Bill Martin (musician)

Bill Martin (actually: William Wylie Macpherson, born November 9, 1938 in Govan, Glasgow ) is a Scottish songwriter, music publisher and impresario.

Life

His first song, which was released on record, 1963 was "Kiss Me Now", performed by Tommy Quickly. In 1964 he entered into a writing partnership with Tommy Scott. When Scott & Martin, he had success with artists such as the Irish trio The Bachelors, Twinkle, the Irish folk band The Dubliners, Van Morrison and Serge Gainsbourg.

In 1965, he met Phil Coulter and the two established themselves as a successful songwriting team ( Martin for the text, Coulter for the music), which was over 10 years. They wrote pieces for different artists, including comedian and baritone Ken Dodd, Geno Washington, Los Bravos, Dave Dee & Co, The Troggs, Mireille Mathieu, George Harrison, Dick Emery, Tony Blackburn, Cliff Richard, Sandie Shaw and Elvis Presley.

Between 1967 and 1976 they had four number - one hits in the UK: " Puppet on a String", "Congratulations ", "Back Home" and "Forever and Ever ". More Top 40 hits followed, including " Shang -A- Lang" for the Bay City Rollers, " Fancy Pants " for the glam rock band Kenny, "Requiem" for the Scottish pop band Slik and "Surround Yourself with Sorrow" for the English singer Cilla Black.

The Bay City Rollers had a 1976 number-one hit in the U.S. with "Saturday Night ", a song that was not coupled in the UK as a single. Overall, had Martin / Coulter three No. 1 hits in the United States, the other two were " Thanks" ( sung by Bill Anderson) and "My Boy" ( sung by Elvis Presley ).

The two writers also wrote the music for the films The Water Babies and the Carry On series ( in Germany under the title " Carry on ... " was ) as well as numerous television films. After their triumph in 1967 with " Puppet on a String", the first British winner of the Euro Vision Song Contest, they reached the following year with "Congratulations " ( sung by Cliff Richard ) in second place. In 1975 a third of the song the final, this time for Luxembourg at the start: " Toi " was sung by Coulter's future wife, the Irish singer Geraldine. In Stockholm, the song was fifth. One last run for the Eurovision Song Contest followed in 1978 - the song "Shine It On ", sung by singer Christian, was third in the British preliminary decision.

The success as a songwriter, record producer and music publishers brought wealth and influence in the music industry for Martin and Coulter. For their music publisher Martin- Coulter Music they committed other authors such as Van Morrison, Billy Connolly, Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Eric Bogle, the progressive rock band Sky, Midge Ure and BA Robertson.

Although he still wrote songs, he had always more to do in the course of the 1980s with the business side of the music industry. His partnership with Coulter ended in 1983, when Bill Martin took over the share of Phil Coulter in the joint venture and its partners paid off. Later, he sold his business to EMI. During his career he built up several companies that he sold then.

In 1983 he produced in London's West End, the musical " Jukebox " which ran for six months. In 1984, he was the executive producer for Elkie Brooks ' album " Screen Gems " - now a collector's item.

Martin continues to work as a songwriter, music publisher and producer - now for Angus Publications. In 2000, he joined with Sony / ATV Music.

Since 2005, he can be committed on cruise ships as an entertainer and talk- guest.

At the beginning of 1970 he bought the former London home of John Lennon - Kenwood, St. George's Hill, which he sold later. Today he lives in luxury London Belgravia.

Honors

• Three Ivor Novello Awards, including one as a songwriter of the year
• Three ASCAP Awards
• Award of Excellence (Rio de Janeiro, 1967 & 1969)
• Yamaha Best Song Award (Japan, 1978)
• Songwriter of the Decade (Scotland, 1980)
• Numerous Gold & Platinum Records.