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Topic History of: Sondheim, McKuen, Bacharach and King
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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JK2006 |
Amusingly, NOT a fan was John Lennon who hated Moon (but was a big fan of mine personally; we became good friends). |
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JK2006 |
Back in 1965 a teenage undergraduate called me had written a song which went to No1 all over the world and sold 9 million copies when I was 20. Amongst some of my fans were Marlene Dietrich and Nina Simone - one day I got a call from my US publisher Al Gallico. I was being considered for the Grammy as Best Song of 1965 (as it happened in the end it wasn't even nominated). Al also passed on two compliments from song writers. Stephen Sondheim said it was the best lyric of the decade (coming from the writer of Somewhere, that impressed me). And Rod McKuen (total opposite) said it was his favourite ever song. Later Marlene told me Burt Bacharach thought it was genius. I'd have been more impressed if the comment had come from Hal David. But I owed it all to Brian Epstein (indirectly). He'd told me to contact Dick James when I met him (aged 18). And Dick had told me, very kindly, that my songs were rubbish and I should write songs that were different, not all about love. At the time most pop songs were "She Loves Me Yeah Yeah Yeah". My heroes were Dylan, Cohen, Mitchell. So I tried writing different lyrics and Everyone's Gone To The Moon and It's Good News Week were born. |
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