Pete Wingfield
Encyclopedia
Pete Wingfield is an English
record producer
, keyboard player
, songwriter, singer and music journalist
.
, which was produced
by Mike Vernon for the Blue Horizon
label
.
As a specialist in soul music
, in the 1970s Wingfield contributed regular articles and reviews to the monthly journal Let It Rock, and the weekly Melody Maker
among others. As a performer, he played with the British soul band The Olympic Runners
, and Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes
.
In 1971, Wingfield played the piano on the B. B. King in London
album, and in the following year received similar credits for Seventy-Second Brave
, the Keef Hartley Band
album. Wingfield played keyboards on Bryn Haworth
's 1974 album, Let the Days Go By
and on his 1975 follow-up Sunny Side of the Street
. In 1983, Wingfield played keyboards on Haworth's album, Pass It On
.
for the week ending November 22, 1975, the tune lived up to its name by charting at #18—with a bullet. (The song would peak at #15 a week later.) Taken from the album
, Breakfast Special, "Eighteen With A Bullet" would later be featured on the soundtrack
to the 1998 film
, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
.
He played piano for the Alan Parsons
rhythm section
at Abbey Road Studios
, with Pete Moss on bass guitar
, for Dexys Midnight Runners
and Paul McCartney
.
In 1977, his song Making a Good Thing Better appeared on Olivia Newton-John
's album of the same name
. Between 1975 and 1981, Wingfield played keyboards with The Hollies
. In 1980, he produced
the first album by Dexys Midnight Runners
- Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
;. In the 1980s, Wingfield teamed up with the film producer Mel Brooks
, and co-wrote the song It's Good To Be the King. In 1985, he produced the Kane Gang
's debut album Bad and Lowdown World of the Kane Gang. Three years later his production credits appeared on The Proclaimers
UK Top 20 hit, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
, and their album Sunshine on Leith
.
The Pasadenas
1988 song Tribute (Right On) was written by Wingfield.
Wingfield played with Van Morrison at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival
, which was one of the two shows featured on Morrison's 2006 first ever issued DVD
. Several years later, Wingfield also did a summer tour of Europe with Morrison's band, featuring the songs from the latter's 1979 album, Into the Music
. Beginning with their 1983 reunion shows, Wingfield spent eighteen years handling keyboard
duties for The Everly Brothers
.
He has also played on sessions for The Housemartins
, The Beautiful South
, Van Morrison
, Interview
, Jimmy Witherspoon
and Freddie King
; and for Paul McCartney
on his Run Devil Run
album.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, keyboard player
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
, songwriter, singer and music journalist
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
.
Career
In 1969, Wingfield played keyboards and sang on Jellybread's First Slice albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, which was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Mike Vernon for the Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon was a British blues record label founded by Mike Vernon in the mid 1960s.Its roots lay in Vernon's mail order label Purdah Records, which released just four 7" singles; including "Flapjacks" by Stone's Masonry ; and another by John Mayall and Eric Clapton "Bernard Jenkins", and...
label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
As a specialist in soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, in the 1970s Wingfield contributed regular articles and reviews to the monthly journal Let It Rock, and the weekly Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
among others. As a performer, he played with the British soul band The Olympic Runners
The Olympic Runners
-External links:*...
, and Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes
Albert Lee
Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...
.
In 1971, Wingfield played the piano on the B. B. King in London
B. B. King in London
B.B. King in London is a studio album by B.B. King recorded in London in 1971. He is accompanied by US session musicians and various British R&B musicians, including Alexis Korner, and members of Spooky Tooth, Humble Pie and with Rick Wright - not of Pink Floyd fame as some have stated...
album, and in the following year received similar credits for Seventy-Second Brave
Seventy-Second Brave
Seventy-Second Brave is the fifth album by the Keef Hartley Band.-1972 LP:Deram SDL 9 , XDES 18065 # "Heartbreakin' Woman" - 4:18# "Marin County" - 3:55# "Hard Pill To Swallow" - 5:40...
, the Keef Hartley Band
Keef Hartley
Keef Hartley was an English drummer and bandleader. He fronted the Keef Hartley Band, and played at Woodstock. Hartley was later a member of Dog Soldier, and variously worked with Rory Storm, The Artwoods and John Mayall.-Biography:Hartley was born in Preston, Lancashire, England...
album. Wingfield played keyboards on Bryn Haworth
Bryn Haworth
Bryn Haworth is a British Christian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pioneer of Jesus music in mainstream rock. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, UK, he has released some twenty-two albums and several singles since the 1970s as well as guesting as guitarist on many other albums by rock and folk...
's 1974 album, Let the Days Go By
Let the Days Go By
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Bryn Haworth; except where indicated# "Grappenhall Rag"# "All I Want"# "I Won't Lie " # "Ee I Love You Lass"# "Miss Swiss"# "Let the Days Go By"# "Get Yourself a Man"# "Time Has Come"...
and on his 1975 follow-up Sunny Side of the Street
Sunny Side of the Street (Bryn Haworth album)
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Bryn Haworth; except where indicated# "Good Job"# "Pick Me Up"# "Darlin' Cory" # "Dance"# "Peace of Mind"# "Give All You Got To Give"# "Heaven Knows"...
. In 1983, Wingfield played keyboards on Haworth's album, Pass It On
Pass It On (Bryn Haworth album)
Pass It On is the sixth studio album by Bryn Haworth.-Track listing:# "Pass It On"# "Never Give Up On Love"# "Come Away"# "Think For Yourself"# "Perfect Love"# "The Cure"# "Peace and Understanding"# "Looking Through Different Eyes"...
.
"Eighteen With A Bullet"
Wingfield hit the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1975 with "Eighteen With a Bullet", a pastiche do-wop number involving word play on hit record chart positions. (A "bullet", in record-chart parlance, refers to a song still selling strongly and moving up the charts.) On the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
for the week ending November 22, 1975, the tune lived up to its name by charting at #18—with a bullet. (The song would peak at #15 a week later.) Taken from the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Breakfast Special, "Eighteen With A Bullet" would later be featured on the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
to the 1998 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
.
He played piano for the Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
, with Pete Moss on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, for Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which went No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart....
and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
.
In 1977, his song Making a Good Thing Better appeared on Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
's album of the same name
Making A Good Thing Better
Making a Good Thing Better is an album by Olivia Newton-John, released 1977.-Reception:The album peaked at No. 34 Pop and No. 13 Country. It was Newton-John's first album not to reach the Country Top 10...
. Between 1975 and 1981, Wingfield played keyboards with The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
. In 1980, he produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
the first album by Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which went No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart....
- Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels is the first album by Dexys Midnight Runners, released in July 1980 .The album was ranked 98th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time...
;. In the 1980s, Wingfield teamed up with the film producer Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, and co-wrote the song It's Good To Be the King. In 1985, he produced the Kane Gang
Kane Gang
Kane Gang were a Blues rock trio from North East England that had a few UK hits and two U.S. hits in the 1980s. Named after the movie, Citizen Kane, the trio recorded for the indie record label, Kitchenware, that was also home to Prefab Sprout.-Career:...
's debut album Bad and Lowdown World of the Kane Gang. Three years later his production credits appeared on The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid . They are probably best known for the songs "Letter from America", "I'm On My Way" and "I'm Gonna Be ". The band tours extensively throughout Europe and other continents...
UK Top 20 hit, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
"I'm Gonna Be " is a song written and performed by The Proclaimers. It was released on their 1988 Sunshine on Leith album, and subsequently as a single. It has become one of their most popular songs, reaching No. 11 in the UK charts and No. 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts in 1989, plus, five years...
, and their album Sunshine on Leith
Sunshine on Leith
Sunshine on Leith is The Proclaimers' second and best known album, released in August 1988. The album had three singles, including the title track, "I'm On My Way," and "I'm Gonna Be ," which also became a hit following its inclusion on the soundtrack to Benny & Joon five years later in 1993...
.
The Pasadenas
The Pasadenas
The Pasadenas were a R&B / pop group from the United Kingdom, best known for their hit songs, "Tribute " and "I'm Doing Fine Now".-Career:...
1988 song Tribute (Right On) was written by Wingfield.
Wingfield played with Van Morrison at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
, which was one of the two shows featured on Morrison's 2006 first ever issued DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Several years later, Wingfield also did a summer tour of Europe with Morrison's band, featuring the songs from the latter's 1979 album, Into the Music
Into the Music
Into the Music is the eleventh studio album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1979 .Typical of Morrison's music, the album draws on a variety of styles, from New Orleans R&B to Philly soul and Celtic folk, with featured soloists, saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and violinist...
. Beginning with their 1983 reunion shows, Wingfield spent eighteen years handling keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
duties for The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
.
He has also played on sessions for The Housemartins
The Housemartins
The Housemartins were an English indie pop band that was active in the 1980s. Many of the Housemartins' lyrics were a mixture of Marxist politics and Christianity, reflecting singer Paul Heaton's beliefs at the time .-Formation:The band was formed in late 1983 by Paul Heaton and...
, The Beautiful South
The Beautiful South
The Beautiful South were an English alternative rock group formed at the end of the 1980s by two former members of Hull group The Housemartins, Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway. The duo were initially joined by Sean Welch , Dave Stead and Dave Rotheray , all of whom stayed with the group throughout...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Interview
Interview (band)
Interview were a five piece pop/rock band from Bath, Somerset, England. They were signed to Virgin Records, and between 1978 and 1981 released two albums and four singles.-Career:...
, Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
and Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
; and for Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
on his Run Devil Run
Run Devil Run
Run Devil Run is the eleventh solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released in 1999. It features covers of both familiar and obscure 1950s rock and roll songs, along with three new McCartney songs written in the same style...
album.
See also
- List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
- List of blue-eyed soul artists
External links
- [ Allmusic - songs]