Johnny Harris (musician)

Johnny Harris (musician) 2001
Johnny Harris
Birth name John Stanley Livingstone Harris
Also known as John Harris (only with Paul Anka)
Born (1932-11-07) 7 November 1932
Origin Edinburgh, Scotland
Genres Pop, rock, jazz, film music
Occupation(s) Music director, composer, producer, arranger, conductor
Instruments Trumpet, Piano
Years active 1964–present
Labels Pye Records
Decca Records
United Artists Records
Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Petula Clark, Lulu, Richard Harris, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka, Lynda Carter and many others
Website www.johnnyharrismusic.com/
Notable instruments
Pen, Baton, Synthesizer

Johnny Harris (born John Stanley Livingstone Harris in 1932) is a Scottish-born composer, producer, arranger, conductor and musical director. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London. He has lived in the US since 1972.

The British years (1932–1972)

Originally a trumpet player with the Norman Burns band & big bands led by Vic Lewis, Ken Mackintosh, Cyril Stapleton and then a member of the short-lived beat group The Shubdubs with drummer Jimmie Nicol and organist Roger Coulam. In 1964 he made a Beatles cover version album and EP called Beatlemania with Jimmie Nicol which resulted in Nicol replacing the ill Ringo Starr on a worldwide Beatles tour. He joined Pye Records in 1965 as an arranger and conductor for producer Tony Hatch, his wife Jackie Trent, had an un-credited roll as conductor on the Nancy Sinatra In London album and also worked with many more artists in the sixties as a staff member at Pye. He also worked freelance for many other record labels in Great Britain and Europe where he was also well known and respected for his unique style. He was a regular arranger, conductor, producer for Petula Clark until she left Pye in 1971. The first official colour programme on BBC1 was a concert by Petula Clark with the Johnny Harris Orchestra from the Royal Albert Hall, London, broadcast at midnight on 14/15 November 1969. He arranged, conducted and produced the majority of tracks on the Shirley Bassey albums Something, Something Else, I Capricorn, And I Love You So, Never Never Never and All By Myself and many tracks on various Tom Jones albums. He was the regular musical director for the BBC light entertainment show Happening For Lulu in 1968-69 starring singer Lulu and conducted her Eurovision Song Contest winner Boom Bang-A-Bang in 1969 which garned a great deal of press coverage resulting in a solo record deal with Warner Bros. UK. He was the musical director for the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties broadcast on BBC1 on 31 December 1969 and had his own BBC Show Of The Week called Up Tight featuring Georgie Fame and Lulu. He also directed many other TV shows with such artists as Mike and Bernie Winters and actor-singer Keith Michell.

The classic album Movements was recorded with the best London session musicians in the spring of 1970, was performed live at The Royal Albert Hall and was pressed by Warner's three times in the UK (on orange, green and burbank labels) and finally reissued on CD in 2002. It went out-of-print in 2007 and is now an expensive collectors item.[1] The Movements album has just been issued (Sept 2015) for the Japanese only market as a SHM-CD and was deleted on Dec 31st 2015. Singles released were the space age classic Footprints On The Moon (1969) and the moody suspense theme Fragment Of Fear (1970) from the film of the same name starring David Hemmings. Shirley Bassey was a friend of Johnny's and loved his unique arrangement of Light My Fire so much she recorded it on her next album! Warner Brothers UK who would also release the Man in the Wilderness film soundtrack (1971) and All To Bring You Morning (1973) before Johnny left for the US to work with Paul Anka.

He composed the scores for several cult movies including Fragment of Fear (1970), Bloomfield (1971) his score was recorded in 1969 featuring Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees, Man in the Wilderness (1971) and I Want What I Want (1972). The wild British jazz score composed for Fragment Of Fear was later used by Levi's to soundtrack their European Kung Fu TV advertising campaign in the late nineties.

The American years (1972–Present)

He moved to the US to record and conduct his orchestra in Las Vegas with Paul Anka where Elvis Presley asked him to lead his Vegas band. In 1973, while back in the UK at Advision Studios, he recorded the album All To Bring You Morning, with progressive rock musicians from the group Yes, Jon Anderson on vocals, Steve Howe on guitars and Alan White on drums who happened to be working in the next studio and asked to be involved in Johnny's follow-up album to "Movements". He continued to work with Paul Anka until 1977 and after that, Johnny wanted to concentrate on scoring for film and television which led to a long-time gig as the musical director for Lynda Carter after he scored the third season of her Wonder Woman TV series in 1979. It was his dynamic arrangement of the season three theme music that brought Wonder Woman into the modern disco era. Lynda Carter and the Johnny Harris Orchestra toured the world in 1980 to support her debut single for Motown Records The Last Song. His 1980 Miami disco hit Odyssey (TK Records) featured prominently on popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas playing on Bounce FM funk radio, as well as being in the lowrider challenge mission. The song was also featured in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Space Rockers", Johnny originally wrote the song for that episode and arranged the opening Buck Rogers in the 25th Century theme music composed by Stu Phillips. The first 45 seconds where Buck is spinning is an original Johnny Harris composition up until Stu's theme starts.

Since 1990 Johnny has been the arranger & conductor for The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies at the historic Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, California.[2]

Johnny Harris - The Man Who Turned Down Elvis Twice is a biography written by his daughter Julie Pearce-Martin published to celebrate his 80th birthday in November 2012.[3]

On 21 and 28 September 2013 Radio Six International broadcast two hour-long shows titled 'The Johnny Harris Story' written, produced and presented by Darren Stuart.[4]

A group of fans, colleagues and Johnny himself talk about his life and career in the Facebook group: 'Johnny Harris Music Appreciation Society'.[5]

Selected discography

Albums

Singles

Albums (arranger/producer/musical director)

Film/television

TV commercials

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ boogiejuice (ed.). "Johnny Harris Movements". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Purdy, Greg, ed. (2012). "Music Men's Skills, Expertise Provide Melodic Sparkel to the Folies". Follies Confidential. The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies: 13.
  3. ↑ / "Johnny Harris The Man Who Turned Down Elvis Twice" Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  4. ↑ / "The Johnny Harris Story" Check |url= value (help) (PDF). Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  5. ↑ / "Johnny Harris Music Appreciation Society" Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Stuart, Darren, ed. (2012). "Television And Filmography". The Man Who Turned Down Elvis Twice. Fastprint Publishing: 205–209.
  7. ↑ Stuart, Darren, ed. (2012). "Television And Filmography". The Man Who Turned Down Elvis Twice. Fastprint Publishing: 205–209.

External links

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