Post by Admin on Jul 6, 2014 6:43:20 GMT -5
Following Obituary from Puffington Post
thepuffington.com/mike-hawker-obituary/
Mike Hawker, who has died aged 77, was the lyricist whose bittersweet Sixties
hits I Only Want To Be With You and Walkin’ Back To Happiness brought a
blend of toe-tapping optimism and rhyming wit to songs that detailed love on
the rocks.
His first writing credit was on Sally Kelly’s jaunty Buddy Holly-esque number
Honey That’s Alright (1960). The following year, however, he began a highly
successful period writing (with the composer John Schroeder) for Helen
Shapiro — the teenage sensation nicknamed “foghorn” — with Don’t treat me
like a child (which charted at No 3) and You Don’t Know which went to No 1.
“I vividly recall walking into my manager’s office in Denmark Street and
being greeted with the popping of corks,” recalled the singer. However, it
was her next number with lyrics by Hawker, Walkin’ Back To Happiness, that
would sell more than a million records.
Shapiro crooned Hawker’s plaintive opening (“Funny how it’s true/ what
loneliness can do/ Since I’ve been away/ I have loved you more each day”)
before swooping into a barrelling refrain: “Walking back to happiness/
woopah/ oh yeah yeah/ Said goodbye to loneliness/ Woopah/ Oh yeah yeah”. It
soared to the top of the charts and won Hawker and Schroeder the Ivor
Novello Award for the best song of 1961.
Mike Hawker’s success with Shapiro was matched two years later when Dusty
Springfield, having left her band The Springfields, chose one of his songs
(created this time with Ivor Raymonde) for her first solo single. I Only
Want To Be With You was released in November 1963 and launched Springfield’s
international career, taking her to America as part of the “British
Invasion”. It would later be covered by artists as diverse as the Bay City
Rollers and Samantha Fox.
Michael Edwin Hawker was born on November 29 1936 in Bath, Somerset. His
father was an RAF officer posted to Singapore where Mike Hawker lived until
the Japanese invasion. The family fled to England and Mike spent the war
with relatives in the West Country and in Yorkshire.
Hawker’s National Service with the RAF took him to Germany where he saw
American jazz bands on tour and wrote reviews for the music press. At the
beginning of the Sixties, he worked for the promotions department at EMI
where he met John Schroeder. The pair shared a house and began writing
together.
In 1960, Hawker spotted a singer called Jean Ryder (of the female session
group The Breakaways) on the Saturday night music show Oh Boy. “I’m going to
marry her,” he told his friend, and he did, on December 1 1961.
Don Black, the songwriter nicknamed “the man with the golden pen” due to his
success writing James Bond themes, recalled the time when in the early
Sixties he and Hawker were friends. “We were very poor and I wanted to make
money by writing songs,” recalled Black. “Mike was also a songwriter and I
thought, ‘You can’t make any money’ and he came in one day and showed me a
cheque for £1,200 from the PRS [the Performing Right Society] and I couldn’t
believe it. It was like a zillion pounds at the time, coming from a very
modest background, and it was for Walkin’ Back To Happiness and I thought,
‘My God’. I [realised] it was possible to make money in this magical thing
of writing words.”
Mike Hawker in later life
In between writing for Shapiro and Springfield, Hawker wrote Men Will Deceive
You for Honor Blackman (“When they tell you they are misunderstood/ They’re
only playing wolf to your Riding Hood/ Go on girls you be wise/ Send them
back, back to their wives”). His other songs for Dusty Springfield, included
Stay Awhile and I Wish I’d Never Loved You.
Hawker went on to write with Brian Bennett of The Shadows and manage a stable
of recording artists. He gave Labi Siffre his first recording deal and Paul
Simon visited him while touring the English folk clubs (the pair wrote a
number of songs together). This led to him joining Mercury Records as an
artist and repertoire manager (the youngest at any UK record company)
specialising in jazz musicians such as the Harry South Big Band and Tubby
Hayes.
In later life Hawker concentrated on writing books and film scripts.
Mike Hawker’s marriage to Jean Ryder was dissolved. He is survived by his
partner of 20 years, Par Bernabeu, and a son and daughter from his marriage.
Mike Hawker, born November 29 1936, died May 4 2014
To hear Harry de Quetteville and Christopher Howse discuss the lives of actor
Eli Wallach and publisher Felix Dennis listen to The
Deadline – our weekly obits podcast.[1] The podcast also rounds up the
week’s obits and your letters to the paper too. Never
miss an episode by subscribing here[2].
References
^ The Deadline – our weekly obits podcast. (www.telegraph.co.uk)
^ Never miss an episode by subscribing here (itunes.apple.com)
thepuffington.com/mike-hawker-obituary/
Mike Hawker, who has died aged 77, was the lyricist whose bittersweet Sixties
hits I Only Want To Be With You and Walkin’ Back To Happiness brought a
blend of toe-tapping optimism and rhyming wit to songs that detailed love on
the rocks.
His first writing credit was on Sally Kelly’s jaunty Buddy Holly-esque number
Honey That’s Alright (1960). The following year, however, he began a highly
successful period writing (with the composer John Schroeder) for Helen
Shapiro — the teenage sensation nicknamed “foghorn” — with Don’t treat me
like a child (which charted at No 3) and You Don’t Know which went to No 1.
“I vividly recall walking into my manager’s office in Denmark Street and
being greeted with the popping of corks,” recalled the singer. However, it
was her next number with lyrics by Hawker, Walkin’ Back To Happiness, that
would sell more than a million records.
Shapiro crooned Hawker’s plaintive opening (“Funny how it’s true/ what
loneliness can do/ Since I’ve been away/ I have loved you more each day”)
before swooping into a barrelling refrain: “Walking back to happiness/
woopah/ oh yeah yeah/ Said goodbye to loneliness/ Woopah/ Oh yeah yeah”. It
soared to the top of the charts and won Hawker and Schroeder the Ivor
Novello Award for the best song of 1961.
Mike Hawker’s success with Shapiro was matched two years later when Dusty
Springfield, having left her band The Springfields, chose one of his songs
(created this time with Ivor Raymonde) for her first solo single. I Only
Want To Be With You was released in November 1963 and launched Springfield’s
international career, taking her to America as part of the “British
Invasion”. It would later be covered by artists as diverse as the Bay City
Rollers and Samantha Fox.
Michael Edwin Hawker was born on November 29 1936 in Bath, Somerset. His
father was an RAF officer posted to Singapore where Mike Hawker lived until
the Japanese invasion. The family fled to England and Mike spent the war
with relatives in the West Country and in Yorkshire.
Hawker’s National Service with the RAF took him to Germany where he saw
American jazz bands on tour and wrote reviews for the music press. At the
beginning of the Sixties, he worked for the promotions department at EMI
where he met John Schroeder. The pair shared a house and began writing
together.
In 1960, Hawker spotted a singer called Jean Ryder (of the female session
group The Breakaways) on the Saturday night music show Oh Boy. “I’m going to
marry her,” he told his friend, and he did, on December 1 1961.
Don Black, the songwriter nicknamed “the man with the golden pen” due to his
success writing James Bond themes, recalled the time when in the early
Sixties he and Hawker were friends. “We were very poor and I wanted to make
money by writing songs,” recalled Black. “Mike was also a songwriter and I
thought, ‘You can’t make any money’ and he came in one day and showed me a
cheque for £1,200 from the PRS [the Performing Right Society] and I couldn’t
believe it. It was like a zillion pounds at the time, coming from a very
modest background, and it was for Walkin’ Back To Happiness and I thought,
‘My God’. I [realised] it was possible to make money in this magical thing
of writing words.”
Mike Hawker in later life
In between writing for Shapiro and Springfield, Hawker wrote Men Will Deceive
You for Honor Blackman (“When they tell you they are misunderstood/ They’re
only playing wolf to your Riding Hood/ Go on girls you be wise/ Send them
back, back to their wives”). His other songs for Dusty Springfield, included
Stay Awhile and I Wish I’d Never Loved You.
Hawker went on to write with Brian Bennett of The Shadows and manage a stable
of recording artists. He gave Labi Siffre his first recording deal and Paul
Simon visited him while touring the English folk clubs (the pair wrote a
number of songs together). This led to him joining Mercury Records as an
artist and repertoire manager (the youngest at any UK record company)
specialising in jazz musicians such as the Harry South Big Band and Tubby
Hayes.
In later life Hawker concentrated on writing books and film scripts.
Mike Hawker’s marriage to Jean Ryder was dissolved. He is survived by his
partner of 20 years, Par Bernabeu, and a son and daughter from his marriage.
Mike Hawker, born November 29 1936, died May 4 2014
To hear Harry de Quetteville and Christopher Howse discuss the lives of actor
Eli Wallach and publisher Felix Dennis listen to The
Deadline – our weekly obits podcast.[1] The podcast also rounds up the
week’s obits and your letters to the paper too. Never
miss an episode by subscribing here[2].
References
^ The Deadline – our weekly obits podcast. (www.telegraph.co.uk)
^ Never miss an episode by subscribing here (itunes.apple.com)