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Terry Britten

 
Wikipedia: Terry Britten
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Terry Britten is a prolific English-Australian singer-songwriter, who has written songs for Tina Turner and Sir Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Status Quo, Michael Jackson and many others.[1]

Contents

Career

A native of Manchester, Britten began writing for Adelaide, Australia bands Hurricanes[disambiguation needed] and The Twilights, a popular 1960s band for which he played lead guitar. At times he co-wrote with Glenn Shorrock and Peter Brideoake.[2]

After the Twilights broke up, he moved to London and wrote for Cliff Richard; eventually coming up with "Devil Woman". He was a guitarist in Richard's band for years.[1] Richard called "Devil Woman" his best song ever, and it brought him the heavier pop-rock image that partly typify his concerts up to today. The track became a Top 10 hit in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In the early 1980s, Britten's psychedelic rock song "9.50" was revived by Australia's Divinyls as a b-side to one of their singles.[2]

In 1983 Britten, along with co-songwriters B. A. Robertson and Sue Shifrin won a Razzie Award for the Worst 'Original' Song for "Pumpin' and Blowin'" as featured in the 1982 film, The Pirate Movie.[3]

With Graham Lyle (ex-Gallagher and Lyle), Britten wrote "What's Love Got to Do with It" and initially sent it to Richard's office, but his representative rejected it without consultation with the singer. In later years, the Richard joked that "the man who did that doesn't work for me anymore..."[2] Cliff Richard would however release the song on his 2001 covers album, Wanted.

As Tina Turner's comeback million selling[4] hit "What's Love Got to Do with It" (1984), reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart[4] and #1 in the Billboard Hot 100, and won Britten a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1985. Later that year, they co-wrote "We Don't Need Another Hero" for the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Also sung by Tina Turner, the song reached #2 in the US and #3 in the UK. It got a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1985. It also earned Turner a 1986 Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance.

He also acted as a record producer for Turner, producing songs such as "Girls", "I Might Have Been Queen" and "I Want You Near Me" (the latter of which he co-wrote).

Additionally, the pair co-wrote "Just Good Friends" for Michael Jackson's Bad album. Other 1980s songs of note were "We Got Love" recorded by The Real Thing and "A Little TLC", from the television series Kidd Video, which were both co-written by Britten with Lynsey De Paul.

Britten has also written songs for Olivia Newton-John, including "Love Make Me Strong" in 1981 and "Toughen Up" (with Graham Lyle) in 1985. He has additionally written songs for Meat Loaf, Melissa Manchester, Bonnie Raitt, and Hank Marvin. Britten continues to compose from his home base in rural England, but has returned to Australia on occasion, including the Twilights' reunion for the Long Way To The Top concert tour.[2]

In 2002, the song "Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable)", co-written by Britten and Charlie Dore, appeared on Celine Dion's album A New Day Has Come.

Britten presently has a home in Richmond, London and a home recording studio "state of the Ark" [1]

Songwriting credits

[5]

Filmography

Britten's work has appeared in the soundtracks to the following films:[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b 891 ABC Adelaide Radio website
  2. ^ a b c d Atkin Guitars website biography of Britten
  3. ^ IMDb database
  4. ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 569. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
  5. ^ Allmusic discography
  6. ^ New York Times - Britten filmography listing - accessed February 2008

External links


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