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In 1962, Matt Monroe recorded "Softly As I Leave You" (Shaper's English lyric for an Italian melody) and this exploded his career on an international scale. "Softly ..." was subsequently recorded by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Lena Home, Shirley Bassey, Howard Keel and several hundred others, and it was the early royalty cheques from this song that allowed Hal to start Sparta.
Other well known Shaper works include the enchanting "The Mysterious People", the million-plus-selling "Aranjuez Mon Amour" (The Adagio Movement Of The Concerto De Aranjuez), and the 1975 disco smash, "El Bimbo".
About 85 of his 650 recorded works have been for films, and his collaborators in this sphere have been the very best: Jerry Goldsmith, Francis Lai, Maurice Jarre, Michel Legrand, Ron Goodwin, Ron Grainer and John Williams. The films have included Sylvester Stallone's "First Blood" and "Papillon", whose theme song "Free As The Wind" was later covered with great success by Andy Williams and Engelbert Humperdinck.
Hal is one of the few people to have had a song recorded by Elton John - a hard-to-find film song called "From Denver To L.A." and other superstars to have sung his work include Bing Crosby, Barbra Streisand, Jack Jones, Vikki Carr, Astrud Gilberto, Paul Anka, Elaine Paige and Dusty Springfield.
Among his other collaborators have been Herbert Kretzmer, Tony Hatch, Les Reed, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stanley Myers and Errol Garner.
And so to Hal Shaper, music publisher. Sparta Music began in 1964 and flowered with the Swinging Sixties. There were exclusive deals with two members of The Moody Blues - Denny Laine and Mike Pinder - leading to cuts on the band's hugely successful albums, from "The Days Of Future Passed" to "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour".
There were deals with two British acts that had great success in the States: Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde (7 Top 40 hits in the U.S., only one here) and Ian Whitcomb (three U.S. charters).
David Bowie came and went - but returned in the 70's at the peak of his powers. There was Vikki Carr's 1967 hit, "It Must Be Him" and The Young Rascals' classic "Groovin" in the same year. And there was reggae. Sparta signed every reggae item it could, convinced the music would break through eventually. And it did, with Desmond Dekker's "The Israelites" and Max Romeo's "Wet Dream", both in 1969 - the year when the expanding Sparta was renamed Sparta Florida.
The 70's dawned with a very valuable B-side: the one on the reverse of Mary Hopkin's million-selling "Knock Knock Who's There?" In '71, there was "Simple Game", a biggie for The Four Tops. In '72, Cohn Blunstone's superb re-vamp of Denny Laine's "Say You Don't Mind" and Dandy Livingstone's "Suzanne Beware Of The Devil" - another reggae pay-off.
There were two award-winning musicals in the middle of the decade, written by Hal himself with composer Cyril Ornadel. Firstly "Treasure Island" starring Spike Milligan; then "Great Expectations" starring Sir John Mills. Not even the punk explosion passed Sparta Florida by: they grabbed The U.K. Subs in 1979, and their 7 hit singles and 4 hit albums took the company into the 80's under the banner of The Sparta Florida Music Group.
The eighties were no different. Hit songs - like John Holt's "The Tide Is High" (a No. I for Blondie) and "Pass the Dutchie" (a No.1 for Musical Youth). And hit acts - like The Associates, who were brought down from Scotland, fed and housed, and who repaid their investment with hits like the superb "Party Fears Two". Other feathers in the SFMG cap are a strong involvement with TV, via music for "The Avengers", "Rumpole Of The Bailey", "The Sweeney" and "Dr. Who", and the administration of the American Barton Music catalogue, with over 100 great standards recorded by Sinatra and the like.
The company quickly became one of the last sizeable independents and at the time of this interview, had just celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Gerald Mahlowe met Hal Shaper at that time, and asked him about his successes both as a songwriter and music publisher.
When did music first make a big impression on you?
As I was born in a game reserve and living in Africa, until I was about 12 or 13, there was no question that my life was going to be in or around animals and as some wag friend of mine once remarked, "So what changed?!"
But I went to the cinema one day and I saw a film called "Words And Music", which was the life story of Rodgers and Hart, and I was so enchanted by the quality of the songs and the freshness of them, I came out saying, "That has got to be what I want to do for the rest of my life." Strangely enough, years and years later, I found myself having dinner with Richard Rodgers in New York and my goodness, he was sharp and terribly funny! And he said to me, "Well, what brought you into this iniquitous business?"
And I said to him, as a matter of fact, I'm sure you may have heard of it - there was a film once about two songwriters that glamorously portrayed a life I thought was irresistible". He said, "What was it called?" I said, "Words And Music"! He burst out laughing and said, "You know, Hal, if I'd seen that picture, I'd have done the same thing!"
What could you do about your ambition?
At the time, nothing! I was 13, living in a village sixteen miles south of Cape Town - population four, cinema one! - and there was no music business of any kind. I used to have to take a train or hitch-hike into Cape Town to find a little shop where they used to sell sheet music and a few records. Juke boxes were the thing in those days and they blared out the hits of the day, which were Nat King Cole, Dick Haymes and Bing Crosby - the era of the crooner.
You opted for the law?
Yes. My parents were terribly sensible and underneath it all, so was I, and when the opportunity arose for me to study law, I accepted it. But it also gave me the opportunity to write amateur shows, to work with singers, to get myself locally published - all of which I did. So by the time I went to London, I was a grown man, I was a qualified lawyer and I was earning a living. But I did pack it in, get on board a boat and go looking for a job in the music business in London!
In your early writing, had it always been lyrics only for you?
No. All my first songs, I wrote words and music, and in fact I would have continued writing both but for the fact that when I came to London and I started to get a lot of work as a lyric writer, I was working with very good composers. And I found them so good that I subdued my instincts for music, except when I was offered the job of doing both, when I was very happy to do it. In fact, on two songs that made the charts for me - one was "I'll Stay By You", which I wrote with Kenny Lynch and which won the Brighton Song Festival, and another one called "Southern Comfort", which I wrote for Berni Flint - I was involved with the music. Also when I did songs for films like "Sons and Lovers" and "Tom Jones". I did both.
You arrived in London without anywhere to go?
Nowhere to live, no job and no money. In fact, the most money that I had for the next three years was the £85 that sold my return boat ticket for!
Luckily, I made some wonderful friends. When you consider that within the first few weeks of being here, I was friendly with Michael Winner, who had just come down from Oxford, with Vidal Sassoon, with Herbie Kretzmer, who's been a friend of mine since I was a boy, with Robin Gerber, who was working at Frank Music for Frank Loesser, with Douglas Hayward, and with a lot of other very talented people including Lionel Bart and Stephen Berkoff. I really was very lucky. Nevertheless, I also worked as a dishwasher at the Troubador Restaurant for over a year, so I can't say things were that easy - but you don't notice the discomfort when you're that young and that keen.
And you eventually got a job with David Toff?
Yes, Dave was the first job I got, in Denmark Street, Tin Pan Alley as it then was, with Julie's Cafe on the corner. Those were the Tin Pan Alley days, the days when, on a major hit like "Que Sera Sera", you were still carrying about 20,000 copies of sheet music across to the Southern Music sales counter.
Was David Toff a writer as well as a publisher?
He was not only strictly a publisher, but he told me that under no circumstances was I ever to write a song! He said there was no future in the business for writers and he meant it! I think he was probably being protective. Perhaps he was trying to tell me that publishing was a solid business whereas writing was at best ephemeral - but I already knew that.
What was your job with Toff?
Well I worked under a guy called Len Taylor and my job was as a songplugger. I got up every morning, I was out by half past eight, and I was plugging the bands every evening. In those days, song-plugging was a seven-day-a-week job, and I met everybody - I met every arranger, every singer, every orchestra leader. I knew them all very, very well indeed, and so by the time my breaks started to arrive as a writer, there wasn't much I didn't know about getting the songs to the right people.
You would take the sheet music to plug your songs?
Would you believe it? Yes. The biggest innovation in those days was the time we all got an invitation to go down to Stanhope Place (Philips), and the tape recorder happened! It meant that as a writer, I never had to sit at a piano again for three or four hours absorbing a melody so that I could write the lyric! From that point on, you could have the melody on tape and the whole business of two people sitting down together, grinding away at a tune, was over. That, for me, was a miracle. I remember that every single tape recorder that was on display at Stanhope House disappeared, and I'm happy to say that one of them was mine.
How long were you with Dave Toff?
I was there from the summer of 1955 until about August '58. I discovered writers and I discovered acts - I found Russ Hamilton while I was there - and I brought in hit after hit.
Was Russ Hamilton South African?
No, he was a Butlin's boy.
You were poached from Dave Toff by Robbins Music, I think?
Yes. Alan Holmes was a great friend of mine and I used to see him constantly, and he would always say, "You really must come and join us". And he was a fantastic boss. He and Joy Connock, his assistant, were so good with people, so good with songs, so good at matching up writers and artists.
What they did for me was create an atmosphere in which the whole business of writing was as natural as turning on a tap. They would find the tunes, they would walk in and say, "Let us have a lyric for this by tomorrow - so and so is doing it". So I already had an idea in my head even who I was writing for on a lot of the songs.
Continued
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