John Keating (10 September 1927 – 28 May 2015) was a Scottish musician,

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

, arranger and trombonist.

Biography

Keating was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. After studying piano and

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. From 1952, he worked with British big band leader

Ted Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

as a trombonist, but within two years Heath asked him to become his primary arranger. In the early 1960s, he and songwriter Johnny Worth (writing as

Les Vandyke John Worsley (21 June 1931 – 6 August 2021), more widely known under the pseudonyms Les Vandyke and Johnny Worth, was an English popular music songwriter from the 1950s to the 1980s, who started his career as a singer. As "Les Vandyke", he wr ...

) masterminded the career of a minor British pop star,

Eden Kane Richard Graham Sarstedt (born 29 March 1940Some sources, including his own website, give 1942 as his birth year; but official sources give 1940.), known by the stage name Eden Kane, is an English pop/ rock singer, musician, record producer and ...

. The team wrote and produced a string of British top 10 hits for Kane in 1961–63. In addition he wrote, produced or arranged hits by

Adam Faith Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with " What Do You Want?" (1959) and "P ...

Petula Clark Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades. Clark's professional career began during the ...

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leadin ...

Shani Wallis Shani Wallis (born 14 April 1933) is a British actress and singer, who has worked in theatre, film, and television in both her native United Kingdom and in the United States. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she is perhaps best ...

Caterina Valente Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931) is a French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer of Italian ethnicity. Valente is a polyglot; she speaks six languages, and sings in eleven. While she is best known as a performer in Europe, Valent ...

, and

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

among others. Keating arranged and conducted a series of albums for London Records'

Phase 4 Phase 4, Phase IV or Phase Four may refer to: Media * Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Four, a group of superhero films and television series beginning in 2021 * ''Phase IV'' (1974 film), a 1974 film * ''Phase IV'' (2002 film), a 2002 film * ...

series, notable for its use of synthesiser technology such as the Moog synthesizer and the

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS release ...

. The records were often used as demonstration discs in the 1970s in Hi-Fi stores because of their quality. Much of his work was rereleased following the Lounge music revival of the mid 1990s and its use as

breakbeats Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

. His "

Theme from Z-Cars "Theme from ''Z-Cars''" was the theme tune to the long-running BBC television drama ''Z-Cars''. Based on the traditional folk song "Johnny Todd", which was in a collection of traditional tunes by Frank Kidson dated 1891 called ''Traditional Tune ...

", a #8

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

in the 1962

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, was adopted by Everton as their

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

. Additionally he composed the scores for the films ''

Hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

'' (1967), '' Robbery'' (1967), and '' Innocent Bystanders'' (1972). His song "Bunny Hop" was also featured in the

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...

film, ''

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...

'' (1994). As founder and principal of the Johnny Keating School of Music, Edinburgh, he was directly responsible for the musical education of many students who later became successful professionals. In 1999, he completed a four–volume academic reference book dedicated to the art of professional songwriting: ''Principles of Songwriting: A Study in Structure and Technique''. Keating died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, on 28 May 2015 at the age of 87.

Album discography

*''English Jazz'' - 1956 - Bally *''Swinging Scots'' - 1957 - Dot *''Percussive Moods'' SP44005 - 1963 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''Temptation'' SP44019 - 1963 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''Swing Revisited'' SP44034 - 1963 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''Johnny Keating and 27 Men-The Keating Sound'' SP44058 - 1966 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''Keating...Straight Ahead'' SP44072 - 1966 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''This Bird Has Flown'' WS1638 - 1966 -

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

*''Here's Where It Is'' WS1666 - 1966 - Warner Bros. *''Sounds Galactic - An Astromusical Odyssey'' SP44154 - 1971 - London Phase 4 Stereo *''Space Experience'' CQ 32382 - 1972 - Columbia Records *''John Keating Conducts the London Symphony Orchestra'' - 1972 *''Songs of Love'' - John & Thelma Keating with the London Symphony Orchestra (1973) *''John Keating Conducts the Electronic Philharmonic Orchestra'' - 1974 -

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

:*"

Fanfare for the Common Man ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' is a musical work by the American composer Aaron Copland. It was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens and was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that year ...

" :*"

Sabre Dance "Sabre Dance", ''Suserov par''; russian: Танец с саблями, ''Tanets s sablyami'' is a Movement (music), movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet ''Gayane (ballet), Gayane'' (1942), where the Ballet dancer, dancers dis ...

" :*"

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...

: Prelude, Act III" :*"

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

: Prelude, Act III" :*"Hebridean Impressions" (written by Keating) *''Space Experience, Vol. 1 & 2'' - 1998 - EMI (Vol. 1 contains the LP ''Space Experience'') *''Temptation & Percussive Moods'' - 2004 -

Vocalion Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

*''Swing Revisited'' - 2004 - Dutton Vocalion *''British Jazz'' - 2005 - Harkit *''British Jazz and Swinging Scots'' - 2008 - British Jazz

Songwriting credits

*"A Little Waltzin'" *"Barber Shop Jump" - Ted Heath *"Come Live With Me" -

Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpre ...

*"Headin' North" *"It's Not Going That Way" - Carmen McRae,

Vic Lewis Victor Lewis MBE (29 July 1919 – 9 February 2009) was a British jazz guitarist and bandleader. He also enjoyed success as an artists' agent and manager. Biography He was born in London, England. Lewis began playing the guitar at the age ...

*"Merry Merry-Go-Round (Theme from 'The Jean Arthur Show')" *"On With the Don" - Ted Heath *"Same Old Moon" -

Percy Faith Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian-American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the "easy listeni ...

*"Send for Henry" - Heinz Schonberger, Henry Main *"The Clown" *"This Hotel" aka "Hotel" -

Shirley Horn Shirley Valerie Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005) was an American jazz singer and pianist. She collaborated with many jazz musicians including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and ot ...

, Nancy Wilson,

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

, Todd Gordon

References

External links

Keating's official Myspace page
*

by Ron Simmonds *

Allmusic.com biography AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

by Eugene Chadbourne
John Keating's Official Site
by Martin Keating {{DEFAULTSORT:Keating, John 1927 births 2015 deaths Musicians from Edinburgh Scottish songwriters Scottish record producers Scottish trombonists Scottish conductors (music) British male conductors (music) British music arrangers Music directors Fly Records artists London Records artists Dot Records artists Vocalion Records artists Columbia Records artists Decca Records artists EMI Records artists Warner Records artists Jazz arrangers British male jazz musicians British male songwriters