Johnny Pearson, who died on March 20 aged 85, was the musical director on the BBC’s flagship chart music show Top Of The Pops in its 1970s heyday and composed several memorable television theme tunes, including those for All Creatures Great And Small and News At Ten.
Johnny Pearson
An accomplished and classically-trained musician, Pearson first appeared on Top Of The Pops in early 1965 as the pianist with the group Sounds Orchestral, whose first single Cast Your Fate To The Wind had reached No 5 in the charts. He joined the staff of the show in 1967, the year it moved from Manchester to London and the scantily-clad dancers Pan’s People were introduced.
In 1966 the all-powerful Musicians’ Union had banned pop stars from miming to their records. This meant that artists either had to pre-record their numbers especially or perform live with the Top Of The Pops Orchestra, an assembly of jobbing musicians more accustomed to easy-listening arrangements for crooners like Matt Monro and Des O’Connor.
As disorganised popstars often arrived at the studio on the day with no band parts at all, Pearson and the orchestra frequently had to improvise backing tracks. Inevitably the session men, almost all middle-aged, often struggled with the enormous range of rock and pop tunes with which they were presented. A gentle ballad by Val Doonican was one thing; a funky disco track by Tina Charles quite another.
Even a middle-of-the-road artist like Cliff Richard had his doubts about the band’s inner grooviness, and ability to “get it on”. “They had no feel for the tracks,” he complained. “You could tell they didn’t even like rock and roll.”
Another problem for Pearson was that, on the conductor’s rostrum, he had to contend with the extensive and rigidly-enforced provisions of the union’s rule book. In rehearsal, if a tea break was due, the orchestra would break off in the middle of a song and walk out, leaving American funk and soul superstars scratching their heads.
With so many acts featuring on Top Of The Pops each week, rehearsal time was sorely limited. Pearson would have to explain to stars like Elton John that they had just 20 minutes to run through their number with the orchestra, which was corralled in a corner of the studio and hardly ever seen on camera.
When Simon and Garfunkel arrived to sing their plangent hit Bridge Over Troubled Water and saw the thinly-populated string section, they refused to perform and returned to their hotel.
Pearson had more success with backing tracks for artists like Bing Crosby, Neil Sedaka, John Denver and a young Michael Jackson, who sang his first solo hit Ben on the programme in 1972.
His 16-year association with Top Of The Pops behind him, Pearson concentrated on musical composition, and produced a sizeable body of work in various styles. As well as easy listening and production music, he also wrote more demanding scores, such as the Gemini suite for piano and orchestra, and the Arabesque suite which included his familiar News At Ten theme.
John Valmore Pearson was born on June 18 1925 at Plaistow, east London, the only child of a steel erector. Having started playing the piano aged seven, he won a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and studied under the pianist Solomon. John gave solo recitals, performing works by Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, but when war broke out Lamda closed, and for the next six years he worked as an apprentice toolmaker and engineer.
After National Service with the Royal Artillery Band, Pearson became a freelance musician, playing in the Malcolm Mitchell jazz trio; working as a pianist on The Goon Show and other radio programmes in the 1950s; and as a session musician on several pop hits of the early 1960s. In 1964 he made a memorable arrangement of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David number, Anyone Who Had A Heart, which became a No 1 British hit for Cilla Black. His delicate scoring for strings and French horn proved a perfect contrast to Cilla Black’s dramatic rendition. He also arranged her follow-up single, You’re My World (1964).
In the mid-1960s Pearson also formed the successful easy-listening group, Sounds Orchestral. His distinctive and delicate piano touch on the group’s version of a 1962 instrumental number, Cast Your Fate To The Wind, gave it an unusually airy and jazzy feel. The record remained in the British charts for four months in 1965 and also charted in the United States; it sold more than a million copies worldwide and earned a gold disc.
The group’s spin-off album of the same name (controversially featuring a naked woman in silhouette on the cover) was the first of 17 easy-listening albums released over the following decade. By the time Sounds Orchestral wound up in 1975, Pearson had carved out a successful solo career as a pianist and arranger. Shortly after contributing to the 900th edition of Top Of The Pops, in August 1981, he left the programme.
Over the years, much of his output was library or production music, available for radio play and as incidental music in dramas. One of Pearson’s most popular compositions in this vein, the languid Sleepy Shores, recorded by his own orchestra, was chosen as the theme to the BBC Television drama series Owen MD, starring Nigel Stock. It reached No 8 in the pop charts in 1972.
Another of his library pieces, Piano Parchment, which he had recorded with his orchestra 10 years earlier, became the perky signature tune of the popular series about a Yorkshire vet’s practice, All Creatures Great And Small, in 1978.
But Pearson’s best-known and most enduring television theme was the menacing opening music for ITN’s News At Ten, which was first heard when the programme launched in 1967. Featuring a fortissimo brass figure over percussive strings, it lasts less than 15 seconds before yielding to the portentous “bongs” of Big Ben.
Pearson’s theme was nearly dropped during pre-launch rehearsals because women complained it was too shrill and ear-piercing. Another composer was hurriedly commissioned to write a replacement, but when the editor-in-chief heard Pearson’s theme in conjunction with the Big Ben “bongs” he recognised a winning combination and ordered it to stand. News At Ten has used it, in one form or another, ever since.
Pearson also wrote themes for several other long-running television series, including the 1980s quiz 3-2-1 and the BBC sports show Superstars. His film scores include The Jokers (1967) and Let’s Get Laid (1977).
Johnny Pearson married, in 1963, Alex Thorpe, who survives him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8490614/Johnny-Pearson.html
When Simon and Garfunkel arrived to sing their plangent hit Bridge Over Troubled Water and saw the thinly-populated string section, they refused to perform and returned to their hotel.
Pearson had more success with backing tracks for artists like Bing Crosby, Neil Sedaka, John Denver and a young Michael Jackson, who sang his first solo hit Ben on the programme in 1972.
His 16-year association with Top Of The Pops behind him, Pearson concentrated on musical composition, and produced a sizeable body of work in various styles. As well as easy listening and production music, he also wrote more demanding scores, such as the Gemini suite for piano and orchestra, and the Arabesque suite which included his familiar News At Ten theme.
John Valmore Pearson was born on June 18 1925 at Plaistow, east London, the only child of a steel erector. Having started playing the piano aged seven, he won a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and studied under the pianist Solomon. John gave solo recitals, performing works by Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, but when war broke out Lamda closed, and for the next six years he worked as an apprentice toolmaker and engineer.
After National Service with the Royal Artillery Band, Pearson became a freelance musician, playing in the Malcolm Mitchell jazz trio; working as a pianist on The Goon Show and other radio programmes in the 1950s; and as a session musician on several pop hits of the early 1960s. In 1964 he made a memorable arrangement of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David number, Anyone Who Had A Heart, which became a No 1 British hit for Cilla Black. His delicate scoring for strings and French horn proved a perfect contrast to Cilla Black’s dramatic rendition. He also arranged her follow-up single, You’re My World (1964).
In the mid-1960s Pearson also formed the successful easy-listening group, Sounds Orchestral. His distinctive and delicate piano touch on the group’s version of a 1962 instrumental number, Cast Your Fate To The Wind, gave it an unusually airy and jazzy feel. The record remained in the British charts for four months in 1965 and also charted in the United States; it sold more than a million copies worldwide and earned a gold disc.
The group’s spin-off album of the same name (controversially featuring a naked woman in silhouette on the cover) was the first of 17 easy-listening albums released over the following decade. By the time Sounds Orchestral wound up in 1975, Pearson had carved out a successful solo career as a pianist and arranger. Shortly after contributing to the 900th edition of Top Of The Pops, in August 1981, he left the programme.
Over the years, much of his output was library or production music, available for radio play and as incidental music in dramas. One of Pearson’s most popular compositions in this vein, the languid Sleepy Shores, recorded by his own orchestra, was chosen as the theme to the BBC Television drama series Owen MD, starring Nigel Stock. It reached No 8 in the pop charts in 1972.
Another of his library pieces, Piano Parchment, which he had recorded with his orchestra 10 years earlier, became the perky signature tune of the popular series about a Yorkshire vet’s practice, All Creatures Great And Small, in 1978.
But Pearson’s best-known and most enduring television theme was the menacing opening music for ITN’s News At Ten, which was first heard when the programme launched in 1967. Featuring a fortissimo brass figure over percussive strings, it lasts less than 15 seconds before yielding to the portentous “bongs” of Big Ben.
Pearson’s theme was nearly dropped during pre-launch rehearsals because women complained it was too shrill and ear-piercing. Another composer was hurriedly commissioned to write a replacement, but when the editor-in-chief heard Pearson’s theme in conjunction with the Big Ben “bongs” he recognised a winning combination and ordered it to stand. News At Ten has used it, in one form or another, ever since.
Pearson also wrote themes for several other long-running television series, including the 1980s quiz 3-2-1 and the BBC sports show Superstars. His film scores include The Jokers (1967) and Let’s Get Laid (1977).
Johnny Pearson married, in 1963, Alex Thorpe, who survives him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8490614/Johnny-Pearson.html
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