Paul Rich (20 August 1921 – 23 February 2000) was a singer and guitarist, recording many songs with

Lou Preager Louis Jacob Preager (12 January 1906 – 14 November 1978), known as Lou Preager, was an English pianist, dance band leader, disc jockey and businessman. He was active from the 1930s to the 1950s; with his band he made many recordings. They also ...

's band. He later became a music publisher.

Life

Rich was born in London in 1921, son of immigrants from Russia. He studied guitar with

Ivor Mairants Ivor Mairants (18 July 1908 – 20 February 1998) was a Polish jazz and classical guitarist, teacher and composer. With his wife Lily in 1958 he created the Ivor Mairants Musicentre, a specialist guitar store in London. Biography Ivor Mairan ...

, and in 1941 became a singer and guitarist with the

Oscar Rabin Band The Oscar Rabin Band was a popular British dance band in the first half of the twentieth century. Formation Oscar Rabin formed his first band with Harry Davis, the Romany Five at the Palace Hotel in Southend in 1924 in which Rabin played violi ...

. In 1942 he joined

, whose band had begun a residency at the

Hammersmith Palais The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first ''palais de danse'' to be ...

in London; he made many recordings with the band, including "

Cruising Down the River "Cruising Down the River" is a 1946 popular recording song, which became the winner of a public songwriting competition held in the UK. Words and music were entered by two middle-aged women named Eily Beadell and Nell Tollerton. The words had been ...

" in 1946. He also sang and played guitar as a solo artist at venues in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...

."Paul Rich"
Chelsea Lodge No. 3098. Retrieved 24 December 2018. In the 1950s he appeared in a pub scene in the film ''

Pool of London The Pool of London is a stretch of the River Thames from London Bridge to below Limehouse. Part of the Tideway of the Thames, the Pool was navigable by tall-masted vessels bringing coastal and later overseas goods—the wharves there were the ...

'', which had music by Lou Preager's band. He later appeared in a music hall scene in the film '' Counterspy''. Rich left Lou Preager's band in 1955, to give more time to his business interests, having a chain of retail shops. From 1957 he recorded many songs for Woolworth's

Embassy Records Embassy Records was a UK budget record label that produced cover versions of current hit songs, which were sold exclusively in Woolworths shops at a lower price than the original recordings. The original label was active between 1954 and 1965, a ...

, until the record label closed in 1965. In the 1960s he became involved in

music publishing A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...

, and in 1967 became general manager of

Carlin Music Carlin America is an American music publisher with a catalog of over 100,000 titles. The company, created under its current name in 1995 by its founder Freddy Bienstock, is headquartered on East 38th Street in Manhattan. Bienstock died on Septembe ...

. For ten years between 1966 and 1976 the company received the UK's Top Publisher Award from ''

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 ...

''. The company dealt with leading American songwriters and with leading British performers; it was a successful sub-publisher of notable US performers and catalogues. He retired in 1996. In 1952 at Bayswater Synagogue he married Marion White; they had a son, Clive, who became a barrister. Paul Rich was a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, initiated into Chelsea Lodge No. 3098 in January 1960; he was

Worshipful Master In Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry, every Masonic lodge elects or appoints Masonic lodge officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work. The precise list of such offices may vary between the j ...

in 1979 and 1999. He died in 2000, following a heart attack.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rich, Paul 1921 births 2000 deaths 20th-century English singers English pop singers English pop guitarists English music publishers (people) Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England 20th-century British guitarists 20th-century English businesspeople