Dee Shipman
Encyclopedia
Dee Shipman is a songwriter
who has worked with Charles Aznavour
and Petula Clark
, with whom she wrote the 1990 West End
musical Someone Like You
.
(Propellant 23) and Emergency - Ward 10. She then went on to a very successful career in radio, including co-presenting a weekly series for the BBC
Teen Scene, and having two series of her own for Radio Luxembourg
Ready Steady Radio and Kids Like Us. During this period Dee was signed to Decca Records
, and released a single of Mel Tormé
’s classic "Comin’ Home Baby!" Dee also wrote for the magazine Pop Weekly, in which she had her own weekly column.
As a singer, Dee recorded a twelve track LP that was produced by Norman Newell
. The album featured such evergreen standards as "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
", "The Way You Look Tonight
" and "One Hand, One Heart". The album was finally released in July 2008 by Stage Door Records. Titled 'She Isn't Me' the album concludes with a new recording from Dee Shipman and Roger Webb's musical 'Emma'.
Dee has made several films, which included starring as Mrs. Burke in the 1972 motion picture Burke And Hare
opposite Harry Andrews
and Derren Nesbitt
, and which Dee described as “Glamorous no! Culture no! But fun? YES!”
, "The Rainbow Bridge" for Danny Williams
and "Making It By Myself" for the Kenneth Tynan
and Clifford Williams musical Carte Blanche at the Phoenix Theatre
in London ... the show wasn’t well reviewed - but the song got rave notices! Dee and Roger also composed music and lyrics for three musical concepts A Kid For Two Farthings (based on the 1955 film of the Wolf Mankowitz
modern classic story); The Last Touring Love Show; and Emma (based on the life of Emma Hamilton).
Dee went on to write songs with Marc Wilkinson, Werner Becker, George Garvarentz, Albert Van Dam, Ralph Lewin, and Herbert Chappell.
, which still continues. Their songwriting partnership produced the Aznavour cult favourite "Pretty Shitty Days" as well as "A Very Private Christmas" and "You Make Me Hungry For Your Loving" amongst many others. It was Aznavour who introduced Dee to Petula Clark
, and Dee and Petula wrote their first song together in 1978, and have been friends and partners since then. The Clark – Shipman partnership produced the original stage musical Someone Like You
which toured the United Kingdom and transferred to the West End
in 1990. Dee and Clark have also written over 50 songs together for Clark’s commercial albums and singles plus their second, uncompleted musical Zola, based on the life of Emile Zola
. Two songs from the score can be heard on the CD In Her Own Write, released by Sepia Records in 2007.
In 1989, while continuing to write all Aznavour’s English lyrics, and also working on two musicals with Clark, Dee wrote the script and co-produced the TV docudrama
Petain, charting the life of Philippe Pétain
. The film featured Harry Andrews as Petain, in his last film role. (Portions of the film's score, composed by Clark, can be heard on In Her Own Write.)
Aznavour and Dee together also devised and wrote the songs for a musical workshop of Molly Bloom's soliloquy
from James Joyce
’s Ulysses
, which was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival
by Eartha Kitt
.
Charles Aznavour’s musical Lautrec, with English lyrics by Dee, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth
in March 2000 before transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre
, London. Currently Charles and Dee are working together on several new songs to be included in a US and Canadian production of the show.
) Master Coach, Trainer, and Master Practitioner, and is a partner with Paul Jacobs in New Oceans. Together they run regular Life, Business, Education, Coaching, and Performing & Creative Arts trainings, workshops, and seminars, and are also extremely successful life coaches.
In 2006, Dee and Wes McGhee co-wrote the CD NLP Songs For Change, a unique musical introduction to the tools and techniques of NLP.
Dee has also written three books of short stories, based on her NLP experiences:- The Sunbeam Collection Vol.1, The Sunbeam Collection Vol.2, and All We Are Is Our Stories. Vol.1. Dee is currently writing Volume 2. of All We Are…… , and also The Book Of Inspirational Parenting.
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
who has worked with Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
and Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, with whom she wrote the 1990 West End
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...
musical Someone Like You
Someone Like You (musical)
Someone Like You is a musical with a book by Robin Midgley and Fay Weldon, lyrics by Dee Shipman, and music by Petula Clark.Based on a concept developed by Clark and Ferdie Pacheco over a period of several years, it is set in West Virginia immediately after the end of the Civil War...
.
Early Acting and Singing
Dee Shipman began her professional career as an actress and singer, both in the theatre, and on TV, where she appeared in series such as The AvengersThe Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
(Propellant 23) and Emergency - Ward 10. She then went on to a very successful career in radio, including co-presenting a weekly series for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Teen Scene, and having two series of her own for Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
Ready Steady Radio and Kids Like Us. During this period Dee was signed to 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....
, and released a single of Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
’s classic "Comin’ Home Baby!" Dee also wrote for the magazine Pop Weekly, in which she had her own weekly column.
As a singer, Dee recorded a twelve track LP that was produced by Norman Newell
Norman Newell
Norman Newell, OBE was born in Plaistow, Essex , and was a successful British record producer in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as co-writer of many notable songs...
. The album featured such evergreen standards as "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
"What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" is a song with lyrics written by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman and original music written by Michel Legrand for the 1969 film The Happy Ending in which Bill Eaton sings it under the opening credits...
", "The Way You Look Tonight
The Way You Look Tonight
"The Way You Look Tonight" is a song featured in the film Swing Time, originally performed by Fred Astaire. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. The song was sung to Ginger Rogers as Penelope "Penny" Carroll by Astaire's character of John "Lucky" Garnett while Penny was busy...
" and "One Hand, One Heart". The album was finally released in July 2008 by Stage Door Records. Titled 'She Isn't Me' the album concludes with a new recording from Dee Shipman and Roger Webb's musical 'Emma'.
Dee has made several films, which included starring as Mrs. Burke in the 1972 motion picture Burke And Hare
Burke and Hare (film)
Burke and Hare is a British black comedy film, loosely based on the Burke and Hare murders. Directed by John Landis, the film stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as William Burke and William Hare respectively. It was Landis's first feature film release in twelve years, the last being 1998's Susan's...
opposite Harry Andrews
Harry Andrews
Harry Fleetwood Andrews, CBE was an English film actor known for his frequent portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the 1965 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the...
and Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt is an English actor. Possibly his best known role was as SS Major von Hapen in Where Eagles Dare.In 2008 he was writing a book on "biblical myths and falsehoods".-Acting career:...
, and which Dee described as “Glamorous no! Culture no! But fun? YES!”
Song-writing
Dee first started writing lyrics when she began her song-writing collaboration with composer Roger Webb. Their considerable output included writing "Sad Song Lady" for Blossom DearieBlossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...
, "The Rainbow Bridge" for Danny Williams
Danny Williams (musician)
Danny Williams was a South African pop singer. Williams earned the nickname, "Britain's Johnny Mathis", for his smooth and stylish way with a ballad...
and "Making It By Myself" for the Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
and Clifford Williams musical Carte Blanche at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
in London ... the show wasn’t well reviewed - but the song got rave notices! Dee and Roger also composed music and lyrics for three musical concepts A Kid For Two Farthings (based on the 1955 film of the Wolf Mankowitz
Wolf Mankowitz
Cyril Wolf Mankowitz was an English writer, playwright and screenwriter of Russian Jewish descent.-Early life:...
modern classic story); The Last Touring Love Show; and Emma (based on the life of Emma Hamilton).
Dee went on to write songs with Marc Wilkinson, Werner Becker, George Garvarentz, Albert Van Dam, Ralph Lewin, and Herbert Chappell.
Collaborations with Charles Aznavour and Petula Clark
In 1976, Dee began a very important partnership with Charles AznavourCharles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
, which still continues. Their songwriting partnership produced the Aznavour cult favourite "Pretty Shitty Days" as well as "A Very Private Christmas" and "You Make Me Hungry For Your Loving" amongst many others. It was Aznavour who introduced Dee to Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, and Dee and Petula wrote their first song together in 1978, and have been friends and partners since then. The Clark – Shipman partnership produced the original stage musical Someone Like You
Someone Like You (musical)
Someone Like You is a musical with a book by Robin Midgley and Fay Weldon, lyrics by Dee Shipman, and music by Petula Clark.Based on a concept developed by Clark and Ferdie Pacheco over a period of several years, it is set in West Virginia immediately after the end of the Civil War...
which toured the United Kingdom and transferred to the West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
in 1990. Dee and Clark have also written over 50 songs together for Clark’s commercial albums and singles plus their second, uncompleted musical Zola, based on the life of Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. Two songs from the score can be heard on the CD In Her Own Write, released by Sepia Records in 2007.
In 1989, while continuing to write all Aznavour’s English lyrics, and also working on two musicals with Clark, Dee wrote the script and co-produced the TV docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Petain, charting the life of Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
. The film featured Harry Andrews as Petain, in his last film role. (Portions of the film's score, composed by Clark, can be heard on In Her Own Write.)
Aznavour and Dee together also devised and wrote the songs for a musical workshop of Molly Bloom's soliloquy
Molly Bloom's Soliloquy
Molly Bloom's soliloquy is presented in the eighteenth, and final, chapter of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. It is a compilation of the thoughts of Molly Bloom, the concert-singing wife of advertising agent Leopold Bloom, whose wanderings around Dublin are followed in much of the book...
from James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
’s Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, which was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
by Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
.
Charles Aznavour’s musical Lautrec, with English lyrics by Dee, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
The Theatre Royal in Plymouth, Devon, England is "the largest and best attended regional producing theatre in the UK and the leading promoter of theatre in the south west", according to Arts Council England...
in March 2000 before transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
, London. Currently Charles and Dee are working together on several new songs to be included in a US and Canadian production of the show.
NLP
Dee is an NLP (Neuro-linguistic programmingNeuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
) Master Coach, Trainer, and Master Practitioner, and is a partner with Paul Jacobs in New Oceans. Together they run regular Life, Business, Education, Coaching, and Performing & Creative Arts trainings, workshops, and seminars, and are also extremely successful life coaches.
In 2006, Dee and Wes McGhee co-wrote the CD NLP Songs For Change, a unique musical introduction to the tools and techniques of NLP.
Dee has also written three books of short stories, based on her NLP experiences:- The Sunbeam Collection Vol.1, The Sunbeam Collection Vol.2, and All We Are Is Our Stories. Vol.1. Dee is currently writing Volume 2. of All We Are…… , and also The Book Of Inspirational Parenting.