Question Music
Remember Leo Sayer?
Jwalden --- Constitution Party January 25, 2009 01:09:16
- 8 answers
- Read all 16 comments
- +4 raves
His Bio and Discogaphy would take pages to type or paste. The link is
http://www.leosayer.com/
One night on the way back from a gig, Adam had a near fatal car crash. As he lay in bed recovering in hospital all he talked about was Leo’s first single from “Silverbird” - “Why Is Everybody Going Home”. The album was released in 1973 in the U.K. and the U.S. simultaneously and further to Adam’s dynamic promotional work, the B.B.C. offered Leo a slot on their T.V. rock show, “The Old Grey Whistle Test”.
Leo came on the show dressed as the Pierrot and such was the reaction to his performance, the entire business noted that a new star was born. Leo went on a British and European tour supporting Roxy Music, now appearing on stage dressed as the Pierrot. His wife Janice made the costumes and applied his make up, and they were quite inseparable.
“The Show Must Go On”, released as the second single, went to number 2 in the U.K. charts and the “Silverbird” album also reached number 2 in the album chart. The B.B.C. put Leo In Concert on T.V. and as the year of 1973 drew to a close both the Melody Maker and The Sun newspaper (on the cover of it’s new year issue) predicted Leo as “The Star Of ‘74”.
In the U.S.A., Three Dog Night covered “The Show Must Go On” and took their version right to the top of the singles chart there. They had seen Leo on British television dressed as Pierrot and dressed up as circus clowns on U.S. T.V., in their interpretation of Leo. They had ironically changed Leo’s lyric to: “We must let the show go on....” This proved Leo’s songs could travel, as Leo was now starting to get lots of attention around the world, and Leo prepared to tour the U.S. for the first time.
This first U.S. tour had a big impact on the audiences and on Leo, and the biggest names in the music industry turning out to see the boy with the white face and white suit. Amongst residencies at other major cities, Leo played week long performances at The Troubadour in Los Angeles and The Bottom Line in New York (with supporting act, Hall and Oates).
The U.S. tour was deemed a great success back at home with Leo featured on the front cover of every British music magazine.
Leo had always vowed that he would drop the Pierrot costume and make- up as soon as he became successful.
This he did on his return to England in June 1974 when Leo played his biggest gig yet that summer at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl supporting Rick Wakeman. That afternoon a nervous but relieved Leo found that an audience could readily accept him without the image.
................
In December 1975, Leo released a Christmas single in the U.K., this time a cover of the Beatles “Let It Be”. It was produced by Adam and Russ Ballard and was not a success, but later turned up on producer Lou Riesner’s concept album “All This And World War Two”, released in early 1976. The record was the soundtrack for a bizarre movie featuring various artists singing Beatles songs to footage from the second world war. Leo also sang “I Am The Walrus” and “The Long And Winding Road” to the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra.
In the spring of 1976, Leo met Richard Perry in Los Angeles - Adam’s suggestion for the American producer. Richard had a distinguished reputation in the U.S., having produced such acts as Barbra Streisand, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel and Diana Ross amongst others. He’d seen Leo in concert and was impressed. The only problem was that Leo still wanted to sing his own songs and Richard was more interested in “that voice”, and thought that Leo should stretch his horizons beyond just his songwriting.
The first session between the two was arranged in the summer of 1976 at Richard’s Studio 55, on Melrose Boulevard in Hollywood, where they recorded “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted”, “Tears Of A Clown” and “Reflections” - all covers. Leo was not sure about the direction, but loved the all-star band Richard had provided. His voice soared in this new setting, and he began to think that maybe Richard was right.
Throughout that summer the two worked steadily, patiently putting together the album that was to prove Leo’s biggest success to date.
Leo started writing exciting new songs in this environment, and he and wife Janice embraced L.A.’s melting pot atmosphere with undisguised relish. They rented a house in Laurel Canyon and gradually “went Californian”. During this period, Leo wrote two songs for the album with New Yorker Barry Mann (famous for composing “You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, and “On Broadway”) and most importantly created “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, which came from a jam session in the studio, with drums by the legendary Steve Gadd and guitars by the great Larry Carlton and Ray Parker Jr (of later “Ghostbusters” fame).
He completed the song with co-writer Vini Poncia, who had produced Kiss and Ringo Starr, and when the result was released in September ‘76 - it became Leo’s first American number one.
Leo was now on top of the world and the ricochet of his U.S. success echoed around the globe. “Endless Flight” was critically well received everywhere, and though some felt Leo had lost some of his uniqueness in the process, none could deny the instant pop appeal of the album.
...........
The second single, “When I Need You” (a ballad by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer-Sager), brought even more success.
For years in Britain, Leo had been “knocking on the door” of the number one position in the U.K. music charts. He’d been kept at number two by the likes of Abba, Gary Glitter, Alvin Stardust and Slade.
In January 1977 he got his new year present. Number one in the U.K. was followed by his second number one in the U.S. Number ones in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and many other countries.
Leo and Janice had all but given up on any ideas of a normal married life by now. In the U.K. offers came in for Leo’s own T.V. series. In the States he was wined and dined on Johnny Carson and all the big chat shows and in February 1977 got the biggest accolade of all, a coveted Grammy award for best Rhythm & Blues song - “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”. He also won awards in Britain (a B.P.I. award and a T.V. Times award), Canada (a Juno award), and Europe (Belgium’s Golden Lion).
Back briefly in England in March, Leo appeared on T.V. for the B.B.C. with his own prime time special. He played in Windsor great park during the summer of 1977. The occasion was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and Leo had the honour of being presented to Her Majesty after the show.
“How Much Love” (written with Barry Mann) was the third single release from “Endless Flight” and continued the chart-hit trend. The album went platinum in both Britain and the States, where such a rating then equalled a staggering one million copies.
Favorite Song by Leo Sayer is
http://www.leosayer.com/
One night on the way back from a gig, Adam had a near fatal car crash. As he lay in bed recovering in hospital all he talked about was Leo’s first single from “Silverbird” - “Why Is Everybody Going Home”. The album was released in 1973 in the U.K. and the U.S. simultaneously and further to Adam’s dynamic promotional work, the B.B.C. offered Leo a slot on their T.V. rock show, “The Old Grey Whistle Test”.
Leo came on the show dressed as the Pierrot and such was the reaction to his performance, the entire business noted that a new star was born. Leo went on a British and European tour supporting Roxy Music, now appearing on stage dressed as the Pierrot. His wife Janice made the costumes and applied his make up, and they were quite inseparable.
“The Show Must Go On”, released as the second single, went to number 2 in the U.K. charts and the “Silverbird” album also reached number 2 in the album chart. The B.B.C. put Leo In Concert on T.V. and as the year of 1973 drew to a close both the Melody Maker and The Sun newspaper (on the cover of it’s new year issue) predicted Leo as “The Star Of ‘74”.
In the U.S.A., Three Dog Night covered “The Show Must Go On” and took their version right to the top of the singles chart there. They had seen Leo on British television dressed as Pierrot and dressed up as circus clowns on U.S. T.V., in their interpretation of Leo. They had ironically changed Leo’s lyric to: “We must let the show go on....” This proved Leo’s songs could travel, as Leo was now starting to get lots of attention around the world, and Leo prepared to tour the U.S. for the first time.
This first U.S. tour had a big impact on the audiences and on Leo, and the biggest names in the music industry turning out to see the boy with the white face and white suit. Amongst residencies at other major cities, Leo played week long performances at The Troubadour in Los Angeles and The Bottom Line in New York (with supporting act, Hall and Oates).
The U.S. tour was deemed a great success back at home with Leo featured on the front cover of every British music magazine.
Leo had always vowed that he would drop the Pierrot costume and make- up as soon as he became successful.
This he did on his return to England in June 1974 when Leo played his biggest gig yet that summer at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl supporting Rick Wakeman. That afternoon a nervous but relieved Leo found that an audience could readily accept him without the image.
................
In December 1975, Leo released a Christmas single in the U.K., this time a cover of the Beatles “Let It Be”. It was produced by Adam and Russ Ballard and was not a success, but later turned up on producer Lou Riesner’s concept album “All This And World War Two”, released in early 1976. The record was the soundtrack for a bizarre movie featuring various artists singing Beatles songs to footage from the second world war. Leo also sang “I Am The Walrus” and “The Long And Winding Road” to the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra.
In the spring of 1976, Leo met Richard Perry in Los Angeles - Adam’s suggestion for the American producer. Richard had a distinguished reputation in the U.S., having produced such acts as Barbra Streisand, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel and Diana Ross amongst others. He’d seen Leo in concert and was impressed. The only problem was that Leo still wanted to sing his own songs and Richard was more interested in “that voice”, and thought that Leo should stretch his horizons beyond just his songwriting.
The first session between the two was arranged in the summer of 1976 at Richard’s Studio 55, on Melrose Boulevard in Hollywood, where they recorded “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted”, “Tears Of A Clown” and “Reflections” - all covers. Leo was not sure about the direction, but loved the all-star band Richard had provided. His voice soared in this new setting, and he began to think that maybe Richard was right.
Throughout that summer the two worked steadily, patiently putting together the album that was to prove Leo’s biggest success to date.
Leo started writing exciting new songs in this environment, and he and wife Janice embraced L.A.’s melting pot atmosphere with undisguised relish. They rented a house in Laurel Canyon and gradually “went Californian”. During this period, Leo wrote two songs for the album with New Yorker Barry Mann (famous for composing “You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, and “On Broadway”) and most importantly created “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, which came from a jam session in the studio, with drums by the legendary Steve Gadd and guitars by the great Larry Carlton and Ray Parker Jr (of later “Ghostbusters” fame).
He completed the song with co-writer Vini Poncia, who had produced Kiss and Ringo Starr, and when the result was released in September ‘76 - it became Leo’s first American number one.
Leo was now on top of the world and the ricochet of his U.S. success echoed around the globe. “Endless Flight” was critically well received everywhere, and though some felt Leo had lost some of his uniqueness in the process, none could deny the instant pop appeal of the album.
...........
The second single, “When I Need You” (a ballad by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer-Sager), brought even more success.
For years in Britain, Leo had been “knocking on the door” of the number one position in the U.K. music charts. He’d been kept at number two by the likes of Abba, Gary Glitter, Alvin Stardust and Slade.
In January 1977 he got his new year present. Number one in the U.K. was followed by his second number one in the U.S. Number ones in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and many other countries.
Leo and Janice had all but given up on any ideas of a normal married life by now. In the U.K. offers came in for Leo’s own T.V. series. In the States he was wined and dined on Johnny Carson and all the big chat shows and in February 1977 got the biggest accolade of all, a coveted Grammy award for best Rhythm & Blues song - “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”. He also won awards in Britain (a B.P.I. award and a T.V. Times award), Canada (a Juno award), and Europe (Belgium’s Golden Lion).
Back briefly in England in March, Leo appeared on T.V. for the B.B.C. with his own prime time special. He played in Windsor great park during the summer of 1977. The occasion was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and Leo had the honour of being presented to Her Majesty after the show.
“How Much Love” (written with Barry Mann) was the third single release from “Endless Flight” and continued the chart-hit trend. The album went platinum in both Britain and the States, where such a rating then equalled a staggering one million copies.
Favorite Song by Leo Sayer is
Loading... 
Top Comment
-
When I Need You
I remember Leo. He was pretty good. Not my usual type of music at that point in my life, but he was good.View thread
When I Need You
None of the above
When I Need You
When I Need You
All of the above
When I Need You
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Why are you not in Boomers group? You should ask to be included...old music, boomer jokes, no hate or fighting...
Send me a link and i'll check them out.
People have to vouch for you to be invited in.
If you like classic rock and oldies, you may like it.
No DR's allowed...ever. Just fun. : )
http://www.sodahead.com/group...