Born in Surrey, England, British pop mogul King, whose career spanned more than three decades, was convicted of seducing and molesting young boys during the period 1983 through 1989, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released after serving about half the time.
His first #1 hit was released in 1965, called, Everyone's Gone to the Moon. A year later, at the age of 22, he became manager of Decca Records. In 1969 he formed his own record label, UK Records, and was responsible for many hit tunes, some recorded under his own name, and many under pseudonyms. In the 1970's he had a string of top-30 "bubblegum music" hits.
Later in his career he created the BBC television show, Entertainment USA, and another teen music television show called No Limits. He has published several books and was a columnist for Britain's newspaper, The Sun. He ran for Parliament twice as an independent. Since his release from prison, he has released a collection of new songs and a full-length feature film called Vile Pervert: The Musical.
Representative Albums: "King of Hits," "The Many Faces of Jonathan King," "Hit Millionaire"
Biography
Jonathan King is the sort of figure who is unique to British pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. He could have no equivalent in America because of the sheer breadth of his talent and its relative superficiality. His music intersects commercial pop and comedy at several points, like a cross between Herman's Hermits, the Bee Gees, and Randy Newman, without ever getting more profound or complex than the first people on that list. He'd last about ten weeks in the American consciousness before being forgotten, which he mostly has been since his one thrust at fame in the States in 1965. Jonathan King burst onto the British (and, briefly, international) music scene in 1965 when he wrote and recorded a single called "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." With a "Ferry Cross the Mersey" type beat and string section, and dream-like, surreal lyrics that anticipated aspects of the Bee Gees' subsequent work, the song got to number four in England and even reached number 17 in America. That's not bad for someone who was still an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge. King later showed his acumen as a writer and producer by taking the band Hedgehoppers Anonymous in hand and producing the poppish folk protest song "It's Good News Week," which was a Top Five hit in England and brushed the U.S. charts at number 50. Since then, King has been a ubiquitous figure in British pop music, without a lot of presence elsewhere.
After graduating from college in 1966, he was offered his own television show, Good Evening, which gave him a firm visual anchor in the mind of the British public. A little bit later, he was hired by Sir Edward Lewis, the founder and chairman of England's Decca Records, as his assistant. The aging Lewis (who'd put the company together in 1929) knew that there were changes going on in popular music -- the presence of the Rolling Stones and the Small Faces on Decca reminded him of that fact every day -- but not how to decide whom or what to record. King became his resident advisor in dealing with the new pop music. In that capacity, King made his most significant achievement in music in late 1967 when he signed a group of high school age boys who'd formed a band at the Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. Christened Genesis, this band cut a few sides (including the progressive pop single "Silent Sun") for Decca under King's supervision, on which they sounded like a lighter-weight version of their older labelmates the Moody Blues. They didn't sell many records for Decca, although the band did reconstitute itself, outside of King's influence, into one of the most important art rock bands of the early '70s and one of the most successful pop/rock groups of the late '70s onward. King left Decca in 1970 and two years later -- after an interim period producing a series of minor British hits for bands like the Weathermen, the Piglets, and St. Cecilia, which were often King working pseudonymously -- he formed his own UK Records label, which was distributed by Decca. His most significant signing there was 10cc, and King also enjoyed a huge hit in 1975 with "Una Paloma Blanca," a cover of a George Baker song that did better than Baker's own. Around that same time, King got in on the ground floor of one of the great pop culture franchises of the decade when he became the original backer and producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. King returned to Decca Records in the 1970s, but was unable to reverse the company's gradual decline, which resulted in its sale at the very end of the decade to Polygram Records. As powerful as he has been behind the scenes at various times, as an arbiter of who and what got recorded at the label, King was even more visible to the public as the host of the BBC television show Entertainment USA and the music program No Limits, as a pop music columnist for the newspaper The Sun, and as publisher of the music magazine Raw. Thus, he managed to combine elements akin to the careers of Peter Noone, Casey Kasem, Brian Epstein, Randy Newman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dick Clark, Gloria Stavers, and Jan Wenner all in one, engendering contempt from many of the more dedicated musicians in England and making himself king of a pop culture empire for decades. He has also won the approval of some celebrated musicians -- Mick Jagger, for one, loved King's delightful Grateful Dead-style country version of "Satisfaction," released in the early '70s and credited to Nemo.
In 1989, Castle Communications released The Butterfly That Stamped, a two-CD collection of King's most well-known and entertaining recordings from the previous 24 years, under all of his varying guises. This included many of his more satiric pieces, including his heavy metal version of "Sugar Sugar" credited to Sakkarin and his ska satire "Johnny Reggae," credited to the Piglets. King remained a well-known music personality through the 1990's, but in 2001 his career and his celebrity status both came to a sudden halt when he was exposed in a sensational trial as a serial abuser of young boys, in a series of incidents said by authorities to go back at least 30 years. He was sentenced to seven years in a case that was still on appeal as of 2004. While his case was still on, King was released from prison in March of 2005. Upon his release, he claimed that he "enjoyed" his time in jail: "I've had a brilliant three-and-a-half years for crimes I did not commit." ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King, 6 December 1944, London, England) is a British singer, songwriter, TV personality, impresario, and producer.[1]
He first came to prominence as a Cambridge University undergraduate, when he wrote and sang "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" in 1965, going on to become an executive and media entrepreneur. He recorded many more songs, as well as becoming a writer and producer for various other musical artists. He has amassed sales as a performer in total of around 40 million.[2]
King was sentenced to seven years in prison in November 2001 after being convicted of sexually assaulting five teenage boys, aged 14 to 16, between 1983 and 1989.[3] He was refused permission to appeal in January 2003 by the Court of Appeal in London,[4] and was released on parole in March 2005. As of November 2007, an appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision was before the European Court of Human Rights.[5] King has maintained his innocence, arguing that he could not defend himself adequately because of the length of time that had passed since the incidents.[4]
The child of an American father and an English mother, King was educated at Charterhouse School (with Max Hastings and Jonathan Dimbleby) and Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate, he wrote and sang his first hit, "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", in 1965 which sold over 4 million copies and was a worldwide hit. Before graduating, he wrote and produced further hits such as "It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous and later "Johnny Reggae" by The Piglets, and also discovered, named and produced Genesis, whose founding members had also been at Charterhouse and whom he named to commemorate the start of his production career.[6][7][8]
Soon after King graduated, his Saturday evening ITV series Good Evening; I'm Jonathan King, was seen nationally for six months.[9]
Under various different names he performed and produced a large number of songs. Among these were "Let It All Hang Out" (a cover of the 1967 track by The Hombres), "It Only Takes A Minute" (a cover of the Tavares track), "Sugar, Sugar", "Loop di Love", "Hooked on a Feeling" (a cover of the track by B J Thomas), "Lazybones", "It's The Same Old Song" (originally by The Four Tops) and "The Sun Has Got His Hat On". He produced such hits as "Leap Up And Down Wave Your Knickers In The Air" for St Cecilia and also the Bay City Rollers; singing most of the vocals on their first hit, "Keep on Dancing". He backed The Rocky Horror Show and produced the original cast album.
His own record label, UK Records had dozens of hits with artistes such as 10cc, whom he also named,[10]Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs "Seaside Shuffle", Roy C "Shotgun Wedding", Carl Malcolm with "Fattie Bum Bum", The First Class with "Beach Baby", Lobo "Baby I'd Love You To Want Me", and many others, sometimes three or four on the charts at the same time. King frequently performed under pseudonyms such as "Shag", "Sakkarin", "Bubblerock", "100 Ton and a Feather" and "Nemo", although, in 1975, a rendition under his own name of "Una Paloma Blanca" was named Record of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards.[citation needed]
In April 1978, standing under his real name (Kenneth George King) as a Royalist candidate he polled 2,350 votes (5.3%) in the Epsom and Ewell by-election.[11]
1980s and 1990s
King moved on from the music industry in the 1980s, to further his involvement in television and radio. He presented a daily talk show on New York's WMCA radio from 10-12 weekday mornings throughout 1980 and 1981 and regularly reported from the US on Top of the Pops.[9] A spinoff series, Entertainment USA, was very successful on BBC Two, getting over 9 million viewers. He also created the Youth TV show No Limits which topped the BBC ratings.[9] King wrote a page in The Sun for eight years called 'Bizarre USA' and his criticism of Band Aid and Live Aid provoked 18,500 letters in one day. He wrote regular features in many other newspapers and magazines. King also completed two published novels, Bible Two and The Booker Prize Winner.[9] He continued some music projects, including the bizarre supergroup project "Gogmagog" with ex members of Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Whitesnake and other classic rock bands.[12]
In 1993, he founded The Tip Sheet, a music weekly publication, which also continues online as a message board discussing and promoting unknown and unsigned musical acts.[8] In 1995/1996 he hosted the 10-12 daily show on Talk Radio in the UK, now TalkSport. In 1997 he was awarded the BPI Man Of The Year Award in a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel with a message of support from the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair for his "important contribution to one of this country’s great success stories."[14]
King was also an early fan of the Harry Potter books, releasing a tribute CD in 1999.[15]
Arrest and prison
In November 2000, King was questioned by police and charged with sexual offences dating back to the early 1970s. After the case attracted publicity, several more men came forward with complaints, and further charges were laid. Following a trial in September 2001, King was convicted and received a seven year prison sentence for four indecent assaults against 14 and 15 year old boys, and two offences of buggery and attempted buggery against two boys of 14 committed between 1983 and 1989.[16] He was released on parole half way through the sentence.[17]
On his release he stated his intention to return to the music and entertainment industries.[18] The European Court of Human Rights is considering an appeal against his convictions.[5]</ref>
Artistic controversy
In 1987, King accused Pet Shop Boys of plagiarising the melody of Cat Stevens' 1970 song 'Wild World' for their UK #1 single 'It's a Sin' . King also released his own cover version of Wild World as a single, using a similar musical arrangement to It's a Sin, in an effort to demonstrate his claims. This single flopped, while Pet Shop Boys sued King, eventually winning out-of-court damages, which they donated to charity.
In 2007 he released a collection of mainly new songs, entitled Earth to King. One of these attracted notoriety in July 2007, when it was perceived as defending the world's most prolific serial killerDr. Harold Shipman.[19]
In May 2008, King released a full length "comedy documentary" feature called "Vile Pervert: The Musical"[20] which includes 21 characters all portrayed by King.
^Malcolm Farnsworth. "U.K. Political Quiz" (Questions). http://australianpolitics.com/about. http://australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml. Retrieved 18 June 2009.. "Q: 6. j). Which broadcaster polled 5.3% of the vote as a royalist candidate (1978)? A: Jonathan King. Standing under his real name (Kenneth George King) he polled 2,350 votes in the Epsom and Ewell by-election on 27 April 1978."
