David Parton (born David Eric Stanley Parton, 1948) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer from

Newcastle Under Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

, Staffordshire, England. He is also known as Des Parton, based on the initials of his first three names.

Career

Parton was the frontman of Strange Fox, who were nurtured by Tony Hatch in the early 1970s. Parton achieved songwriting success writing songs for Sweet Sensation in the mid-1970s, namely " Sad Sweet Dreamer" which was a number 1 single in the UK, and "Purely by Coincidence" which also charted. He

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

and co-produced both tracks with

Tony Hatch Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer. Early life and early career Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his mus ...

and

Jackie Trent Yvonne Ann Burgess (6 September 1940 – 21 March 2015), better known by her stage name Jackie Trent, was an English singer-songwriter and actress. She was best known for co-writing (with Tony Hatch) several hits for Petula Clark in the 1960s an ...

. In 1975, Parton released an album entitled ''Snaps'' on the Buk record label, a short lived imprint of Decca Records. A year later he re-emerged with a band called The Cyril Dagworth Players, where Parton masqueraded as Dagworth. They released one album, also co-produced by Parton and Hatch. Parton then sang a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of Stevie Wonder's " Isn't She Lovely" which he again co-produced with Hatch. When the original contracted singer (Marcel King from Sweet Sensation) was unable to re-create Wonder's vocal nuances, rather than dispose of the backing track, Parton sang the lead vocal, and it was decided to issue this version. It was released in 1976 and charted 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 ...

in January 1977 for nine weeks, reaching number 4 (Stevie Wonder's original was not released as a single, but peaked at number 94 in the UK Singles Chart in 2012 based on downloads following his performance of the song at the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II). Lack of further chart action saw Parton dubbed as a one-hit wonder. He later worked as a songwriter and producer based in Cheshire. He has generally sung and played guitar with local bands from

North Staffordshire The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history ...

Songwriting credits

*"Sad Sweet Dreamer" – Sweet Sensation *"Purely by Coincidence" – Sweet Sensation *"Belinda" – Coup De Cœur

Discography

Albums

*''Snaps'' – Buk Records – 1975 : All tracks written & arranged by Des Parton #"Lawman" – (5:36) #"Eyes as Sad as Yours" (4:20) #"All the Live Long Day" (4:48) #"Oh for the Glory" (5:53) #"Queenie" (4:14) #"Jane" (3:25) #"The Nigger's Coming" (2:48) #"Something for the Likes of You" (3:42) #"Longest Journey" (3:17) #"Vandal" (3:51)

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parton, David 1948 births Living people English male singer-songwriters English record producers English pop guitarists English male guitarists English pop singers People from Newcastle-under-Lyme