André Emile Ghislain Brasseur (born ) is a Belgian keyboard player and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. His most successful recording was "Early Bird" released in 1965.

Career

Brasseur was playing in bars when he was signed in 1964, and started releasing albums and singles in his own country Belgium. His first single was unsuccessful, but his second, the 1965 instrumental single "Early Bird" (named after the

Intelsat I Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965. It was built by the Space and Communications Group of ...

satellite launched the same year), reached No. 1 in Flemish chart, and it also reached the top 10 in Germany and Austria. The recording was his most successful single and it has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. He followed it with "Atlantide"/"Studio 17" and "Mad Train", released under the name André Brasseur & His Multisound Organ. Brasseur is best known in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for his double

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

d single ''The Kid''/''Holiday'', which was released on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

label. Though it never reached the UK charts, ''The Kid'' became popular in the famous Northern Soul venue The Twisted Wheel, based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, and DJ

Noel Edmonds Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...

used ''Holiday'' as the theme tune to his

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

programme in the 1970s. In the same period at

Radio Veronica Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and broadcast offshore for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands to stimulate the sales ...

, a Dutch

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...

, DJ Lex Harding used ''The Kid'' as the opening sequence to his daily afternoon broadcast programme. A commercially unreleased studio 'take' of The Kid was used for track 2 of the BBC2 Trade Test Music Tap
'Le Retour De- Borsalino'
that was transmitted between 22nd of December 1975 and 1st of August 1977. His 1967 single ''Waiting For You'' was used as the signature tune to the 1970s

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

series ''

Indoor League ''The Indoor League'' was a pub games competition series that was produced by Yorkshire Television and aired from 1973 until 1977. The programme was hosted by former England cricketer Fred Trueman (1931–2006). Background The first series of ...

''.

References

External links

*
Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brasseur 1939 births Living people Belgian organists Male organists 21st-century organists 21st-century male musicians