John Nicholas Shakespeare (born 20 October 1942), known as John Carter, is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer.
Contents
Overview
Mainly popular in the 1960s and early 1970s, Carter's craftsmanship can be heard at work with:
Carter-Lewis and the Southerners.
The Ivy League – "Funny How Love Can Be", "That's Why I'm Crying", "Tossing and Turning"
Herman's Hermits – "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat"
Brenda Lee – "Is It True?"
The Music Explosion – "Little Bit O' Soul"
Peter and Gordon – "Sunday for Tea"
The Flower Pot Men – "Let's Go to San Francisco"
The First Class – "Beach Baby"
Sacha Distel – "Vite, Cherie, Vite" (French version of "Beach Baby")
Mary Hopkin – "Knock, Knock Who's There?"
Kincade – "Dreams Are Ten A Penny"
Biography
Carter met his future songwriting partner Ken Hawker at school in Birmingham. They formed a skiffle band in the 1950s called LVI. It was then they began writing songs together: "We began to write real Buddy Holly take-offs. Which was good, it got us excited about songwriting."
In 1960, the duo went to London and presented themselves under their songwriting pseudonyms John Carter and Ken Lewis. Terry Kennedy became their manager and convinced them to start their own band as an outlet for their songs. In 1961, the first single by Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, "Back on the Scene", was released. But the band never broke through and their main claim to fame remains a brief stint that Jimmy Page did as their lead guitarist. In 1964, they met Perry Ford, who worked as an engineer in a small recording studio in Denmark Street, London. They noticed their voices blended well and started recording demos together, resulting in a single on Pye Records, "What More Do You Want" as the Ivy League. Their luck changed when Herman's Hermits recorded "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" and took it to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. In the UK it was a smaller hit for Goldie and the Gingerbreads.
They then provided backing vocals for "I Can't Explain", by the Who. In 1965 and 1966, The Ivy League scored four UK chart hits, including "Tossing and Turning", which reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart and "Funny How Love Can Be" being their other top 10 hit. By early 1966, Carter decided he had had enough of touring and was replaced by Tony Burrows from The Kestrels. That year, he married Gill Shakespeare who would later write lyrics for some of his songs. Carter concentrated on songwriting, providing hits for Peter and Gordon and Brenda Lee. He found a new songwriting partner in Geoff Stephens, resulting in "My World Fell Down", recorded by The Ivy League, later to be covered by Gary Usher's Sagittarius and Dutch band The Buffoons.
Carter sang lead on the New Vaudeville Band's hit single "Winchester Cathedral", a traditional pop pastiche that became a U.S. chart-topper. He also released a single "White Collar Worker", recorded with Mickey Keen and Robin Shaw, as The Ministry of Sound. Early in 1967, Ken Lewis quit the Ivy League and started writing and recording again with Carter. One of the first results was "Let's Go to San Francisco", released as the Flower Pot Men. As was the case with "Winchester Cathedral", when the recording, made by session musicians, became a hit, a band had to be assembled for live appearances.
