Raymond William Froggatt (born 13 November 1941)
is an English
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 gen ...
and
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
.
[Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 159-160]
Biography
Froggatt (otherwise known as "Froggy") was born in
Bordesley Green
Bordesley Green is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England about two miles east of the city centre. It also contains a road of the same name. It is in the Bordesley Green Ward which also covers some of Small Heath.
Heartlands Hospital is l ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
. He began performing
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
in the early 1960s before moving on to focus on Country and Western. His band, initially known as the Buccaneers, later Monopoly and ultimately The Raymond Froggatt Band with guitarist Hartley Cain (H Cain), drummer Len Ablethorpe and whose bassist was
Louis Clark
Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player.
He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...
of
Electric Light Orchestra
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...
and
Hooked on Classics fame, were signed by
Polydor
Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...
in 1964.
However
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
success eluded them, although the
Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five, also known as the DC5, were an English rock and roll band formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London. Drummer Dave Clark served as the group's leader, producer and co-songwriter. In January 1964 they had their first UK top ten sin ...
had a No. 7
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
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 ...
with Froggatt's "The Red Balloon" in 1968.
His own original version of the song, under the title "
Callow-la-vita
"Callow-la-vita" is a song by British band Raymond Froggatt released as their debut single in April 1968. It was not successful in the UK, but became very successful in the Netherlands. It became more successful after being covered by the Dave ...
", reached No. 3 in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
Another Froggatt song, "
Big Ship", was a No. 8
UK hit for
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 ...
in 1969,
and in the same year Froggatt's composition "
Rachel
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...
" became a popular song in Australia and New Zealand, when it was released by the Australian artist
Russell Morris
Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recog ...
.
Russell Morris's "Rachel"
song history at Poparchives.com.au. Retrieved 2 October 2019
In the 1970s, the band was managed by Don Arden
Don Arden (born Harry Levy; 4 January 1926 – 21 July 2007) was an English music manager, agent, and businessman. He managed the careers of rock acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Air Supply, Small Faces, The Move, Black Sabbath ...
, hoping to break into the United States music scene, but the experience led to the collapse of the band.country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
performer, releasing ''Here's to Everyone'' (1993) on his Red Balloon record label. Froggatt's autobiography, ''Raymond Who'', followed in 1995.Horsehay
Horsehay is a suburban village on the western outskirts of Dawley, which, along with several other towns and villages, now forms part of the new town of Telford in Shropshire, England. Horsehay lies in the Dawley Hamlets parish, and on the north ...
, Telford
Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...
, England.
Discography
* 1968 ''The Voice And Writings Of Raymond Froggatt''
* 1972 ''Bleach''
* 1974 ''Rogues And Thieves''
* 1978 ''Southern Fried Frog''
* 1979 ''Songs From A Minstral''
* 1980 ''Stay With Me''
* 1982 ''Sooner Or Later''
* 1984 ''Why?''
* 1988 ''Is It Rollin' Bob''
* 1991 ''Here's To Everyone''
* 1993 ''At The London Palladium''
* 1995 ''Someday''
* 1996 ''The Collection''
* 1997 ''Moonshine''
* 1980 ''Runaway''
* 1998 ''Southern Fried Frog & Rogues And Thieves''
* 1998 ''In Concert At The Birmingham Town Hall''
* 1998 ''There Goes That Song Again''
* 1999 ''Now And Then''
* 2002 ''Milestones''
* 2003 ''Cold As A Landlord's Heart''
* 2003 ''Coast To Coast''
* 2003 ''Shantytown''
* 2004 ''The Voice And Writing Of Raymond Froggatt''
* 2004 ''Songland 40''
* 2004 ''Adaos''
* 2004 ''Just One Night In Concert Symphony Hall Birmingham''
* 2006 ''Dream Of You''
* 2007 ''Songwriter''
* 2007 ''The Lights Of Amsterdam''
* 2010 ''Songs With Reasons''
* 2010 ''Warm Days Summer Nights''
* 2011 ''Blue And Gold''
* 2011 ''America''
* 2011 ''Fields Of Rock And Roll''
* 2012 ''Movin' On''
* 2013 ''Birmingham Rain''
* 2014 ''Closer To You''
* 2015 ''The Classic Collection Vol 2''
* 2018 ''In Concert (Hunstanton & Birmingham)''
References
External links
Official Website
H Cain
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Froggatt, Raymond
English male singers
1941 births
Living people
People from Telford