John Stanley Livingstone Harris (9 November 1932 – 20 March 2020) was a Scottish composer, producer, arranger, conductor, and musical director. He lived in the United States from 1972 until his death.
The British years (1932–1972)
Johnny Harris was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to Welsh parents and was a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London. He was originally a trumpet player with the Norman Burns band and big bands led by Vic Lewis, Ken Mackintosh, Cyril Stapleton and then a member of the short-lived beat group The Shubdubs with drummer Jimmie Nicol and organist Roger Coulam. In 1964, he recorded a Beatles cover version album and EP called Beatlemania with Jimmie Nicol which resulted in Nicol's replacing the ill Ringo Starr on a worldwide Beatles tour.
He joined Pye Records in 1965 as an arranger and conductor for producer Tony Hatch and his then-wife Jackie Trent. Johnny had an un-credited role as conductor on the Nancy In London album and worked with many other artists in the sixties as a staff member at Pye. He worked freelance for many other record labels in Great Britain and Europe and was a regular arranger, conductor and producer for Petula Clark until she left Pye in 1971.
The first official colour programme on BBC 1 was a concert by Petula Clark with the Johnny Harris Orchestra from the Royal Albert Hall, London, broadcast at midnight on 14/15 November 1969. He arranged, conducted and produced the majority of tracks on the Shirley Bassey albums Something, Something Else, I Capricorn, And I Love You So, Never Never Never and All by Myself and many tracks on sixties Decca Records Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck albums. Johnny was the musical director for the BBC light entertainment show Happening For Lulu in 1968–69 with the Scottish singer Lulu and conducted her Eurovision Song Contest joint-winner Boom Bang-A-Bang in Madrid, 1969 which led to him gaining a solo record deal with Warner Bros. UK. He was the musical director for the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties broadcast on BBC 1 on 31 December 1969 and had his own 1969 BBC Show of the Week called Up Tight featuring Georgie Fame and Lulu.
His album Movements was recorded with the best London session musicians in the spring of 1970, was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall and was pressed by Warner's three times in the UK (on orange, green and Burbank labels) and reissued on CD by Warner Bros. UK in 2002 with remastered sound, bonus tracks and an interview with Harris talking about the album and his career. Movements and All To Bring You Morning were again released in 2015 as limited edition SHMCD's by Warner Bros. Japan for the Japanese only market (this is the first time both Movements and All To Bring You Morning have been issued in Japan). Movements was again out-of-print worldwide until a vinyl only Australian release came out in November 2017.
Singles released from the Movements album were the space age classic Footprints on the Moon (1969) and the moody suspense theme Fragment of Fear (1970) from the film of the same name starring David Hemmings. Shirley Bassey recorded a vocal version of his arrangement of The DoorsLight My Fire from Movements on her 1970 Something album (issued in the US as the Shirley Bassey Is Really "Something" album) which she still performs today.
Warner Bros. UK also released his Man in the Wilderness film soundtrack (1971) and the sequel to Movements, All To Bring You Morning (1973) before he left for the US to work with Paul Anka.
Harris moved to the United States to record and conduct his orchestra in Las Vegas with Paul Anka where Elvis Presley asked him to lead his Vegas band. In 1973, while back in the UK at Advision Studios, he recorded the album All To Bring You Morning, with progressive rock musicians from the group Yes, Jon Anderson on vocals, Steve Howe on guitars and Alan White on drums who happened to be working in the next studio at Advision and asked to be involved in his follow-up album to Movements.
He recorded a string of hit singles with Paul Anka & Odia Coates and continued to work with Paul Anka until 1977 and after that, he wanted to concentrate on scoring for film and television which led to a long-time gig as the musical director for Lynda Carter after he scored the third season of her television series Wonder Woman in 1979. Harris was Music Director for all 5 of Lynda Carter's Television Variety Specials and toured the world with her for over a decade appearing at the London Palladium, UK on 4 October 1980 to support her debut single for Motown RecordsThe Last Song.
His 1980 Miami disco hit Odyssey (TK Records) featured prominently on popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas playing on Bounce FM funk radio, as well as being in the lowrider challenge mission. The song was also featured in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Space Rockers", he originally wrote the song for that episode and arranged the opening Buck Rogers in the 25th Century theme music composed by Stu Phillips. The first 40 seconds of the Buck Rogers main-title theme is an original Harris composition before Stu's theme starts.
Johnny Harris - The Man Who Turned Down Elvis Twice is a biography written by his daughter Julie Pearce-Martin published to celebrate his 80th birthday in November 2012.[2]
On 21 and 28 September 2013, Radio Six International broadcast two-hour-long shows titled 'The Johnny Harris Story' written, produced and presented by Darren Stuart.[3]
Harris continued to work closely with Engelbert Humperdinck. Several of the biggest moments in Engelbert's current show are Harris' arrangements, Including "Crazy" and "On Broadway". In 2017 arranged 6 of the songs on Engelbert Humperdinck's recently released album, including the title song: "The Man I Want To Be". This album has been nominated for 4 Grammy Awards.
Harris also continued to score independent feature and short films, and web series. He was working on an original album, in collaboration with Robby Krieger in Robby's studio, proceeds will be donated to the St Jude's charity.
Harris had been fighting lung cancer for two years when he died in March 2020 at the age of 87.[4]
Selected discography
Albums
1964 : Beatlemania, the Beatles, Top Six Records TSL 1 (No reissue)
1966 : The Heart of Bart, Lionel Bart, United Artists Records SULP 1152 (No reissue)
1966 : A Handful of Songs, United Artists Records UAS 6607 (No reissue)
1966 : The Guitar Workshop - Pop Go The Classics, Pye Records NSPL 18165 (No reissue)
1970 : Movements, Warner Bros Records WS 3002 (reissued on CD and 2LP UK 2001)
1972 : Man in the Wilderness, film score, Warner Bros Records K 46126 (reissued on CD US 2010)
1973 : Bloomfield, film score, Pye Records NSPL 18376 (reissued on CD UK 2000)
1973 : All To Bring You Morning, Warner Bros Records K 46187 (reissued on CD UK 2008)
2013 : Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Season One, television score, Intrada Records 255
2017 : Wonder Woman - Season Three, television score, La-La Land Records
Singles
1965 : "Mynahg Hop" / "Here Comes the Boot", Mercury Records MF 949
1969 : "Footprints on the Moon" / "Lulu's Theme", Warner Bros Records WB 8000
1970 : "Fragment of Fear" / "Stepping Stones", Warner Bros Records WB 8016
1971 : "Footprints on the Moon" / "Sacha's song" [Sacha Distel], Lyons Ready Brek Free Record SFI 83
1972 : "Ballad to an Unborn Child" / "Captain Henry's Theme", Warner Bros Records 7541
1976 : "Jubilation" [Harris/Anka] / "Tip Top Theme" [Martelli] arranged and produced by Johnny Harris, w/Bob Skaff, in assoc w/ Paul Anka Prod., United Artists Records UAXW 767Y
1997 : "Stepping Stones Edit" / "Full Circle Mix" / "Try & Touch Mix", EMI Records CDLIC 108
2016 : "Wonder Woman Main Title Season One" [Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel] / "Wonder Woman Main Title Season Three", La-La Land Records LLLLP 2002
Celebrity recordings of Harris songs:
1968 : "Why Can'I Cry" [Harris/Clarke] / Recorded by Tom Jones, Petula Clark, Ginette Reno, Flora Purim and more.
1973 : "Jubilation" [Harris/Anka] / Recorded by Barbra Streisand, The "Butterfly" Album, 1 October 1974, Columbia Records, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, James Last, B.J. Arnau, Maxine Weldon, Sylvie Vartan, Katja Ebstein, Paul Anka.
1973 : "I'm Not Anyone" [Harris/Anka] / Recorded by Sammy Davis Jr., MGM Records 1973, & The Millennium Collection, The Best of Sammy Davis Jr., 20th Century Masters, Vic Franklyn, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka.
Albums (arranger/producer/musical director)
1966 : Jackie Trent - The Magic of Jackie Trent, Pye Records NPL 18125
1966 : Petula Clark - My Love, Pye Records NPL 18141
1966 : Petula Clark - I Couldn't Live Without Your Love, Pye Records NPL 18148
1967 : Roy Budd - …is The Sound of Music, Pye Records NPL 18195
1967 : Paul and Barry Ryan - Two of a Kind, Decca Records LK 4878
1967 : Tom Jones - Live at The Talk of the Town, Decca Records SKL 4874
1967 : Engelbert Humperdinck - Twelve Great Songs Plus "Release Me", Decca Records SKL 4868
1968 : Engelbert Humperdinck - A Man Without Love, Decca Records SKL 4939
1968 : Tom Jones - Help Yourself, Decca Records SKL 4982
1968 : Tom Jones - Delilah, Decca Records SKL 4946
1969 : Lulu - Lulu's Album, EMI Columbia Records SCX 6365
1969 : The Flirtations - Sounds Like The Flirtations, Deram Records SML 1046
1969 : Ginette Reno - Everything That I Am, Decca Records SKL-R 5027
1970 : Shirley Bassey - Something, United Artists Records UAS 29100
1971 : Paul Anka - Jubilation, Buddah Records BDS 5114
1971 : Michael Allen - For The Love of Mike, Decca Records PS 564
1971 : Shirley Bassey - Something Else, United Artists Records UAS 29149
1971 : Michael Allen - Something Special, MGM Records SE 4762
1971 : Richard Harris - My Boy, Probe Records SPBA 6263
1971 : Sacha Distel - More And More, Warner Bros Records K 46117
1971 : Petula Clark - Petula '71, Pye Records NSPL 18370
