Les Reed
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Les Reed O.B.E. (born Leslie David Reed, 24 July 1935 in Woking, Surrey, England) is an English songwriter, musician and light orchestra leader.
Career
Reed was an accomplished musician by the age of fourteen, playing the piano, accordion and vibraphone. He studied at the London College of Music before joining the Willis Reed Group, with whom he toured for four years. Having been called up for National Service, he played piano and clarinet in the Royal East Kent Military Band. Following National Service he turned professional, and became resident pianist at the Lido Nightclub in the West End of London.
In 1958 Reed joined the John Barry Seven as pianist. He played on many of their hits including "James Bond Theme", "Hit And Miss" and "Walk, Don’t Run". He also played piano on hits for the likes of Adam Faith ("Poor Me" and "What Do You Want?"; Eden Kane's ("Forget Me Not"), and Lance Fortune's ("Be Mine").
In the mid-1960s he began a successful songwriting partnership with Geoff Stephens which yielded such hits as "Tell Me When", a hit for The Applejacks; "Here It Comes Again" for The Fortunes; "Leave A Little Love" for Lulu; and "There's a Kind of Hush", a 1967 success for Herman's Hermits. During 1964 Reed penned "It's Not Unusual" with ex-Viscounts member and Tom Jones' manager Gordon Mills, which gave Jones a UK number one. Reed also arranged and played piano on the song.
Around this time Reed struck up another songwriting partnership with Barry Mason from Wigan, Lancashire. Among their successes was "Delilah", again a Top Ten hit for Tom Jones. "Delilah" was originally written for P. J. Proby and later covered by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1975. Reed and Mason also wrote "The Last Waltz", which became a million selling UK number one for Engelbert Humperdinck in September 1967. In 1968 the duo scored another UK #1 hit with Des O'Connor's recording of "I Pretend". That same year, "I've Got My Eyes on You", written by Reed and Jackie Rae, was recorded by Petula Clark, Ray Conniff, P. J. Proby and The Vogues.
In 1970 Reed's orchestra recorded "Man of Action" which was used as the theme tune for Radio North Sea International until 1974. Reed composed the score for the 2004 musical Beautiful and Damned, based on the lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reed is also responsible for co-composing "Marching on Together" (aka "Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!"), the anthem of Leeds United A.F.C..
In 1971, fellow pensmith Mitch Murray conceived and founded the Society Of Distinguished Songwriters (SODS). Current members include Reed, Sir Tim Rice, Guy Chambers, Gary Barlow, David Arnold, Mike Batt, Justin Hayward, Don Black, and more than thirty others.
