With singer and frequent songwriting collaborator Petula Clark
Tony Hatch (born 30 June 1939 or 1940) is an English
composer,
songwriter,
pianist,
music
arranger, and producer.
He was born Anthony Peter Hatch in Pinner, Middlesex.
Encouraged by his musical abilities, his mother — also a pianist —
enrolled him in the London Choir School in Bexley, Kent when he was ten.
Instead of continuing at the Royal Academy of Music, he
left school in 1955
and found a job with Robert Mellin Music in London's Tin
Pan Alley.
Before long, he was writing songs and making a name for
himself within the recording industry, joining The
Rank Organisation's new diskery, Top
Rank Records; there he worked for the once and future Decca
Records A&R man Dick Rowe. When National
Service called him away from his chosen profession, he managed to
become involved with the band of the Coldstream
Guards. On his return In 1959, Hatch began his own recording career with
a cover version of Russ Conway's piano
instrumental "Side Saddle". In 1960, Garry Mills' (Nat
Gonella's nephew) recording of Hatch's composition Look For A
Star, featured in the hit film Circus Of Horrors,
became a Top Ten hit in the UK for Top Rank. Four versions of the
song charted simultaneously in the United States, including Mills'
original and a version by "Gary Miles" (a recording alias
of future member of The Crickets, Buzz
Cason) Top Rank, despite some worldwide success with artists such as Jack Scott
and The
Fireballs, ultimately was done in by a quirky distribution arrangement
with EMI. A swift succession of events ensued through 1961-Top Rank was
sold to EMI, briefly operated as a subsidiary, with hits by John
Leyton, and shuttered, with its artist roster transferred to
other EMI labels. Hatch moved on to a part-time job with Pye
Records, where he assisted his new mentor, Alan
A. Freeman, with the recording of "Sailor", a #1 hit for Petula
Clark.
Hatch continued to write songs for Pye artists, sometimes
under the pseudonym "Mark Anthony". In 1963, Philadelphia teen idol Bobby
Rydell hit the charts with "Forget Him" written and produced by Hatch,
who went on to produce, arrange and write for other American stars such
as Keely
Smith, Connie Francis and Pat Boone.
After "Valentino", the first Tony Hatch composition to be
recorded by Petula Clark, he became her regular producer. They
collaborated on a series of French language recordings for Vogue
Records. (Clark, whose husband was French and who spoke the language
fluently, had a successful career throughout Europe.) Hatch
became one of her regular songwriting partners, in addition to
supplying English words for songs she had composed with French lyricists.
In 1964,
Hatch made his first trip to New York City in search of new
material for Clark. The visit inspired him to write "Downtown",
originally with the Drifters in mind. When Clark heard the
still unfinished tune, she told him that if he could write lyrics to
match the quality of the music, she would record the song as her next
single. Its release transformed her into a huge international star,
topping charts globally early in 1965, and introducing her to the US
market. The year also yielded the remarkable series of hits "I Know A
Place","You'd Better Come Home", and "Round Every Corner" for Clark.
She and Hatch wrote "You're The One", which became a major hit for the Vogues. Tony Hatch
and Petula Clark became established as the British equivalent of Burt
Bacharach and Dionne Warwick.
In 1964, Hatch was hired to write his first television theme,
for the soap opera Crossroads.
It would become one of his best-known compositions, and have the
distinction of being re-worked by Paul
McCartney and Wings. When asked to write a
song to be featured in the Inspector Rose series, It's Dark
Outside, he supplied "Where Are You Now?", with lyrics and
vocals by a recently acquired Pye artist, Jackie
Trent. The song immediately clicked with the public and shot
to #1 in the charts. 1965 also marked the release of his first album, The
Downtown Sound of Tony Hatch, featuring instrumental versions
of some of his most famous songs, along with new compositions.
Petula Clark's run of hits continued with "My Love", "A Sign
Of The Times", "Who Am I?", "Colour My World", and "I Couldn't Live
Without Your Love", inspired by the married Hatch's ongoing affair with
Jackie
Trent, who had become a frequent songwriting collaborator.
Hatch also wrote Clark's 1967 hits "Don't Sleep In The Subway" and "The
Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener".
Hatch and Trent were married in 1966. Their duet, "The Two Of Us", topped the Australian
charts and created a demand for concert and cabaret performances, and
the duo earned the nickname, "Mr. & Mrs. Music". His
compositions for The Doctors, Codename,
Back to the Land, The
Champions, Hadleigh,
Mr
and Mrs and Whodunnit!
established Hatch as an undisputed leader in the world of television
theme songs.
During the 1970s,
Hatch and Trent diversified into musical theatre. Their first
project, The Card,
based on Arnold Bennett's novel, with book by Keith
Waterhouse and Willis Hall, ran in London's West
End with Jim
Dale and Millicent Martin in the
lead roles. (Coincidentally, Petula Clark had starred in the 1952
film version with Alec Guinness.) An original cast album
was released in 1975. A rewritten version of the show, starring Peter
Duncan and Hayley Mills, played the Regent's
Park Open Air Theatre in the 1990s and spawned a new cast album. The
second Hatch/Trent musical was Rock Nativity, with
book and lyrics by David Wood. Initiated and produced by Cameron
Mackintosh, it first played in Newcastle.
An updated version of the show toured nationally in 1976 and was broadcast
nationally by Scottish
TV. A full-length concert version was recorded at the Cork
Opera House for the Irish television state broadcaster RTE.
During the 1970s Hatch was also a regular panellist on the
talent show New Faces where
his blunt style of assessing the contestants has proved to be a
forerunner of approaches to come in later, similar series.
In 1978,
Hatch and Trent moved to Dublin, where they remained for four years,
hosting their own TV series, Words And Music and It's
A Musical World. Hatch continued to produce hit TV themes for
series such as Seagull Island
and Airline
before moving to Australia in 1982. While there, the couple wrote one of
their most famous compositions, the theme for the TV soap opera Neighbours.
They separated in 1995,
and divorced in 2002.
He made a guest appearance on Graham Fellows's radio show, The
Shuttleworths in 1994.
In 2003,
a disco
remix of the original recording of Downtown was
released in Australia by The OUTpsiDER, with the blessing of
both Hatch and Clark, and became a major hit. A souvenir CD box-set of
Hatch's first five albums, all in their original covers, was released
in 2005.
Hatch has two daughters from his first marriage to Jean, a son
and daughter from his marriage to Trent, and now lives in Menorca, Spain with his third
wife, Maggie.
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