John Cameron (musician)
Encyclopedia
John Cameron is a British composer
, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well-known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to 'pop' recordings, notably those by Donovan
, Cilla Black
and the group Hot Chocolate. Cameron's instrumental version of Led Zeppelin
's "Whole Lotta Love
" became a hit for his group Collective Consciousness Society and for many years a version of Cameron's arrangement was used as the theme music for the BBC TV show Top of the Pops
.
; his credits include Donovan's #1 U.S. hit "Sunshine Superman
" (co-arranged with Spike Heatley
) and he became Donovan's music director, touring with him and arranging hit singles "Jennifer Juniper
" and "Epistle to Dippy
" and the albums Sunshine Superman
and Mellow Yellow
albums, as well as Donovan's music for the Ken Loach
film Poor Cow
.
Cameron also began working in television; one of his first major credits in this area was as music director and arranger for three seasons of the TV variety series Once More With Felix with folk-singer Julie Felix
(1967–69), The Bobbie Gentry Show and numerous episodes of the BBC's In Concert
series (directed by Stanley Dorfman
), which featured artists including James Taylor
, Joni Mitchell
and Randy Newman
.
Cameron also scored two British hits as a songwriter with "If I thought you'd ever change your mind", a #11 UK hit for Cilla Black
(which was also a UK hit by former ABBA vocalist Agnetha Fältskog
in the early 2000s) and "Sweet Inspiration", a Top 10 single for Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon
.
Cameron's first venture in film composition was for director Ken Loach
, who asked him to compose the score for his Kes
(1969). This led to further commissions including The Ruling Class
with Peter O'Toole
, Nightwatch with Elizabeth Taylor
and A Touch of Class with Glenda Jackson and George Segal, for which Cameron was nominated for an Academy Award.
In the early 1970s Cameron formed Collective Consciousness Society (C.C.S.), a jazz-funk group that included Cameron, Mickie Most
, Alexis Korner
and Herbie Flowers
; they scored four UK hits—an instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (UK #13), a version of which was also used as the theme music for Top of the Pops
from 1971 to 1981; the Donovan songs "Walkin'" (UK #7) and "Tap Turns On The Water" (UK #5) and "Brother" (UK #25).
He had further success as pop arranger with UK soul-funk band Hot Chocolate, working on all their hit singles from "Emma", "Heaven's In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac", "You Sexy Thing" and "Every One's A Winner". Similarly, John worked as arranger with Heatwave
on three albums, including the singles "Boogie Nights", "Always & Forever", "The Groove Line" and "Gangsters of the Groove".
In the late 1970s Cameron was approached by Alain Boublil
and Claude-Michel Schönberg
to arrange and conduct a concept album
based on Victor Hugo
's Les Misérables
. Initially staged in Paris by Robert Hossein, it was then produced in the UK by Cameron Mackintosh
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
, directed by Trevor Nunn
and John Caird
. Les Misérables
became one of the most successful musicals of all time, winning Cameron the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations
and a National Broadway Theatre Award. He also orchestrated the 1993 Broadway revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
, Honk!
and Spend Spend Spend
Cameron's numerous film and TV credits include The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
, The Protectors
(TV), Psychomania
, the Emmy Award winning TV miniseries Jack the Ripper
(starring Michael Caine
), Disney's Little House on the Prairie
, The Mirror Crack'd
, To End All Wars
and The Path To 9/11
for which Cameron was nominated for an Emmy award.
Cameron has also worked with artists such as José Carreras
and the Choir of New College Oxford and Swedish baritone Carry Persson.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well-known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to 'pop' recordings, notably those by Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
and the group Hot Chocolate. Cameron's instrumental version of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's "Whole Lotta Love
Whole Lotta Love
"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it...
" became a hit for his group Collective Consciousness Society and for many years a version of Cameron's arrangement was used as the theme music for the BBC TV show Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
.
Biography
Cameron's career in music began at Cambridge University where he was Vice-President of the Cambridge Footlights comedy club and performed on the local jazz scene. After leaving Cambridge, Cameron began working as an arranger for folk-pop artist DonovanDonovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
; his credits include Donovan's #1 U.S. hit "Sunshine Superman
Sunshine Superman
"Sunshine Superman" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. The "Sunshine Superman" single was released in the United States through Epic Records in July 1966, but due to a contractual dispute the United Kingdom release was delayed until December 1966, where it...
" (co-arranged with Spike Heatley
Spike Heatley
Spike Heatley, born North London, February 17, 1933, is a British jazz bassist.Heatley was with Vic Ash's sextet in 1958, together with Ian Hamer , Johnny Scott , and Alan Branscombe and had then joined The Jazz Couriers some weeks before they disbanded...
) and he became Donovan's music director, touring with him and arranging hit singles "Jennifer Juniper
Jennifer Juniper
"Jennifer Juniper" is a song and single by Donovan, released in 1968. It charted in the UK and USA. It was written about Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie Boyd, while they were all with The Beatles in Rishikesh. She married Mick Fleetwood and was, at one time, the sister-in-law of George Harrison and,...
" and "Epistle to Dippy
Epistle to Dippy
Epistle to Dippy is a song and single by Donovan, released in 1967 only in the USA. It charted in the USA .Musicians featured are Donovan on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jimmy Page on electric guitar, John Cameron on keyboards and arrangement, Danny Thompson on bass and Tony Carr on drums...
" and the albums Sunshine Superman
Sunshine Superman (album)
Sunshine Superman is the third album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in September 1966. but was not released in the United Kingdom because of a contractual dispute. In June 1967, a compilation of the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums was...
and Mellow Yellow
Mellow Yellow (album)
Mellow Yellow is the fourth album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in March 1967 Mellow Yellow is the fourth album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United States in March 1967 Mellow Yellow is the fourth album from...
albums, as well as Donovan's music for the Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
film Poor Cow
Poor Cow
Poor Cow is a 1967 British drama film directed by Ken Loach, based on Nell Dunn's novel of the same name.Although Malcolm McDowell is listed in the credits on the commercial release of the film, the scenes in which he appeared were deleted....
.
Cameron also began working in television; one of his first major credits in this area was as music director and arranger for three seasons of the TV variety series Once More With Felix with folk-singer Julie Felix
Julie Felix
Julie Ann Felix is a folk rock recording artist, who was notably produced by Mickie Most on his RAK Records label.-Career:...
(1967–69), The Bobbie Gentry Show and numerous episodes of the BBC's In Concert
In Concert
-Albums:* In Concert , 1985** In Concert , a 1995 album by America* In Concert * In Concert * In Concert...
series (directed by Stanley Dorfman
Stanley Dorfman
Stanley Dorfman is music director and producer.Dorfman was active in Great Britain throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He was the original co-producer and director for the TV music show Top Of The Pops and created and directed the BBC’s In Concert series....
), which featured artists including James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
.
Cameron also scored two British hits as a songwriter with "If I thought you'd ever change your mind", a #11 UK hit for Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
(which was also a UK hit by former ABBA vocalist Agnetha Fältskog
Agnetha Fältskog
Agnetha Åse Fältskog is a Swedish recording artist. She achieved success in Sweden after the release of her début album Agnetha Fältskog in 1968, and reached international stardom as a member of the pop group ABBA, which to date has sold over 375 million records worldwide, making it the fourth...
in the early 2000s) and "Sweet Inspiration", a Top 10 single for Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon
Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon
Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon were a U.S. vocal soul group, prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Originally known simply as The Bandwagon, they were formed in 1967 and featured Artie Fullilove, Billy Bradley, Terry Lewis and lead singer Johnny Johnson Johnny Johnson and the...
.
Cameron's first venture in film composition was for director Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
, who asked him to compose the score for his Kes
Kes (film)
Kes is a 1969 British film from director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave, written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968...
(1969). This led to further commissions including The Ruling Class
The Ruling Class
The Ruling Class is a 1972 British black comedy film. It is an adaptation of Peter Barnes' satirical stage play which tells the story of a paranoid schizophrenic British nobleman who inherits a peerage. The film costars Alastair Sim, William Mervyn, Coral Browne, Harry Andrews, Carolyn Seymour,...
with Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, Nightwatch with Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
and A Touch of Class with Glenda Jackson and George Segal, for which Cameron was nominated for an Academy Award.
In the early 1970s Cameron formed Collective Consciousness Society (C.C.S.), a jazz-funk group that included Cameron, 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....
, Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
and Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers is an English musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T...
; they scored four UK hits—an instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (UK #13), a version of which was also used as the theme music for Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
from 1971 to 1981; the Donovan songs "Walkin'" (UK #7) and "Tap Turns On The Water" (UK #5) and "Brother" (UK #25).
He had further success as pop arranger with UK soul-funk band Hot Chocolate, working on all their hit singles from "Emma", "Heaven's In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac", "You Sexy Thing" and "Every One's A Winner". Similarly, John worked as arranger with Heatwave
Heatwave (band)
Heatwave was an international funk/disco musical band featuring Americans Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and Keith Wilder of Dayton, Ohio, Englishman Rod Temperton , Swiss Mario Mantese , Czechoslovak Ernest "Bilbo" Berger , Jamaican Eric Johns and Briton Roy Carter .They were known for their successful...
on three albums, including the singles "Boogie Nights", "Always & Forever", "The Groove Line" and "Gangsters of the Groove".
In the late 1970s Cameron was approached by Alain Boublil
Alain Boublil
Alain Boublil is a musical theatre lyricist and librettist, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg for musicals on Broadway and London's West End...
and Claude-Michel Schönberg
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Claude-Michel Schönberg is a French record producer, actor, singer, songwriter, and musical theatre composer, best known for his collaborations with the lyricist Alain Boublil.These include the musicals:...
to arrange and conduct a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
based on Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
. Initially staged in Paris by Robert Hossein, it was then produced in the UK by Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
and John Caird
John Caird (director)
John Newport Caird is a British stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a regular director with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre,...
. Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
became one of the most successful musicals of all time, winning Cameron the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
and a National Broadway Theatre Award. He also orchestrated the 1993 Broadway revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
, Honk!
Honk!
Honk! is a musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story The Ugly Duckling, incorporating a message of tolerance. The book and lyrics are by Anthony Drewe and music is by George Stiles...
and Spend Spend Spend
Spend Spend Spend
Spend Spend Spend is a musical with a book and lyrics by Steve Brown and Justin Greene and music by Brown.In 1961, Yorkshire housewife Viv Nicholson won £152,319 in the football pools. When a reporter asked her what she planned to do with her new fortune, she replied, "I'm going to spend, spend,...
Cameron's numerous film and TV credits include The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer is a British 1970 cult satire film written by and starring Peter Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, and directed by Kevin Billington .-Synopsis:...
, The Protectors
The Protectors
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It is Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in the present day...
(TV), Psychomania
Psychomania
Psychomania is a British horror film and cult film starring Nicky Henson as a devil worshipping gang leader and Robert Hardy as the detective in charge of bringing them in.It is also known as Death Wheelers Are.....
, the Emmy Award winning TV miniseries Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
(starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
), Disney's Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV miniseries)
Little House on the Prairie, also known as Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, is a five-hour miniseries which was broadcast on ABC as part of The Wonderful World of Disney anthology series. It was made in 2004. It was directed by David L...
, The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 film British mystery film based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side...
, To End All Wars
To End All Wars
To End All Wars is a 2001 war film starring Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura and directed by David L. Cunningham.- Storyline :...
and The Path To 9/11
The Path to 9/11
The Path to 9/11 was a two-part miniseries that aired in the United States on ABC television from September 10 – 11, 2006, and also in other countries. The film dramatizes the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City and the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks.The film...
for which Cameron was nominated for an Emmy award.
Cameron has also worked with artists such as José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
and the Choir of New College Oxford and Swedish baritone Carry Persson.