returned to England in early 1963, he found an established blues scene there. The recordings Mister Porter / Yes Indeed I Do (June 12, 1963; published in July 1963 and only ranked 45th in the British charts) and The Feminine Look / Shame on You were recorded under his name - regularly with the young Jimmy Page on lead guitar Baby (recorded September 25, 1963), Sea Cruise / It's a Little Bit Hot (December 13, 1963) and as Mickie Most & the Gear with fast rocker Money Honey / That's Alright (March 20, 1964). The former successes in South Africa were not repeated in his homeland; he decided to end his recording career early.

Career as a music producer

After star club appearances in Hamburg, the Animals returned to Newcastle in January 1964. Here they were discovered by Mickie Most in "Club A Go-Go", probably when they performed here on December 30, 1963 with Sonny Boy Williamson. Most produced the first recording session with the band on January 22nd, 1964 at De Lane Lea Studios on Kingsway , from which the blues cover versions Boom Boom , Talkin '' Bout You , Blue Feeling and Dimples emerged . With the help of this concept of producing pure blue tracks for Animals, Most gave the group clear contours that set them apart from other bands in the British Invasion; because the other bands concentrated on rock & roll songs and rhythm & blues titles.

On February 12, 1964, they were back in the studio, this time the blues cover Baby Let Me Take You Home and Gonna Send You Back To Walker (cover of Timmy Shaw's I'm Gonna Send You Back) to Georgia (City Slick)), Blue Feeling , Baby What's Wrong and FEEL were recorded on tape. In March, their first single Baby Let Me Take You Home / Gonna Send You Back To Walker was released from the recorded repertoire , which reached number 21 on the British charts.

On May 17, 1964, the Animals interrupted their tour in Liverpool in order to record again the next day in London's Kingsway studio. Most had booked the studios for three hours. They recorded the House of the Rising Sun , which was often presented on their tours , whose crude original text they had defused. Producer Most, who could not contribute anything to the recording in terms of production technology, did not want to record the title, which was perfectly voiced from the start, but he reluctantly agreed to it. The high routine made the recording easier, because after one take the song was already finished. After half an hour they left the studios again, so that they only had to pay four pounds of studio costs. The negligible production costs were offset by the high income of a million seller of five million records, which was listed at number one in the most important hit parades.

In the third recording session on July 31, 1964, 15 tracks were created, 12 of which appeared on the debut LP The Animals , which was released in November 1964. The third single I'm Crying from the third session reached eighth place on the British charts. In May 1965 the second LP Animal Tracks was released. The Animals' last recording session, directed by Mickie Most, took place on March 20, 1965, when Bring It On Home To Me / For Miss Caulker were created, because after seven hit singles and three LPs, Eric Burdon decided to join Most and EMI leave. On the B-side of this single, Most didn't even bother to eliminate Eric Burdon's distinct vocal errors.

Other groups

Mickie Most also produced other bands during the successful phase of Animals. Meanwhile, a recording date with the Nashville Teens was set for June 26, 1964 , on which, under the supervision of Most, together with the young Jimmy Page as session guitarist, a wild version of John D. Loudermilk's socially critical song Tobacco Road was created. The follow-up single Google Eye , produced on October 9, 1964, was recorded with Page and was penned by Loudermilk.

Like Animals, the quintet Herman's Hermits was signed to Columbia Records after Most discovered it in Bolton in 1964 and got a record deal with the EMI subsidiary. Their first single I'm Into Something Good , selected by Most, reached the status of a million seller after its release on August 20, 1964, which was denied to the original by Earl Jean. The intonation of a slight pop was the benchmark for the group's subsequent singles. Most still used session musicians like John Paul Jones or Vic Flick despite the sound instrumentation by the band . Jimmy Page can be heard again on the follow-up single Silhouettes / Can't You Hear My Heartbeat , which was released on February 12, 1965 .

The most successful year for Herman's Hermits was 1965, when the group sold 10 million copies more records than the Beatles within a year, particularly thanks to their success in the USA. Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter from December 1, 1965 with its guitar and banjo intro , the clear Manchester dialect ("Mancunian Accent") only arrived in the USA and had no hit potential in Great Britain, but became worldwide 4 million copies thereof sold. In contrast to the Beatles, the Hermits did not present their own compositions, but resorted to material mainly from American pop authors. Between 1964 and 1970 they brought 16 singles into the top 20. Up to Lady Barbara (RAK 106) Most produced 29 singles and numerous LPs with the group. Except for I'm Into Something Good , Mrs. Brown and Henry VIIIth played session musicians at Herman's Hermits.

The Yardbirds were also forced by Most to get help from session musicians. Most had to share the producer role with Yardbirds manager and owner of the famous London Crawdaddy Club , Giorgio Gomelsky . Most's first recording date for the Yardbirds was March 5, 1967 for the single Little Games . Nicky Hopkins (keyboards) and John Paul Jones (bass) helped out on the album of the same name (recorded between April 28, 1967 and May 3, 1967), but it could no longer build on its old successes. Most failed to bring the group back to success. The Harry Nilsson composition Ten Little Indians , published in October 1967, also flopped . The Yardbirds continued to tour successfully all over the world, but stopped landing hits and broke up in July 1968.

Soloists

On August 28, 1964, Is It True was created for the American singer Brenda Lee, who was used to success . At that time, EMI entered into a collaboration agreement with Most when George Martin and other producers employed by EMI left the label to work independently. However, the contract only concerned the production work for the EMI record labels, otherwise Most remained an independent producer.

Donovan first appeared in January 1965 and embodied the image of British Bob Dylan . Musically, he first presented folk music, such as his first hit Catch the Wind (recorded on March 12, 1965), which was produced by Terry Kennedy / Peter Eden / Geoff Stephens for Pye Records and sold 200,000 times. When the controversial US manager Allen Klein took over Donovan's management in November 1965 , he exchanged Donovan's previous producers Terry Kennedy / Peter Eden / Geoff Stephens for Most, which was initially disputed. Most was an independent producer, but he had a production contract with EMI, so that Pye Records initially had contractual difficulties with the new producer. When Mickie Most produced Sunshine Superman in three hours at Abbey Road Studios with Donovan and Jimmy Page as session guitarist on December 19, 1965 , the release of Pye Records planned for January 1966 was initially postponed. Instead, the label plundered the archives of old Donovan recordings from February 1966. The contractual problems were only resolved on July 23, 1965, so that in July 1965 Sunshine Superman was first published in the USA, where it received a gold record in September 1965 . It was not until November 14, 1966 that Sunshine Superman was released in Great Britain. The title meant the artistic turning point for Donovan. It consisted of alienation effects of early psychedelic rock , jazz elements, spread a mystical trance atmosphere through the sitar and tambour and was recorded in Abbey Road, all previous recordings by Donovan were made in Peer Music Studios in London's Denmark Street.

All subsequent singles deviated significantly from the original folk ballads that Donovan had previously released. Hurdy Gurdy Man (May 21, 1968) with bassist John Paul Jones was again a psychedelically produced single, this time recorded in the CBS studios in London.

Donovan's focus was on LPs, although Most was a singles-oriented producer, so LPs such as Sunshine Superman (released September 1966 in the US, only June 1967 UK), Mellow Yellow (March 1967), Wear Your Love Like Heaven ( December 1967), A Gift From A Flower to A Garden (December 1967 USA, April 16, 1968 GB), Hurdy Gurdy Man (October 1968), Barabajagal (August 11, 1969) and later Cosmic Wheels (March 1973) a musicologically higher one Importance.

For Jeff Beck , Most produced the track Hi Ho Silver Lining (recorded March 10, 1967) again with Jimmy Page before taking on the producer role for Lulu . She switched to Columbia Records in April 1967 after she and her companion group Luvvers had already released some rock songs on Decca. Most produced all recordings with Lulu from To Sir, With Love / Let's Pretend , which after its release on June 23, 1967, became a million seller in November 1967 and, with sales of four million, was to remain the singer's most successful single. The title first appeared in England as the B-side of Let's Pretend in June 1967, although the B-side in the USA received significantly more airplay than the A-side. Another six singles and numerous LPs followed. Most changed her style, because now she sang - with a few exceptions ( The Boat That I Row , recorded on April 7, 1967) - pop ballads. Among the single hits were the commercial I'm A Tiger or the winning title Boom Bang-A-Bang (March 1969), which was made up for the British Eurovision contribution . Most produced a total of 39 titles for Lulu.

Even Mary Hopkin made of must their commercial British Euro Vision Post Knock, Knock Who's There? produce, which came on the market in March 1970 and was able to achieve a second place in the song competition as well as in the British charts.

Record label

→ Main article: RAK Records

In December 1969, Most and his friend Peter Grant founded their own record label RAK Records , whose first 27 releases all made it into the British Top50. In 1973 alone, 14 of 18 publications reached the top 30. The first single (RAK 101) was the track El Condor Pasa (If I Could) produced by Most in the version by Julie Felix from March 1970, which, due to the lack of a Simon & Garfunkel hit in Great Britain, achieved number 19 there.

Hot Chocolate , which is produced by Most and released their first single Love Is Life (RAK 103) in July 1970, achieved bigger hits. He tinkered with them on an identifiable sound that ultimately consisted of a bluesy mixture of organ and guitar riffs. The formula for success was found, because Brother Louie (March 1973) or You Sexy Thing (October 1975) achieved million seller status. From then on, a creative atmosphere developed at RAK Records that made the label the most successful British label for teen music.

Because with Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman , label owner Most found two talented authors in July 1971, who for The Sweet (from July 1971), Mud (January 1973), Suzi Quatro (April 1973), Smokie (April 1975) or Racey (June 1978) Writing hits on the assembly line and mostly producing them in-house. Racey's Lay Your Love On Me (November 1978) was sold 950,000 times in Great Britain alone (2 million worldwide), making it the top-selling single from RAK Records for the time being. That surpassed Some Girls in March 1979 , because the hit produced by Most himself was sold 5 million times worldwide. Exile (September 1976), Kim Wilde (January 1981) and Johnny Hates Jazz (March 1986) were other artists in the catalog of the RAK Records label, which remained very successful as a label until February 1988. Mickie Most had already sold his label to EMI in 1986, but remained as head of administration.

Recording studios

In November 1976 Mickie Most founded the RAK Sound Recording Studios in St. John's Wood, in north-west London. To this end, he bought a former Victorian school building and church hall for £ 350,000 and converted them into recording studios. Three studios were created, in which mostly the artists under contract with RAK Records were recorded, but Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson had also booked the studios. The first hit from the studios was the title Living Next Door to Alice by Smokie, which was released in November 1976 and was a cover version of the original from New World (November 1972), which was also released on RAK Records . From then on, number one hits of the RAK label catalog such as Suzi Quatro ( Can The Can ; March 1973), Mud ( Tiger Feet ; November 1973), Steve Harley & The Cockney Rebel ( Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me ) ; January 1975) or Hot Chocolate ( So You Win Again ; May 1977).

statistics

The music publisher RAK Publishing , founded at the same time, holds over 3,000 copyrights. Most has sold more than 500 million singles and albums with over 450 productions. According to the Sunday Times , his fortune was estimated at £ 50 million in 2002, including the recording studios for £ 7 million. In 1995 Most was among the 500 richest people in England, his private house was considered one of the largest private houses in Great Britain and had cost £ 4 million. The idea that the composition represents 90% of the success and that the success lies in the first 20 seconds of a production was characteristic of his way of working; if the song doesn't catch on, it won't be a hit. Mickie Most has mostly mastered this principle without his productions being classified as formulaic or even homogeneous. In 1964 Mickie Most was awarded the Grammy for "best producer of the year" .

In 2000 Most developed cancer. He finally died on May 30, 2003 of mesothelioma , a form of lung cancer. He was buried in Golders Green Cemetery in the London Borough of Barnet .

Web links

• Mickie Most . Sound on Sound from August 2003.
• Mickie Most at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Billboard Magazine, October 12, 1974, p. 12
2. ^ Andy Blackford, Wild Animals: The Story of the Animals , 1986, p. 55.
3. ↑ Old Song Tells a Modern Story ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Blues Directory, September 16, 2000. 
4. ^ ^{A b} Andy Blackford, Wild Animals: The Story of the Animals , 1986, pp. 58 ff.
5. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 186.
6. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 192 f.
7. ↑ Gomelsky is officially noted on the record labels as a producer
8. ↑ There's No Most In Donovan's Future , Billboard Magazine, Dec. 18, 1965, p. 34.
9. ^ Richard Buskin, Inside Tracks , 1999, p. 54.
10. ↑ composed by Marty Wilde, Kim Wilde's father
11. ↑ named after the English word "rack" for record shelf
12. ↑ Richarrd Buskin, Inside Tracks , 1999, p 58th
13. ↑ sang mostly songs composed and produced by father Marty and brother Ronny
14. ↑ with Most's son Calvin Hayes
15. ↑ the band was under contract with EMI
16. ↑ Producer Most Dies , Billboard Magazine, June 14, 2003.
17. ↑ Mickie Most . The Guardian dated June 2, 2003.