William Patrick Aulton (c. 1938 – 13 February 2009) was an

Irish Australian Irish Australians ( ga, Gael-Astrálaigh) are an ethnic group of Australians, Australian citizens of Irish descent, which include immigrants from and descendants whose ancestry originates from the Ireland, island of Ireland. Irish Australians ...

record producer, musician, arranger, and songwriter. He is best known for the successful pop and rock singles and albums he produced for Australian and New Zealand artists in the 1960s and early 1970s on the

Sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...

and Spin Records labels and as the lead vocalist of

The Clefs Levi Smith's Clefs, originally The Clefs, were an Australian R&B, pop rock group, which formed in Adelaide in 1963. Lead vocalist, Barrie "The Bear" McAskill, joined in 1965. In 1967 he took over and renamed the group after founding keyboardis ...

. He also became a successful composer of commercial

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

s and TV themes and was a vocal coach. He created many jingles that we still use today, such as "Oh what a feeling, Toyota" and "Aussie kids are Weetbix kids", he also helped in the writing and production of "The Lion King" themes song, "Hakuna Matata". He had five children in the meantime; Kerry, Samantha, Chelsea, Bridget, and Alexander, which led to having many grandchildren, Lydia, Taj, Maggie, Hanna, Jordyn, Ruby, Parker, Riley, Cooper, Charlie, Dakota, Stevie, Harley, Oliver, Declan, Carter and Jaycie.

Early life

Aulton who was born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in around 1938 and began his career as a vocalist with the Adelaide-based group The Clefs. Around 1963, Aulton began working for rising Adelaide entrepreneur

Ivan Dayman Ivan Howard Dayman (20 July 19201 October 1989) was an Australian music promoter, record producer, label owner and talent manager of the 1960s and 1970s, based first in Adelaide, then Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Although his career was brief � ...

and his Sunshine group, which grew to include a management and booking agency, record labels and a string of pop music venues from

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to the north coast of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Aulton established the Sunshine Records label for Dayman and produced records for most of the performers on its roster, notably the string of Australian hit singles, EPs and

albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

by vocalist

Normie Rowe Norman John Rowe (born 1 February 1947) is an Australian singer and songwriter of pop music and an actor of theatre and soap opera for which he remains best known as Douglas Fletcher in 1980s serial '' Sons and Daughters''. As a singer he was ...

, who was Australia's most popular solo artist in the mid-1960s.

Biography

Following the collapse in early 1967 of Sunshine and its short-lived sister label Kommotion Records, Aulton was hired as a house producer and A&R manager by

Festival Records Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...

. He oversaw the installation of the 4-track recording equipment at Festival's new Pyrmont studio, and from 1967 to 1973 he produced and engineered most of Festival's pop output, as well as performing uncredited backing vocals and instrumental contributions on many of these recordings, one example being his distinctive falsetto on the 1968 Christopher James (real name Francis Edwards) recordings "Goodbye Mama" and "Going Home for the Last Time". Between 1967 and 1973, Aulton produced many hit singles for local acts, released on the Festival and Spin Records labels. He produced all the Spin singles recorded by Sydney band The Dave Miller Set including their 1969 hit "Mr Guy Fawkes", which made the Top 10 in Sydney and was named "Single of the Year" by

Ed Nimmervoll Edward Charles Nimmervoll (21 September 1947 – 10 October 2014) was an Australian music journalist, author and historian. He worked on rock and pop magazines ''Go-Set'' (1966–1974) and ''Juke Magazine'' (1975–92) both as a journalist a ...

in ''

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

'' magazine. Other productions in this period include the acclaimed progressive rock albums ''Joint Effort'' by

Jeff St John Jeff St John (born Jeffrey Leo Newton; 22 April 1946 – 6 March 2018), was an Australian musician best known for several Australian hits, such as "Teach Me How to Fly" (1970), "Big Time Operator" (1967) and "A Fool in Love" (1977). Early life ...

& Copperwine, and ''Wide Open'' by

Kahvas Jute Kahvas Jute were an Australian rock band formed in July 1970. Mainstay of the line-up was Dennis Wilson on guitar and vocals. Other founder members include Bob Daisley on bass guitar and Tim Gaze on lead guitar and vocals. Their debut album, ' ...

. He also produced the first two singles by Sherbet, who became one of the most popular and successful bands in Australia in the 1970s. Aulton also produced Neil Sedaka's 1969 'comeback' album ''Workin' on a Groovy Thing'' and the Australian hit single lifted from it, "Wheeling West Virginia", which were recorded at Festival Studios with Australian backing musicians. Aulton regarded his work with Sedaka as one of his career highlights. After leaving Festival in 1973 he established a successful career as a writer-producer of advertising jingles; his well-known creations (some of which are still in use today) include jingles for

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

Weetbix Weet-Bix is a whole-grain wheat breakfast cereal created and manufactured in Australia and New Zealand by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, and in South Africa by Bokomo. History Weet-Bix was developed by Bennison Osborne in Sydney, A ...

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA) is the flag carrier airline of the Republic of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Singapore Changi Airport. The airline is notable for highlighting the Singapore Girl as its central figure in ...

and

Trans Australia Airlines Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Brand ...

. His best-known and most influential composition is probably "It's Time", the theme song for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

's successful 1972 federal election campaign. Aulton spent several years in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as a jingle writer in the late 1970s. After retiring to the Queensland coastal town of

Noosa The Shire of Noosa is a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast district of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covers an area of . It existed as a local government entity from 1910 until 2008, when it was ...

, Aulton worked as a vocal coach. In a short biography published on the website of former Clefs lead singer Barrie McAskill, Aulton reported in the mid-2000s that he was working on a novel.

Death

Pat Aulton died of cancer in

, Queensland with his family, wife Jenny and some of his children by his side, on 13 February 2009, aged 70. An article commemorating his life was published in the ''

Sunshine Coast Daily The Sunshine Coast Daily is an online newspaper specifically serving the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, Australia. It is owned by News Corp Australia. It was originally founded as a print newspaper, however since 2020 the publication ...

'' on 17 March 2009.He is still in our minds and we stil refer to him today.

References

External links

Pat Aulton biography at Milesago
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aulton, Pat Australian record producers Irish emigrants to Australia 2009 deaths Deaths from cancer in Queensland Year of birth uncertain 1930s births