Dave Townsend is a British songwriter, lyricist, and singer, and was born in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, in

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

. Aside from a solo career, he was also a vocalist for

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompan ...

, singing lead vocals on "Don't Let it Show" on the album, '' I Robot'' (1977), and "You Won't Be There" from ''

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

'' (1979). Townsend wrote the song "

Miss You Nights "Miss You Nights" is a song written by Dave Townsend and made famous worldwide by Cliff Richard. The song has been recorded by numerous other artists, most notably Westlife, who released it as the second track on a double A-side single in 2003 ...

" in 1974 while his girlfriend was away on holiday, and recorded it on an album for Island Records, but the label shelved the album and offered the songs to other artists as covers.

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

recorded it in September 1975, and Townsend (as the composer) was nominated for an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...

in 1977 for "Best Middle of the Road Song," although the winner was John Miles for "

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

." His debut album, ''Making Up the Numbers'', was produced by Robin Geoffrey Cable and released on the Mercury label in September 1978, under the name ''David'' Townsend. A single, "When I Kiss You," backed with "High Endeavours," was released on 23 June 1978. The label promoted Townsend to record shops in ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' as "an imaginative composer, an inventive lyricist and a stylish singer," telling proprietors that they were "going to hear a lot of requests for the album from your customers, so stock up now." As a songwriter, he most notably wrote tracks for: *

– "

" . *

Jimmy Ruffin Jimmy Lee RuffinRibowsky, Mark (2010), ''Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations'', Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, p. 89. . (May 7, 1936 – November 17, 2014) was an American soul singer, and ...

– " That's When My Loving Begins" *

Elaine Paige Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professiona ...

– " Far Side of the Bay" As of 2003, it was reported that Townsend was writing a Ph.D. thesis in history at

Essex University The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Ess ...

. Lyrics for many of his songs are on his official website.

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) British rock singers {{Songwriter-stub