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That is very much the Nashville attitude to English songs, though, isn't it?
Not just to the English, but to other Americans as well. If you come from New York, they think you can't write country music. But it's changing now.
You had two UK number 2 hits in 1976. One was "You Just Might See Me Cry", for Our Kid......
That was written with Roger, as well.
And the other was "When Forever Has Gone", for Demis Roussos.
That was very satisfying because his record company said to me, "Barry, we want to break Demis in this country - have you got any songs for him?" I said, "No, but what you should do is let me write with his regular melody writer". So I went to Paris to write with Lakis Vlavianos, who has written the melodies for most of his big hit songs - a great guy and a wonderful musician. So I helped a bit with the melody, I did the lyric, and between us, we managed to keep his full musical flavour, but tailored it for England. And it worked.
You worked with another European giant, too - Charles Aznavour.
I wrote three songs with Aznavour, which weren't hits, but it was a magical experience. I went over to see his show in Brussels and was so enraptured, it was halfway through before I realised he wasn't singing in English! What a performer. I liked him very much. A nice guy, very natural, very down to earth. As was Demis Roussos. Demis had tons of money and tons of everything else going on at the time, but he was just a natural, nice guy.
What did you do for Elvis?
With Les, I wrote a song called "Girl Of Mine" for Elvis and there were two versions made of that. One with just the rhythm section, for the fans, without The Jordanaires or the violins - and that's the version I've got. I haven't got a version with the full orchestra.
How about Rod Stewart?
I did one of his earliest songs, words and music, called "The Day Will Come", which was inspired by "Eve Of Destruction" (the 1965 hit by Barry McGuire). It was the fashion at the time, so I wrote this thing about the end of the world, the big atomic fear.
David Essex?
He sung a song called "High Time", which I wrote with Tony Macaulay. That was quite early in his career and it wasn't a big hit.
You have even worked with Morecambe and Wise.
That's a lovely memory. I produced an album for them - a bunch of lovely old songs plus a couple of new ones I wrote. They were so professional, so easy to work with. Ernie's a very good friend of mine.
It doesn't seem as if publishers have played much part in your success over the years.
No, but that's not to put them down. They can be great. They were very good at getting covers abroad in the old days. But there is something I think is very unfair. Les and I would sign a 50-50 contract in the old days with Francis, Day & Hunter - which is now EMI.
That's 50 per cent for the publisher and 50 per cent split between the two writers Well today, that would be a grossly unfair contract. There's no written law against it, but it's just unacceptable today. But that isn't my main point.
EMI would sub-publish with their own companies in France, Germany, Holland, whatever, and the deal is, they leave, say, 40 per cent there - let's say 50 per cent to make it easier. So when they make 100 francs in France, for instance, 50 would stay in the local company, 50 would come back to England. Now that 50 francs is halved; so they've got 75 francs out of that original 100, and the writers are splitting 25. That is grossly unfair.
But, at the time, it was accepted. But surely now, those contracts should be changed. Remember that now, they're not doing any work whatsoever - they're not promoting the songs. They're purely a collection agency for my and Les Reed's money.
So what sort of deals will you do as a publisher yourself?
I'll take 25 per cent, something like that. But the important thing is I will get the best deal I can abroad, because I'm not dealing with myself! So it's to my advantage to give away as little as possible - and whatever comes back is split in the way we've agreed.
That's another thing that's pretty much unacceptable today, wouldn't you say? "Life" deals?
It's too long, really, isn't it? But the publisher should get an extension if he can say, "I've got a big cover now". He should keep it longer then, because it's very hard to get covers. In fact, if a publisher said to me today, "I can get you a big cover", but he wanted life of copyright, I'd let him have it.
Finally, may I ask you what your biggest wish is for the future?
I want to get a hit musical - that's the big thing. No - forget that. My biggest wish is healthy kids - I got three. That's really got to be it, hasn't it?
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