Mike Chapman

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Michael Donald "Mike" Chapman (born April 15, 1947 in Queensland , Australia ) is an Australian record producer and songwriter who was one of the leading figures in British pop music of the 1970s. He created a number of hit singles for bands like The Sweet , Suzi Quatro , Smokie or Mud and many others. Together with his partner Nicky Chinn , they created an unmistakable glam rock sound that became famous under the trademark "Chinnichap". He later produced albums for Blondie and The Knack .

Early career

Chapman moved to London , England as soon as he was of legal age and played in a band called Tangerine Peel. He earned his living as a waiter in a restaurant, and that's where he met Nicky Chinn. The two immediately noticed a kinship and decided to work together as songwriters. They met producer and music publisher Mickie Most , who hired them for his record label RAK Records . RAK should then quickly become a reservoir for some of the largest groups of the Glam Rock era including Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Hot Chocolate and Mud.

Chinn - Chapman

From 1971 to 1978 Chinn and Chapman achieved one single success after another with their songs and the various artists . From 1973 to 1974 alone, the couple had 19 hits in the UK's top 40, including five number one hits. The couple's dominance in the charts of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand was only achieved by the production team Stock Aitken Waterman in the late 1980s . In 1979 the two founded their own record label "Dreamland", which was dissolved after only two years.

Own productions

Blondie

Nicky Chinn withdrew more and more from production in the late 1970s, and Chapman produced three Suzi Quatro albums between 1978 and 1980 alone. He co-produced Nick Gilder's 1978 album City Nights (which contained the hit Hot Child in the City ) with longtime recording engineer Peter Coleman, and in May of the same year he began working with Blondie on their third album To produce Parallel Lines in New York .

Chapman had been a personal fan of her music since the first Blondie releases, but was always dissatisfied with the productions. He bluntly explained to the band that he was going to produce a hit for them, and he was right: Parallel Lines with the song Heart of Glass became number 1 in the UK, the US and Germany and made Blondie famous. The recordings for Parallel Lines took three months. Singer Deborah Harry felt almost "overwhelmed" by the intensity of Chapman's working methods. She once described him as a “real hot chili pepper” who is very energetic and enthusiastic. Chapman produced three other Blondie albums in a row -  Eat to the Beat , Autoamerican and The Hunter  - and several solo albums by Deborah Harry.

The knack

While recording on Parallel Lines , Chapman also worked with another band for which he was also to lay the foundation for a career: The Knack . The band's website reports that in November 1978, as many as 13 record labels took part in a fierce takeover battle for the band before Capitol Records finally made the running. Producers outdid each other with their services, and even Phil Spector tried for the group. Chapman read an article in the daily newspapers that reported on this producers' battle. His name wasn't on the list. He immediately suspected a sure success and convinced the band to produce with him. The Knack and Chapman went into the studio with a well-rehearsed team and used the entire creativity of the experienced producer and the young, up-and-coming band. While other artists like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac spent more than a year and a million dollars to produce an album, the album Get The Knack was produced in just 11 days for a meager 17,000 dollars. The Knack played the songs "live" with minimal overdubs , Chapman just hit the record button and let the band play.

The album and the single My Sharona became number 1 hits in the USA and sold millions of times around the world. The follow-up album ... But the Little Girls Understand , however, was not at all successful. There was a row with the band, and Chapman accused singer and guitarist Doug Fieger of mistaking himself for Jim Morrison or Buddy Holly . Fieger countered that Chapman was one of the biggest assholes ("the bigger assholes") that one would find on this planet and was not able to produce a decent second album.

Writing technique

Chinn and Chapman wrote their songs quickly and often in a single night. They claimed that they created their songs by first thinking of a catchy title, around which they then wrote the appropriate lyrics. This claim is supported by the lyrics of the early bubblegum pop songs such as B. Wig Wam Bam (The Sweet):

Wig-wam bam, gonna make you my man
Wam-bam-bam, gonna get you if I can
Wig-wam bam, wanna make you understand
Try a little touch, try a little too much
Just try a little wig-wam bam

However, later songs, including the smokie hit Living Next Door to Alice , which was recorded by the New World group back in 1972 , also had a more elaborate, more emotional tone. In a 2002 interview with the Guardian , Chapman reflected that songwriting was an art that many aspired to but few achieved: “It's always a game of chance. We had written about 8 top 10 hits for The Sweet when we heard they went into a studio to record their own songs. Then the group was at an end. The bottom line is that songwriting is easy, but it's incredibly hard to do it well. "

Later work

Chapman worked as a songwriter and producer throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His compositions include Tina Turner (Simply) The Best and Pat Benatars Love is a Battlefield , he has produced albums for Altered Images , Agnetha Fältskog , Divinyls , Rod Stewart , Lita Ford and Bow Wow Wow . In 2006 he wrote Back to the Drive , the theme song for a new Suzi Quatro album.

Works with Nicky Chinn

Works with others

The list below should be read as follows

  • Titles in bold are single releases as A-side
  • Titles in italics are single releases on the B-side
  • Titles, written normally, are releases on a long-playing record
  • Interpreter
  • LP on which the composition was first published
  • Date of publication in the order of year, month, day
title Interpreter LP released annotation
Dancing in the Dark Kim Wilde Catch as Catch Can 1983-10-24 Composition with Paul Gurvitz
Dancing in the Dark Tony Sherman 1983 Composition with Paul Gurvitz
Dancing in the Dark Stacey Q Stacey Q 1985 Composition with Paul Gurvitz
Hands tied Chris Norman Different shades 1987 Composition with Holly Knight
In Your Wildest Dreams Tina Turner & Barry White Wildest Dreams 1996-12-21 Composition with Holly Knight
Love touch Rod Stewart 1. Every Beat of My Heart
2. Public Prosecutors Don't Kiss (Soundtrack)		 1986 Composition with Holly Knight and Gene Black
The Best Tina Turner Foreign Affair 1989-09-02 Composition with Holly Knight
Wrap Your Arms Around Me Agnetha Fältskog Wrap Your Arms Around Me 1983 Composition with Holly Knight

Works without others

The list below should be read as follows

  • Titles in bold are single releases as A-side
  • Titles in italics are single releases on the B-side
  • Titles, written normally, are releases on a long-playing record
  • Interpreter
  • LP on which the composition was first published
  • Date of publication in the order of year, month, day
title Interpreter LP released annotation
Back to the drive Suzi Quatro Back to the drive 2006-03

Works as a producer

The list below should be read as follows

  • album
  • Interpreter
  • Date of publication in the order of year, month, day
  • annotation
album Interpreter released annotation
Get the crack The knack 1979-06-11
... But the Little Girls Understand The knack 1980-02-15
Wrap Your Arms Around Me Agnetha Fältskog 1983-05-31
Parallel lines Blondie 1978-09
Eat to the beat Blondie 1979-10
Autoamerican Blondie 1980-11
The Hunter Blondie 1982-05-24
City Nights Nick Gilder 1978 Co-producer: Peter Coleman
Warrior Scandal 1984-08-21
Please Altered Images 1983-06-17
Sons of Beaches Australian crawl 1982
What a life! Divinyls 1985 Co-producers: Gary Langan , Mark Opitz
Temperamental Divinyls 1988
Lita Lita Ford 1988-02-02
Stiletto Lita Ford 1990-05-15
In the heat of the night Pat Benatar 1979-08-27 Co-producer: Peter Coleman
Invincible Pat Benatar 1985-07-06 ONLY the song Invincible
Baby animals Baby animals 1991
Freak City soundtrack Material issue 1994-03-08
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going Bow wow wow 1983

literature

  • Bob Block: The Chinn & Chapman Song Factory . In: Ernst Günther, Heinz P. Hofmann, Walter Rösler (eds.): Cassette. An almanac for the stage, podium and ring (=  cassette ). No. 4 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1980, p. 249-261 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Getting The Knack ( Memento from September 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ "Knackrophelia Lives!", Phoenix New Times , April 27, 1994 ( Memento of March 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Chapman, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chapman, Michael Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian record producer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Queensland , Australia