Johnny Hawksworth (2 February 1924 – 13 February 2009) was a British

bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

and composer who lived and worked in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

beginning in 1984.

Biography

Born in London in 1924, Hawksworth initially trained as a pianist, but also played

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

for Britain's leading big band the Ted Heath Orchestra during the early 1950s and through the 1960s. During this time he became one of the most popular jazz bassists in the UK, winning many polls and was often featured as a soloist on Heath concerts and recordings. He is probably best known, however, for his short compositions for television. These include ''Salute to Thames'' (the famous identity tune for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

) and also the theme tunes for the 1960s pop music show '' Thank Your Lucky Stars'' and the 1970s series ''

Roobarb ''Roobarb'' (also known as ''Roobarb and Custard'') is a British animated children's television series, created by Grange Calveley and originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon, written by Calveley and directed by Bob ...

'', ''

Man About the House ''Man About the House'' is a British sitcom created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer that starred Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 A ...

'' and ''

George and Mildred ''George and Mildred'' is a British sitcom produced by Thames Television and first aired between 1976 and 1979. It is a spin-off from ''Man About the House'', and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as constantly-sparring married couple Ge ...

''. He also contributed some of the incidental music used in the 1967 ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...

'' cartoon (although originating from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, produced in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, ''Spider-Man'' had most of its incidental music supplied by Irish composers, such as

Phil Coulter Philip Coulter (born 19 February 1942) is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009. Coulter ha ...

, who was from

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

in Northern Ireland, and British including

Syd Dale Syd Dale (20 May 1924 – 15 August 1994) was an English self-taught composer and arranger of funk, easy listening and library music. His music played an important role on television, radio and advertising media of the 1960s and 1970s and is sti ...

Alan Hawkshaw William Alan Hawkshaw (27 March 1937 – 16 October 2021) was a British composer and performer, particularly of library music used as themes for movies and television programs. Hawkshaw worked extensively for the KPM production music company ...

David Lindup David Lindup (10 May 1928 – 7 January 1992) was an English composer, arranger and orchestrator best known for his collaborations with John Dankworth and his library music (often for KPM). Lindup composed music for TV series including '' The In ...

, Bill Martin and

Johnny Pearson John Valmore Pearson (18 June 1925 – 20 March 2011) was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the ''Top of the Pops'' orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the ...

.) In addition to his television themes, he also worked on films, including the scores to ''

The Naked World of Harrison Marks ''The Naked World of Harrison Marks'' is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary about adult film director and photographer George Harrison Marks. It takes a look at his daily life, with added dream sequences, and is narrated by Valentine Dyall. The ...

'' (1967), '' The Penthouse'' (1967), and ''

Zeta One ''Zeta One'' is a 1969 British comedy science fiction film directed by Michael Cort and starring James Robertson Justice, Charles Hawtrey and Dawn Addams. Plot A spy for Section 5, James Word, finds a secretary for the section waiting as he re ...

'' (1970). "Er Indoors", one of his compositions, saw frequent use in the Nickelodeon TV Series ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

'', in which it was generally associated with avid SpongeBob fan Patchy the Pirate. Hawksworth has also written many pieces of

stock music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Background ...

for the

De Wolfe Music De Wolfe Limited (previously known as Music de Wolfe, often referred to as De Wolfe Music) is a British music production company, recognised as the originator of what has become known as library music. De Wolfe Music was established by Meyer de Wo ...

library. He also provided the hypnotic musical soundtrack to Geoffrey Jones's classic

British Transport Films British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via th ...

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

'' (1963) and has composed American-style blues-based material under the name ''Bunny J. Browne'' and classically-based material under the name ''John Steinway''. Hawksworth moved to Australia in 1984 and died in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 2009 aged 85.Johnny Hawksworth Biography
''www.allmusic.com''

References

External links

* * * 1924 births 2009 deaths British bass guitarists Male bass guitarists British composers British expatriates in Australia 20th-century bass guitarists 20th-century British male musicians Jingle composers {{UK-composer-stub