Nicky Chinn
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Nicky Chinn
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Nicky Chinn was one half of the most commercially productive songwriting team of Britain's glitter-rock era, partnering with Mike Chapman to pen a series of incessantly catchy, intentionally disposable hit singles. Born May 16, 1945, in London, Chinn was working with cars in 1970 when he first tried his hand at songwriting in tandem with Mike D'Abo, landing a bit of material on the soundtrack of There's a Girl in My Soup. That same year he met Chapman, a member of the group Tangerine Peel and a waiter at the restaurant Chinn frequented. The two found that they had similar aspirations, and decided to team up. They caught on with producer Mickie Most's RAK label in the fall, and were assigned to work with a new group called the Sweet. Chinn and Chapman penned two quick hits for the band in 1971, "Funny Funny" and "Co Co," which established their knack for big melodies and silly lyrics. New World also scored a hit with their "Tom Tom Turnaround," and the partnership was on its way. Over the next few years, Chinn and Chapman enjoyed their greatest success with primary vehicle Sweet, with a string of hits -- "Little Willy," "Wig-Wam Bam," the U.K. number one "Blockbuster," "Hell Raiser," the oft-covered "Ballroom Blitz," "Teenage Rampage" -- that got progressively crunchier and harder-rocking, at the request of the band. Having perfected their brand of bubblegum glam rock, and with Sweet wanting more control over their own music, Chinn and Chapman branched out into work with other acts, moving into production as well as writing. They wrote a series of U.K. smashes for Suzi Quatro over 1973-1974, including "Can the Can," "48 Crash," "Devil Gate Drive," and "The Wild One." "A Touch Too Much" went Top Ten for the Arrows in 1974, but Mud became the duo's main concern for 1974-1975, with another string of successes that included "Dyna-Mite," the number one "Tiger Feet," "The Cat Crept In," "Rocket," "Lonely This Christmas" (another number one), and "The Secrets That You Keep." Their next vehicle was Smokey (sometimes Smokie), which scored with "If You Think You Know How to Love Me," "Don't Play Your Rock and Roll to Me," "Living Next Door to Alice," "It's Your Life," and "Oh Carol" over 1975-1978. Despite Chinn and Chapman's massive success in the U.K., they remained virtual unknowns in the American marketplace, save for a few Sweet tunes. They finally topped the U.S. charts in 1978 with Exile's "Kiss You All Over." Chinn stayed with Chapman for a bit longer to work with Racey, which managed a couple of hits over 1978-1979 in "Some Girls" and "Lay Your Love on Me." However, the emergence of punk was making their brand of glitter rock obsolete in the U.K., and Chapman was forging a successful solo production career, highlighted early on by his work with Blondie, the Knack, and Pat Benatar, among others. The two started their own label, Dreamland, in 1979, but the timing was off, and it folded in 1981. The duo's last hurrah was Toni Basil's 1982 American chart-topper "Mickey," a slightly rewritten version of a Racey tune originally called "Kitty." While Chapman continued on in the music business, Chinn retreated from view in the absence of his longtime partner. ~ Steve Huey, RoviRelated Videos:
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Nicky Chinn
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Nicky Chinn
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Nicky Chinn born Nicholas Barry Chinn,[1] 16 May 1945,[2] London, UK) is a British songwriter and record producer. Together with Mike Chapman he had a long string of hit singles in the UK and US in the 1970s and early 1980s, including several number-one records. The duo wrote hits for such notable UK-based artists as Suzi Quatro, Mud, Sweet, Arrows ("Touch Too Much"), Racey, Smokie, Tina Turner and Huey Lewis and the News.
Career
Chinn was born to an affluent London Jewish family that owned a string of service stations and car sales distributorships. However as a young man his talent for writing successful pop songs proved so obvious that within a month or two of his first efforts as a songwriter Chinn co-wrote with Mike d'Abo (the ex Manfred Mann lead singer) the two main songs for the hit film, There's a Girl in My Soup.
It was at this point that Chinn joined the Australian-born Chapman, who was a waiter at a night club Chinn frequented, and they decided to team up. Chapman was already a professional musician with the band Tangerine Peel and the two quickly joined up with Mickie Most's RAK label and began writing songs for a new glam rock band Sweet and their catchy compositions accounted for all the singles the band released in their early years.
Chinn's and Chapman's songwriting style was so successful with British and worldwide audiences that Sweet had an uninterrupted string of million-selling hits in the next few years. These included "Co-Co", Little Willy", "Wig-Wam Bam", "Blockbuster!" (their first UK number one), "Ballroom Blitz", "Hell Raiser" and "Teenage Rampage". Sweet were so popular in Britain that "Ballroom Blitz" entered the UK Singles Chart at number two - an unusual feat in those days. Also "Little Willy" and "Ballroom Blitz" both went on to be top five hits in the United States.
Because Sweet wanted to move towards a harder, stripped-down style, they turned to writing their own songs[citation needed], but Chinn and Chapman achieved equal success worldwide with Suzi Quatro, for whom they wrote many hits including "Can the Can", "48 Crash" and "Devil Gate Drive". Chinn and Chapman (now known as "Chinnichap") found their next big success with Mud who had hits with a number of their compositions between 1973 and 1975, including two number ones in "Tiger Feet" and "Lonely This Christmas". Smokie became Chinn and Chapman's next project and they had a number of hit singles with them between 1975 and 1978 including the worldwide hit "Living Next Door To Alice".
In 1978 the two scored their first number one in the United States with Exile's "Kiss You All Over" and Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman (Smokie's lead singer) reached number four in the same year with their duet "Stumblin' In". In 1982 "Mickey" by Toni Basil gave the two their second American number one and in the mid-eighties they had top ten hits with Tina Turner's "Better Be Good To Me" and Huey Lewis's "Heart And Soul".
Chinn and Chapman gradually separated during the early 1980s finally splitting up in 1983. All in all however Chinn's twelve year stint with Chapman had made him cowriter of over fifty top 40 hits. In 1983 he cowrote "Dancing in the Dark", a UK hit for Kim Wilde.
During their careers Chinn and Chapman were recipients of three of the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting including the Jimmy Kennedy award for outstanding career achievement in 1997.
During the late 1980s and throughout the 90's Chinn suffered from ill health which kept him away from writing. He returned in 2004 and started working with various hit writers including the Swedish writer Jorgen Elofsson and they wrote "You Must Have Had A Broken Heart" for Westlife's 2006 album Back Home which went to number one in the UK and many other countries.
Chinn now spends a lot of his time in Nashville working with many of the top writers there. While there he cowrote "Live Like There's No Tomorrow" recorded by Selena Gomez for her 2010 album A Year Without Rain which debuted at number 4 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and has since gone gold. The song is also featured in her top ten box office Disney movie Ramona and Beezus. Also while in Nashville he cowrote 'Beautiful Life' which was recorded by Donny and Marie Osmond for their 2010 country album which debuted on the Billboard country chart at No.7 and the main Billboard top 200 chart at No.11.
References
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