Johnny Franz
Encyclopedia
Johnny Franz was a UK
record producer
and A&R
man at the Philips
label
. Although his name is not recognized by many Americans
, Franz was one of Britain
's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s. While his recordings
encompassed several forms of mainstream popular music
, his most enduring contributions were to British Invasion
pop
of the mid 1960s on records
by Dusty Springfield
, The Walker Brothers
, and the early solo
recordings of the most popular Walker Brother, Scott Walker
.
's Denmark Street
(the British
equivalent of Tin Pan Alley
), a club
pianist
who at one time performed with famed jazzman George Shearing
, and a BBC
orchestrator before becoming the head of A&R at Philips Records in 1954. Some of the artists he produced were artists that never made inroads in the U.S.
, such as Susan Maughan
and Harry Secombe
; he also worked with Shirley Bassey
and Marty Wilde
.
For Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers, Franz oversaw discs that matched first class pop rock
material and vocalists
with the better aspects of orchestral production that was more typical of middle of the road pop. Franz's role with these artists seems not to have been so much that of an innovator as one of a capable delegator. For Dusty Springfield's mid 1960s hits like "I Only Want to Be with You
" — which were the best British equivalents to Phil Spector
's Wall of Sound
- he relied heavily upon arranger
Ivor Raymonde
. Raymonde also did some work on Walker Brothers hits (like "Make It Easy On Yourself
"), which were also competently aided by engineer Peter Olliff; the more classical
sounding Walker Brothers arrangements were frequently handled by Reg Guest.
Franz and Olliff continued to work with Scott Walker on the singer's early solo album
s, in which he developed a more serious and somber approach to both repertoire and vocals
. Walker and Franz were personal friends, and Franz arranged for Scott to study with British vocal instructor Freddie Winrose, who taught the singer much about breath control. Franz could not continue working with Walker after the singer left Philips, though.
He recorded
many prolific British artists
who were on the label at the time, including Shirley Bassey, as well as Frankie Vaughan
, Anne Shelton, Robert Earl
, Susan Maughan, Marty Wilde, Harry Secombe, Winifred Atwell
, The Springfields
and Dusty Springfield. Franz also worked with key Americans
under license from Columbia Records
, such as Johnnie Ray
and Rosemary Clooney
. Franz's production "trademarks" were a lush choir
and big orchestra
, provided in the 1950s by Wally Stott.
Franz, who was known as the 'last of the great pros', died in 1977, at the age of 54.
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and 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 the Philips
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
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,...
. Although his name is not recognized by many Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Franz was one of Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s. While his recordings
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
encompassed several forms of mainstream popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, his most enduring contributions were to British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
of the mid 1960s on records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, The Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers were an American 1960s and 1970s pop group, comprising Scott Engel , John Walker , and Gary Leeds...
, and the early solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
recordings of the most popular Walker Brother, Scott Walker
Scott Walker (singer)
Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel on January 9, 1943 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and the former lead singer of The Walker Brothers. Despite being American born, Walker's chart success has largely come in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums...
.
Career
Franz had been an office boy in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
(the British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
equivalent of Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
), a club
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
who at one time performed with famed jazzman George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
, and a 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...
orchestrator before becoming the head of A&R at Philips Records in 1954. Some of the artists he produced were artists that never made inroads in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, such as Susan Maughan
Susan Maughan
Susan Maughan is an English singer who released successful singles in the 1960s.-Career:...
and Harry Secombe
Harry Secombe
Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a talent for comedy and a noted fine tenor singing voice. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show...
; he also worked with Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
and 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...
.
For Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers, Franz oversaw discs that matched first class pop rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
material and vocalists
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
with the better aspects of orchestral production that was more typical of middle of the road pop. Franz's role with these artists seems not to have been so much that of an innovator as one of a capable delegator. For Dusty Springfield's mid 1960s hits like "I Only Want to Be with You
I Only Want to Be with You
"I Only Want to Be with You" is a rock-and-roll song by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde. It was the first solo single released by British singer Dusty Springfield under her long-time producer Johnny Franz...
" — which were the best British equivalents to Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
's Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
- he relied heavily upon arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
Ivor Raymonde
Ivor Raymonde
Ivor Raymonde was a British musician, songwriter, arranger and actor, best known for his distinctive rock-orchestral arrangements for Dusty Springfield and others in the 1960s.-Life and career:...
. Raymonde also did some work on Walker Brothers hits (like "Make It Easy On Yourself
Make It Easy On Yourself
"Make It Easy On Yourself" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David which was first a hit for Jerry Butler in 1962 and has since been a Top 40 single for the Walker Brothers - for whom it was a #1 UK hit - and Dionne Warwick.-Jerry Butler:...
"), which were also competently aided by engineer Peter Olliff; the more classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
sounding Walker Brothers arrangements were frequently handled by Reg Guest.
Franz and Olliff continued to work with Scott Walker on the singer's early solo album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, in which he developed a more serious and somber approach to both repertoire and vocals
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
. Walker and Franz were personal friends, and Franz arranged for Scott to study with British vocal instructor Freddie Winrose, who taught the singer much about breath control. Franz could not continue working with Walker after the singer left Philips, though.
He recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
many prolific British artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who were on the label at the time, including Shirley Bassey, as well as Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan, CBE, DL was an English singer of traditional pop music, who issued more than 80 recordings in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.-Life and career:...
, Anne Shelton, Robert Earl
Robert Earl
Robert Earl may refer to:* Robert Earl * Robert Earl * Robert Earl * Robert Earl , Chief Judge of the NY Court of Appeals 1870 and 1892...
, Susan Maughan, Marty Wilde, Harry Secombe, 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...
, The Springfields
The Springfields
The Springfields were a British pop-folk vocal trio who had success in the early 1960s in the UK, US and Ireland and included singer Dusty Springfield and her brother, record producer Tom Springfield, along with Tim Feild, later a noted Sufi writer, who was latterly replaced by Mike Hurst, who...
and Dusty Springfield. Franz also worked with key Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
under license from Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, such as Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality.-Early life:John Alvin Ray was born in...
and Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
. Franz's production "trademarks" were a lush choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
and big orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, provided in the 1950s by Wally Stott.
Franz, who was known as the 'last of the great pros', died in 1977, at the age of 54.
Production credits
Franz produced ten UK number ones enjoying, in total, twenty eight weeks at the top of the UK Singles ChartUK 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 ...
.
- "Let's Have Another PartyLet's Have Another Party"Let's Have Another Party" was a 1954 ragtime composition, which became a number one hit in the UK Singles Chart for the pianist Winifred Atwell. It is a composite of several pieces of music, and was a follow up to Atwell's successful hit "Let's Have a Party" of the previous year.The music was...
" - Winifred Atwell (1954) - "Lay Down Your ArmsLay Down Your Arms"Lay Down Your Arms" is a 1956 popular song with music by Ake Gerhard and Leon Landgren and lyrics by Gerhard and Paddy Roberts ....
" - Anne Shelton (1956) - "The Garden of EdenThe Garden of Eden (1956 song)"The Garden of Eden" is a song written and composed by Dennise Haas Norwood and first recorded by Joe Valino, who reached Number 12 on the Billboard charts in October 1956....
" - Frankie Vaughan (1957) - "As I Love You" - Shirley Bassey (1959)
- "Tower of Strength" - Frankie Vaughan (1961)
- "JulietJuliet (song)"Juliet" is a pop song made famous by the band The Four Pennies. The track was recorded in 1964.-History:"Juliet" was released as a single in the UK in February 1964 on the Philips label...
" - The Four PenniesThe Four PenniesThe Four Pennies were an English, 1960s pop group, most notable for their 1964 UK chart topping song, "Juliet". The group's name came after a meeting above the Blackburn music shop owned by Mary Reidy, the shop being situated on 'Penny Street' where it is still located today as "Reidy's Home of...
(1964) - "Make It Easy on YourselfMake It Easy On Yourself"Make It Easy On Yourself" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David which was first a hit for Jerry Butler in 1962 and has since been a Top 40 single for the Walker Brothers - for whom it was a #1 UK hit - and Dionne Warwick.-Jerry Butler:...
" - The Walker Brothers (1965) - "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" - The Walker Brothers (1966)
- "You Don't Have to Say You Love MeYou Don't Have to Say You Love Me"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is the title of a 1966 hit recorded by British singer Dusty Springfield which proved to be her career record reaching #1 UK and #4 US: the song subsequently charted in the UK via remakes by Elvis Presley , Guys 'n' Dolls and Denise Welch with Presley's version...
" - Dusty Springfield (1966) - "Welcome HomeWelcome Home (1973 song)"Welcome Home" was a song made popular by Peters and Lee.Originally written by Jean Alphonse Dupre and Stanislas Beldone in French and translated into English by Bryan Blackburn the record was produced by Johnny Franz...
" - Peters and LeePeters and LeePeters and Lee were a successful British folk/pop duo of the 1970s, comprising Lennie Peters and Dianne Lee .-Background:...
(1973)