Nicky Chinn

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Nicky Chinn (born May 16, 1945 in London ) is an English songwriter and music producer . Along with Mike Chapman , he had a long chain of success, especially in the 1970s , and was responsible for many number one hits for groups such as New World , The Sweet , Mud , Smokie , the Arrows , Racey , Suzi Quatro and many others. They worked mainly for the record label RAK Records of Mickie Most .

The musical beginning

Chinn was originally a mechanic and came into music by chance in his mid-twenties. His talent as a songwriter was recognized very quickly, and within a very short time he wrote several pieces for the feature film "There's A Girl In My Soup" with Mike d'Abo .

The sweet

It was then that he met Australian- born Mike Chapman, who worked as a waiter in a restaurant that Chinn frequented. In contrast to Chinn, Chapman was already a professional musician with the band "Tangerine Peel". The two "young, wild guys" were discovered by Mickie Most and specially hired to write songs for a new group: The Sweet . And although they did not write all the songs themselves, their style soon became unmistakable and they were responsible for all the singles that appeared in the early stages of this band. Because Chinn and Chapman's way of writing songs was so successful with British, European and Australian audiences that The Sweet had an uninterrupted series of super hits in the following years. These included "Little Willy", "Wig-Wam Bam", "Hell Raiser", "Teenage Rampage", "Blockbuster" and " The Ballroom Blitz ". The Sweet became so popular in the UK that "Ballroom Blitz" entered the UK charts at number 2, which was absolutely uncommon at the time.

The other bands

When The Sweet wanted to make their sound a little heavier and started to write their own songs, Chinn and Chapman turned to other projects and soon achieved similar success in Europe and Australia with Suzi Quatro, for whom they wrote four smash hits in a row: " Can The Can ”,“ 48 Crash ”,“ Daytona Demon ”and“ Devil Gate Drive ”. Chinn and Chapman also produced Quatro's first three albums.

Their next big success landed "Chinnichap", as they were now called in the press, with Mud , who reached top positions in the charts with four compositions in 1974 and 1975, including the number one hits "Tiger Feet" and " Lonely This Christmas ”.

Smokie were "Chinnichaps" next target, for which they created five hit singles between 1975 and 1978.

Despite their great success in Europe and Australia, it was not until 1978 that the two of them also achieved success in the USA . That came twice, through Exile's "Kiss You All Over" and the ballad "Stumblin 'In" by Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman (the lead singer of Smokie ).

After the glam rock era

However, with the advent of the punk movement, the seemingly invincible couple and their glam rock sound fell out of style in England, and Mike Chapman turned to solo projects. He produced the album "Parallel Lines" for Blondie , which meant that the two had less time to write songs together.

In 1982, Toni Basil's single "Mickey" was another international hit, after which the successful duo split up and Nicky Chinn retired from the music business for several years due to illness. Only after the turn of the millennium did he continue working as a songwriter for Westlife and Selena Gomez .

All in all, his almost twelve-year collaboration with Chapman in the music business had resulted in over 40 UK "Top 40" hits. In Germany, songs by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman were covered by Bernhard Brink and Peter Orloff, among others .

Musical works

Web links