Nicky Chinn

Nicky Chinn ( born May 16, 1945 in London ) is an English songwriter and music producer. Together with Mike Chapman he had a long chain of success, especially in the 1970s and was responsible for many number one hits for groups such as New World, The Sweet, Mud, Smokie, Arrows, Racey, Suzi Quatro and many others. She worked mainly for the record label RAK Records by Mickie Most.

The musical beginning

Chinn was originally a mechanic and came more by chance than their mid-twenties to the music. His talent as a songwriter was recognized very quickly, and within a very short time, he co-wrote with Mike d'Abo some pieces for the feature film " There's A Girl In My Soup".

The Sweet

At this time he met the Australian-born Mike Chapman, who worked as a waiter in a restaurant, Chinn frequently visited. In contrast to Chinn Chapman was already a professional musician in the band " Tangerine Peel". The two " young, wild things " were discovered by Mickie Most and especially hired to write songs for a new group: The Sweet. And although she did not write all the songs themselves, they were because of their distinctive style soon responsible for all released singles in the early stages of this band. Because Chinns and Chapman's way of writing songs, was so successful in the UK, European and Australian audience that The Sweet in the following years had an uninterrupted string of super hits. Among them were "Little Willy ", " Wig Wam Bam - ", " Hellraiser ", "Teenage Rampage ", " Blockbuster " and " Ballroom Blitz ". The Sweet became so popular in Britain that " Ballroom Blitz " went into the UK charts at # 2, which was extremely unusual at this time.

The other bands

When The Sweet wanted to make their sound a little harder and began to write their own songs to Chinn and Chapman turned other projects and achieved soon similar success in Europe and Australia with Suzi Quatro, for which she wrote four smash hits in a row: " Can The Can "," 48 crash, "" Daytona Demon " and" Devil gate Drive ". Chinn and Chapman also produced Quatro's first three albums.

Your next big success landed " Chinnichap " as they were now called in the press, with Mud, the 1974 and 1975 peak positions reached with four compositions in the years on the charts, including the number-one hits " Tiger Feet " and " Lonely This Christmas ".

Smokie were " Chinnichaps " next goal for which they created five hit singles 1975-1978.

Despite all her success in Europe and Australia, it took until 1978 before the two in the United States have had success. The came in two ways, namely by Exiles "Kiss You All Over " and the ballad " Stumblin ' In " by Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman ( lead singer of Smokie ).

After the glam rock era

With the advent of the punk movement, however, the seemingly invincible couple and their glam- rock sound fell out of fashion in England, and Mike Chapman turned solo projects. He produced for Blondie album " Parallel Lines ", which meant that the two had less time to write songs together.

In 1982 came with the single " Mickey" by Toni Basil, although once again an international hit, followed by the successful duo parted, and Nicky Chinn retired from the music business.

All in all, had almost twelve years working out in the music business for over 40 UK " Top 40 " hits. In Germany Songs by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman were among other things, was covered by Bernhard Brink and Peter Orloff.

Works ( incomplete)

Nicky Chinn has written most of his songs with Mike Chapman: The below list is to be read as follows

• Title, in bold, are single releases as the A- side
• Title, in italics, are single releases as a B- side
• Title, normally written publications are on a long-playing record
• Interpreter
• LP, on which the composition was first published
• Date of publication in the order year, month, day