John Farrar

The cover of Farrar's self-titled album.

John Farrar (Fâr/ə/), born on 8 November 1946 in Melbourne Australia, is a music producer, songwriter, singer and guitarist who is best known for his work with Olivia Newton-John with whom he wrote and produced many hit songs.^[1]

Farrar is a former member of the group The Shadows. He is also the father of Phantom Planet bassist Sam Farrar as well as Max Farrar.

Biography

Farrar began playing guitar when he was twelve, and by sixteen had begun playing with local rock bands.

Shortly after Farrar joined The Strangers, they became the house band for the popular TV music program The Go!! Show.^[2] Both Farrar's future wife, Pat Carroll, and Olivia Newton-John appeared on The Go Show as singers.

After returning from a tour with Newton-John, Carroll was obliged to return to Australia because her visa had expired, while Olivia (who was born in the UK) was able to stay on. Carroll dated and married Farrar. Following her marriage, Carroll ceased to pursue her headliner status and settled into occasionally reprising her duo work with Newton-John and back-up singing, mainly in session work for Farrar/Newton-John productions.

The newlyweds returned to England after Farrar was invited to become a member of Marvin, Welch & Farrar, a vocal-harmony group featuring two former members of The Shadows, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch. Marvin, Welch & Farrar put out two albums, an eponymous album released in 1971 and Second Opinion (released in both quadraphonic and stereo) which was released in 1972. A third album featured just Hank Marvin and Farrar. The Shadows reformed soon after this time in order to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, and John Farrar joined them as second lead guitarist and vocalist. Two years earlier Farrar had appeared on the same show as a backing guitarist and vocalist for Cliff Richard.

Farrar appeared on a number of Shadows albums in this period; "Rocking with Curly Leads", "Specs Appeal", "Tasty" and "Live at the Paris Olympia" in particular owe much to his distinctive talent as arranger. Also during this time, Bruce Welch and Farrar began working on singles for Newton-John and found considerable success with her cover of Bob Dylan's If Not For You. With Newton-John's signing with MCA Records, Farrar began a prolific songwriting and production career with the successful vocalist. His participation in Newton-John's career produced a stream of gold and platinum hits. His discography reflects an artist with a wide range of styles, from You're the One That I Want to Physical.

Farrar's biggest successes with Newton-John as writer-producer came with the film version of the musical Grease in 1977—after a chance meeting with producer Allan Carr at a Hollywood party hosted by her old friend Helen Reddy, Olivia was selected for the lead role of Sandy. During filming, the producers realised that the original score of the musical was too short to bring the film to regular feature length, and that several extra songs were needed, so Farrar wrote and submitted two original songs, "Hopelessly Devoted To You" and "You're The One That I Want". Both were accepted and incorporated into the movie and they proved to be two of the most successful songs on the soundtrack, with both tracks becoming major international hits when released as singles during 1978.

In the mid-1990s, Farrar collaborated with Newton-John and lyricist Tim Rice for the musical score of Cliff Richard's musical Heathcliff based on the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights. His most recent musical is Gidget.

Farrar currently uses the Moonie Ponds recording studios at Sweetwater Road in Malibu USA for any recording that he is involved with.

Guitars used during career

• Electro Longhorn lookalike - it was actually a Maton El Toro
• Rickenbacker
• Martin acoustic (D-28)
• Fender Telecaster thin-line with 3 Bigsby pedals
• Klein.

Discography

As a performer

Solo

• John Farrar - LP/CD - CBS/See4Miles
• With Rainine on My Mind - 7" - Fable
• John and Mary - 7" - Fable
• duet with Olivia Newton-John (2009).

Marvin, Welch & Farrar

• Live at the BBC - Unissued - BBCcopywrite - various sessions 1970-73
• Marvin, Welch & Farrar - LP/CD - RegalZonophone/see4Miles/BGO
• Second Opinion - LP/CD - RegalZonophone/see4Miles/BGO
• Hank Marvin and John Farrar - LP/CD - RegalZonophone/see4Miles/BGO
• Best of Marvin, Welch and Farrar - LP/CD - RegalZonophone/EMI
• Marmaduke - 7" - RegalZonophone
• Strike a light - 7" - RegalZonophone
• Lady of the morning - 7" - RegalZonophone
• Tiny robin - 7" - RegalZonophone
• Faithful - 7" - RegalZonophone

The Shadows

• Radio2, John Peel session - Unissued - BBC copyright - 8 tracks.
• Rockin' With Curly Leads - LP/CD
• Specs Appeal - LP/CD
• Live at Paris Olympia - LP/CD
• Tasty - LP/CD
• Dakota - CD
• Shadows in the 70's - CD
• Run, Billy, Run - 7"
• It'll Be Me, Babe - 7"
• Let me be the one - 7"

The Strangers (Australian band)

• Best of The Strangers - CD
• Bobby & Laurie - CD
• Colin Cook & The Strangers - CD
• Let's Go With The Strangers - LP
• Colin Cook and The Strangers - CD

As a songwriter and producer

With Olivia Newton-John

• Olivia Newton John
• Olivia
• Music Makes My Day
• Long Live Love
• Clearly Love
• Have You Never Been Mellow
• Making a Good Thing Better
• Greatest Hits
• Totally Hot
• Physical
• Soul Kiss
• Warm and Tender
• Greatest Hits
• 20 Golden Greats
• Grease
• The A-side of the Xanadu soundtrack album (ELO member Jeff Lynne produced the B-side)
• New studio album 2009

Production credits

• Neil Sedaka
• The Moirs
• Irene Cara
• Gidget
• Cher
• Jack Wagner
• Tony Cole
• ASH 1970 Avignon featuring Criston Barker ex Air SUPPLY

Hit records

• "If Not for You"
• "Let Me Be There" #6 Pop; #10 Country
• 1974 "If You Love Me, Let Me Know" #5 Pop; #1 Country
• 1975 "Have You Never Been Mellow" #1 Pop
• 1975 "Have You Never Been Mellow (LP)" #1 Pop on the LP chart
• 1975 "Please Mr. Please" #3 Pop
• "Something Better to Do" #13 Pop
• 1976 "Come on Over" #1 Country; #23 Pop
• 1976 "Don't Stop Believin'" #33 Pop
• 1978 "Grease (soundtrack)" Multi-platinum
• 1978 "You're the One That I Want" #1 Pop US; #1 Pop UK
• 1978 "Hopelessly Devoted To You" #3 Pop US; #2 Pop UK
• 1978 "A Little More Love"; #3 Pop
• 1978 "Deeper Than the Night" #11 Pop
• 1980 "Xanadu (soundtrack); (A-side)" #1 Pop on the LP chart; platinum
• 1980 "Magic": #1 Pop August
• 1981 "Physical": #1 Pop, 10 weeks
• 1982 "Make A Move On Me": #5 Pop
• 1982 "Heart Attack": #3 Pop
• 1983 "Twist Of Fate": #5 Pop

Eurovision Song Contest appearances

• 1973 Power to all our friends (backing Cliff Richard).
• 1974 Long live love (producer to Olivia Newton-John)
• 1975 Let me be the one (key member of The Shadows).

External links

• Interview with John Farrar on Youtube

References

Bibliography

• 1. The Story of the Shadows by Mike Read. 1983. Elm Tree books. ISBN 0-241-10861-6.
• 2. John Farrar - Music makes my day, (A Shadsfax-Tribute-40pp-booklet), by T.Hoffman, A.Hardwick, S.Duffy, G.Jermy, A.Lewis, J.Auman. No ISBN.