John Carter

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For the jazz clarinet player John Carter, see John Carter (jazz musician).

John Carter (born John Shakespeare^[1], 20 October 1942,^[1] Small Heath, Birmingham, England) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer.

Overview

Mainly popular in the 1960s, Carter's craftmanship can be heard at work with:

• Carter-Lewis and the Southerners
• The Ivy League - "Funny How Love Can Be", "That's Why I'm Crying", "Tossing and Turning"
• Herman's Hermits - "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat"
• Brenda Lee - "Is It True?"
• The Music Explosion - "Little Bit o'Soul"
• Peter and Gordon - "Sunday for Tea"
• The Flower Pot Men - "Let's Go to San Francisco"
• First Class - "Beach baby"
• Mary Hopkin - "Knock Knock Who's There"
• Kincade - "Dreams Are Ten a Penny"

Biography

Carter met his future songwriting partner Ken Hawker at school. They formed a skiffle band in the 1950s called LVI. It was then they began writing songs together: "We began to write real Buddy Holly take-offs. Which was good, it got us excited about songwriting." In 1960 the duo went to London and presented themselves under their songwriting pseudonyms John Carter and Ken Lewis. Terry Kennedy became their manager and convinced them to start their own band as an outlet for their songs. In 1961 the first single by Carter-Lewis and the Southerners was released, "Back on the Scene". But the band never broke through and their main claim to fame remains a brief stint that Jimmy Page did as their lead guitarist. In 1964 they met Perry Ford, who worked as an engineer in a small recording studio in Denmark Street, London. They noticed their voices blended well and started recording demos together, resulting in a single on Pye Records, "What More Do You Want" as The Ivy League. Their luck changed when Herman's Hermits recorded "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" and took it to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. In the UK it was a smaller hit for Goldie & the Gingerbreads.

They then provided backing vocals for "I Can't Explain", by The Who. In 1965 The Ivy League scored a couple of hits, "Tossing and Turning" reaching Number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. By early 1966 Carter decided he had had enough of touring and was replaced by Tony Burrows from The Kestrels. That year he married Gill who would later write lyrics for some of his songs. Carter concentrated on songwriting, providing hits for Peter & Gordon and Brenda Lee. He found a new songwriting partner in Geoff Stephens, resulting in "My World Fell Down", recorded by The Ivy League, later to be covered by Gary Usher's Sagittarius.

Carter sang lead on the The New Vaudeville Band's hit single "Winchester Cathedral", a traditional jazz pastiche that became a U.S. chart-topper. He also released a single, recorded with Mickey Keen and Robin Shaw, as The Ministry of Sound. Early in 1967 [[Ken Lewis] quit the Ivy League too and started writing and recording again with Carter. One of the first results was "Let's Go To San Francisco", released as The Flower Pot Men. As was the case with "Winchester Cathedral", when the recording, made by session-men, became a hit, a band has to be assembled for live appearances.

In late 1967 Carter and Lewis formed Sunny Records as their production company. Starting early 1968 Carter's output became more and more confusing. Songs intended for The Flower Pot Men were released as Friends, Haystack and Dawn Chorus, only to be re-released in this century as The Flower Pot Men. The 'touring' Flower Pot Men were forced by Deram Records to record songs by Roger Greenaway and after one abortive attempt changed their name to White Plains.^{[citation needed]}

The 1970s started with a disappointment when Mary Hopkins became runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Knock Knock Who's There", which Carter had written with Stephens. Under the name John Shakespeare, Carter composed several film scores, including Connecting Rooms (1970).

In the following years Carter released records under many names: Stamford Bridge (# 48 with "Chelsea"), Kincade, Scarecrow and Stormy Petrel. He also released a single as The Ohio Express, an American bubblegum group renowned for not playing or singing on most of their records. The hit came with "Beach Baby" by First Class in 1974. After two First Class albums Carter started concentrating on writing advertising jingles. Among his work are commercials for Vauxhall, British Caledonian and Rowntree. His last shot at a hit single was in 1979 as Starbreaker with "Sound of Summer".

In more recent times Carter has been managing the marketing of his back catalogue through Sunny Records, releasing many songs that were never released at the time of recording.

References

Sources

• Melody Maker 1962-1979
• New Musical Express 1963-1979
• Record Mirror 1964-1967

External links

• John Carter (musician) at the Internet Movie Database