Alex Wharton later also known as Alex Murray, was part of the singing duo

Duet (music)

A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...

 the Most Brothers with Mickie Most

Mickie Most

Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....

, and later, co-manager and producer of the band, Moody Blues.

Singing and acting career

The Most Brothers worked in the famous The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

. They toured the UK with early rock'n'rollers Marty Wilde

Marty Wilde

Marty Wilde is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, and is the father of pop singers Ricky Wilde, Kim Wilde and Roxanne Wilde.-Career:Wilde was performing under the name Reg Patterson at London's Condor Club in...

, Colin Hicks (younger brother of Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...

), The Tony Crombie

Tony Crombie

Anthony John "Tony" Crombie was an English jazz drummer, pianist, bandleader and composer. He was regarded as one of the finest jazz drummers and bandleaders, and occasional but very capable pianist and vibraphonist, to emerge in Britain, and as an energising influence on the British jazz scene...

 Big Band, Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

, The Kalin Twins, and Wee Willie Harris

Wee Willie Harris

Wee Willie Harris is a British rock and roll singer. He is best known for his energetic stage shows and TV performances since the 1950s, when he was known as "Britain's wild man of rock 'n' roll".-Life and career:Working a job as a pudding mixer at Peek Freans' London bakery, Harris turned...

. In 1957 they recorded on the Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 with "Whistle Bait" and "Takes a Whole Lotta Loving to Keep My Baby Happy" before disbanding the act in 1958.

In 1959 Wharton adopted the name Murray and moved into an acting career with the Theatre Workshop

Theatre Workshop

Theatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...

 company in Stratford, East London, under the direction of the theatre director Joan Littlewood

Joan Littlewood

Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...

. He appeared in the first production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be

Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be

Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be is a play with music, rather than a musical. The play, by Frank Norman, himself a Cockney, has music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, who also grew up in London's East End.-Production background:...

before transferring to London's West End theatre

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

, Wyndam's, as understudy to Alfred Lynch

Alfred Lynch

Alfred Cornelius Lynch was a British actor on stage, film and television.Lynch was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of a plumber. After attending a Roman Catholic school, he worked in a draughtsman's office before entering national service...

 in the title role of The Hostage

The Hostage (play)

The Hostage is a loose 1958 English version, with songs, adapted in a much longer text from a one-act Irish language play An Giall, by its author, Brendan Behan.-Plot:...

. He played a small role in the Arnold Wesker

Arnold Wesker

Sir Arnold Wesker is a prolific British dramatist known for his contributions to kitchen sink drama. He is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings...

 one-act play Last Day In Dreamland at the Lyric Hammersmith

Lyric Hammersmith

The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....

, and interspersed acting in minor film roles (Never Let Go

Never Let Go

Never Let Go is a 1960 British thriller film starring Peter Sellers and Richard Todd. It concerns a man's purchase, loss of, and attempt to recover a Ford Anglia car. Sellers played a London villain, in one of his rare straight roles.-Plot:...

- 1960), TV parts and commercials with solo record releases on Decca.

He wrote songs with Tony Crombie before working in 1961 as A&R

A&R

Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...

 man at Decca Records, the youngest in the country, at 20, in the post. His first production, "Love is Like A Violin" sung by Ken Dodd

Ken Dodd

Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...

, went to #8 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. It was followed by hits with Mark Wynter

Mark Wynter

Mark Wynter is an English actor and former singer, who had four Top 20 singles in the 1960s, including "Venus in Blue Jeans" and "Go Away Little Girl"...

; plus Rhet Stoller's "Chariot", featuring the first double-tracked guitar, which reached #26 in the UK. Wharton gave much needed work to jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musicians, at a time when they were out of fashion and struggling to find work, by producing a pioneering stereophonic album, Sweet Wide and Blue, with Stan Tracy (Piano), Victor Feldman

Victor Feldman

Victor Stanley Feldman was a British jazz musician, best known as a pianist.-Early history:...

 (vibes), Lenny Bush (bass), Tony Crombie (drums) and others. He also recorded albums and singles with Mantovani

Mantovani

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....

, Winifred Atwell

Winifred Atwell

Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or April 1910 or 1914There is some uncertainty over her date and year of birth. Many sources suggest 27 February 1914, but there is a strong suggestion that her birthday was 27 April. Most sources give her year of birth as...

, and several other Decca labelmates before leaving Decca, disillusioned, and finally outraged when he was not allowed to produce "Portrait of My Love" with Matt Monro

Matt Monro

Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...

 due to 'office politics'. The song was thereafter released by Parlophone

Parlophone

Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...

 and peaked at #3 in the UK chart. He returned to acting and travelled to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 to visit Mickie Most who he helped and encouraged to produce his own records, and taught to handle a mixing desk in the studios there.

Career as manager/producer

Wharton later went on to discover, manage and produce the Moody Blues with the single "Go Now

Go Now (song)

"Go Now" is a 1964 song composed by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett. It was first recorded by Bessie Banks, and most successfully by The Moody Blues.-Bessie Banks:The song was first recorded by Larry Banks' former wife, Bessie Banks...

", promoting it with the first-ever purpose-made pop video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

, produced and directed by Wharton, and filmed on 35mm at the Marquee Club

Marquee Club

The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....

, scoring a Christmas #1 (UK) (#2, US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

) in 1964. He produced another chart hit in 1970 with "Friends" by Arrival

Arrival (band)

Arrival was a London-based close-harmony pop-rock band featuring singers originally from Liverpool. Following its appearance on Maynard Ferguson's 1970 UK television special and two chart hits, "Friends" and "I Will Survive", the band was booked to appear at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.After...

. He left the music industry in 1971. In 1973 Wharton moved to Wales with his wife, Stevie, to raise a family. His son, Sonny Wharton, is a DJ

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 of international repute.

Discography

• "Teen Angel
  Teen Angel (song)
  "Teen Angel" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jean Dinning and her husband, Red Surrey, and performed by both Jean's brother, Mark Dinning, and Alex Murray in 1959....
  
  " / "Paper Doll", Decca F11203 1960
• "All On My Own" / "String Along", Decca F11225 1960
• "When You Walked Out" / "Send For Me", Decca F11345 1961