Stars that died in 2023

In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come. Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Johnny Pearson, British composer, arranger and pianist, died he was , 85.

John Valmore Pearson known as Johnny Pearson, was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist died he was , 85.. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.

(18 June 1925 – 20 March 2011)

Early years

Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire ^[1] Johnny Pearson showed talent with the piano at an early age. By nine, he had won a scholarship with the London Academy of Music. Here he spent four years under English pianist, Solomon. In his teens, he would give classical recitals, but his true love at the time was jazz. His first band was the Rhythm Makers. After World War 2, he signed up and became one of the founding members of the Malcolm Mitchell Trio, before leaving in 1954. During his time with the trio, he toured England and Europe, playing the West End and theatres.
After leaving the trio, Pearson turned his talents to British radio, as well as performing in the Peter York Concert Orchestra. By 1960, he was conducting the Romance in Rhythm Orchestra.^[2] He recorded two singles for Parlophone, "Waterfall" in mid 1959, and "Theme from an L shaped room" in 1962. He was then offered a solo album deal with Oriole Records, which first teamed him up with John Schroeder. The Oriole album, Piano Sweet - Piano Wild, had a single taken from it, "Ooh La La", released in 1962. After the Oriole releases, Johnny Pearson continued to perform with various concert orchestras until 1964.

Working with Cilla Black

In early 1964, Johnny Pearson took part in helping launch the career of Cilla Black, a rising singer who had been spotted by Beatles producer George Martin. She had released her first 45 single, "Love of the Loved", in 1963, but it had charted only modestly despite having being written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A scout for George Martin had spotted the track "Anyone Who Had a Heart" after hearing the US singer Dionne Warwick's version. Originally the song was to have been recorded in the UK by Shirley Bassey, but George Martin saw the piece as being more suitable for Black's voice. Early in 1964, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was recorded by Cilla Black at London's Abbey Road Studios, in an arrangement by Pearson which featured the use of bassoons. In February 1964, it entered the UK music charts, quickly reaching number 1 in the music charts of the U.K, Ireland and other parts of Europe. The Dionne Warwick version was also in the charts at the time, but Cilla Black's treatment used slightly different lyrics and a different arrangement.
Following the success of "Anyone Who Had a Heart", Pearson was invited to work on the next Cilla Black single, "You're My World", which was released in May 1964. This was also recorded at Abbey Road Studios, and again went to number 1 on the UK music charts. Pearson also worked on other Cilla Black tracks, some of which feature on the LP, Cilla Sings a Rainbow.

Sounds Orchestral

Sounds Orchestral was an idea by John Schroeder, who had moved from Oriole Records to become the label manager at Pye Records and was interested in producing and instrumental version of the US hit song "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". This had been suggested to him at the time by Pye staff member, Tony Reeves. As his project moved to fruition, Schroeder looked for a piano player. His efforts came about when he was reminded of Johnny Pearson from a few years earlier, after he heard him on Radio Luxembourg. Initially paid a session fee to record "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", Pearson was subsequently made a full partner in the Sounds Orchestral project.^[3] "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" was a number 5 hit in the UK Singles Chart in early 1965.^[4] Pearson is also known to have composed under the pseudonym 'Oscar Brandenburg', a name he shared with Neil Richardson and Alan Moorhouse. Sounds Orchestral would end up recording some seventeen albums between 1965 and 1977. Some have subsequently been reissued on CD.

Top of the Pops

Johnny Pearson first came into contact with the BBC's Top of the Pops, in early 1965. Sounds Orchestral had just charted with "Cast Your Fate To The Wind", which featured on the first Top Of The Pops show. The following year, in 1966, Pearson took charge of the Top Of The Pops Orchestra. This would be a position he would fill for the next fifteen years, finally leaving the series in late 1981.

The Carpenters

In October 1971, Johnny Pearson helped produce the BBC Television special, Carpenters: Live at the BBC, featuring the American musical duo of Karen and Richard Carpenter. It was broadcast the following month on British TV and elsewhere. In early 1973, Pearson was again contacted by Richard Carpenter to ask permission to use one of his songs, on the then forthcoming Carpenters LP, Now and Then. This track, originally titled "Autumn Reverie", first appeared on the 1968 KPM album, Gentle Sounds, and was retitled "Heather" by producer John Bettis in the Carpenters' version. Richard Carpenter apparently first heard the track as background music for a commercial for the US health food supplement maker, Geritol, and loved it straight away.^[5] "Autumn Reverie" would also feature again on the 1974 Johnny Pearson LP, Touch Me in the Morning and as background music on the British television series, All Creatures Great and Small (1978-90).

Johnny Pearson and his Orchestra

As leader of the Johnny Pearson Orchestra, he reached number 8 in the UK chart in early 1972 with "Sleepy Shores", the theme from the television series Owen, M.D.^[6] (1971-73). The Johnny Pearson Orchestra, which as a musical project was begun in 1972, ran side by side with his other projects. At the time, these projects included working on albums with John Schroeder for Sounds Orchestral and also providing library music to Britain's KPM Records.
Instead of the slightly jazzy sounding, Sounds Orchestral albums, Pearson was offered a project for easy listening and romance music, based on the success of his "Sleepy Shores" hit. This time he teamed up with music executive Larry Page, who wanted to move his label Penny Farthing into the easy listening genre. The albums were released outside the UK in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA. In 1978, Larry Page decided to rename his Penny Farthing label to Rampage Records, to reflect a more modern outlook. One of the first singles and albums from the Rampage label, would be another of Pearson's international hits, the theme from All Creatures Great and Small.

Library and theme music

In the United Kingdom

Pearson was a successful composer of theme music for television series. Examples of his work included 3-2-1, All Creatures Great and Small, Captain Pugwash, Monday Night Football, Mary Mungo & Midge and ITN's News at Ten (the last of which was titled "The Awakening", a piece otherwise known to American audiences as the main title theme to the 1964/1972 animated film Journey Back to Oz). He also wrote the Grampian Television start-up music "Sounds On" and the ATV startup theme "Midlands Montage", as well as music used during intervals between schools programmes on ITV.

In the United States

In the United States, Pearson's best known composition is "Heavy Action", originally used as the theme to the BBC sports show Superstars, and subsequently adopted by ABC's Monday Night Football (the NFL's weekly nationally televised showcase) and the SFM Holiday Network. In 1989, Edd Kalehoff composed and recorded a new arrangement of this music for later seasons of Monday Night Football. His piece "Graveyard" was used in Ren and Stimpy. NFL Films has used many of his other compositions for its Super Bowl and other highlight films.

In Australia

In Australia, his best known library music piece was "Power Drive," which was used as the theme for the 1969-75 police drama Division 4. This tune was also famous in the U.S. for use in some episodes of the 1967-70 cartoon series Spider-Man, as well as being the theme for Los Angeles station KNXT/KCBS-TV's afternoon movie series The Early Show for much of the 1970s and into the 1980s. The track "Sleepy Shores" was also used as incidental music in some of the courting scenes from the 1970s ABC TV drama series, Certain Women. Some of Johnny Pearson's library music was also used as background scene music for the Ten Network series, Prisoner.

In the Netherlands

In the 1970s, the Dutch TV series Sil de Strandjutter featured a title theme written and performed by Johnny Pearson and his orchestra. Pearson's composition "Heather", as performed by The Carpenters, has served as the background music to the "Plaat & zijn Verhaal"-section ("A record and its story") at Radio Veronica, in which a song's lyrics are translated into Dutch and read by the DJ.

The 1980s and later

In late 1981, Johnny Pearson's tenure at BBC's Top Of The Pops came to an end, as the show had itself undergone a major reorganisation. By that time he had been associated with the programme for sixteen years. He was credited on the milestone 900th Top Of The Pops episode, in July 1981; his last credit with the show, was in late August 1981. After this, Pearson continued to work on independent projects and in 1982, released the instrumental album On Golden Pond through Larry Page's Page One Records.
In 1984, Pearson assembled another orchestra, the Johnny Pearson Studio Orchestra, and contributed to John Paul Jones' motion picture soundtrack, Scream For Help. Following this, during 1985, he worked on producing music for the BBC TV production drama Maelstrom. Notable on the recordings for Maelstrom is the track "Camellia Waltz", which was treated to sound like an old 78rpm record. Other tracks by Pearson for the series came from his work with KPM. In 1987, together with business partner Adrian Kerridge, Pearson negotiated the purchase of CTS Studios, in Wembley.^[7] In 1988, he returned to the KPM record label and the recording of two new library CDs for the radio and television industry. Both were recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, with Adrian Kerridge.
After the 1980s, Pearson made occasional live appearances as part of a quartet. In 1996, he recorded a CD of library music, for the radio and tv industry, titled Simply Piano. This was followed in 2005 by another CD titled Simply Piano 2.