Ross MacManus was an English musician and trumpet player, who performed with
Joe LossJoshua Alexander "Joe" Loss LVO OBE was a British musician and founder of the Joe Loss Orchestra.-Life:Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, were Russian Jews and first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office...
and his orchestra, and the father of singer
Elvis CostelloElvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
.
Ross MacManus was an English musician and trumpet player, who performed with
Joe LossJoshua Alexander "Joe" Loss LVO OBE was a British musician and founder of the Joe Loss Orchestra.-Life:Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, were Russian Jews and first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office...
and his orchestra, and the father of singer
Elvis CostelloElvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
.
Born
Ronald Patrick Ross McManus, on Conway Street,
BirkenheadBirkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
, and attended St. Anselm's College.
MacManus joined
Joe LossJoshua Alexander "Joe" Loss LVO OBE was a British musician and founder of the Joe Loss Orchestra.-Life:Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, were Russian Jews and first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office...
in March 1955. He wrote and sang "Patsy Girl", a 1964 single credited to Ross McManus and the Joe Loss Blue Beats. The song was featured on the "Fathers" episode of
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's radio series,
Theme Time Radio HourTheme Time Radio Hour was a weekly, one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan originally airing from May 2006 to April 2009...
, in 2006.
MacManus was responsible for the
musicA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and vocals from the
R. White's LemonadeR. White's Lemonade is a brand of a carbonated soft drink, which is produced and sold in the UK by Britvic.R. White's is a brand of lemonade that has been produced for over 150 years. Robert and Mary White produced the first R. White's lemonade in Camberwell, London, in 1845...
television advertisement
theme songTheme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
, "Secret Lemonade Drinker", on which Costello plays the drums, and sang
backing vocalsA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
.
"1973 saw the launch of the brand’s most famous advertising campaign, 'The Secret Lemonade Drinker', which remained on screen until 1984. The ad featured a man in striped pyjamas creeping downstairs to raid the fridge for R Whites Lemonade. Ross McManus, the father of singer Elvis Costello, wrote and sang the original song, with his teenage son providing backing vocals. The ad won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival".
In 1970 he
recordedSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
a version of
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' song "
The Long and Winding Road"The Long and Winding Road" is a ballad written by Paul McCartney that originally appeared on The Beatles' album Let It Be. It became The Beatles' 20th and last number-one song in the United States on 23 May 1970, and was the last single released by the quartet...
" under the pseudonym of Day Costello.
His 1972 album of
cover versionsIn popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
songs,
Elvis Presley's Golden Hits Sung By Big Ross & The Memphis Sound, was reissued on CD in 2008 as
Elvis' Dad Sings Elvis.
In 1975, MacManus
wroteA songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and sang a number of songs for the soundtrack to the British
sex comedySex comedy is a term for comedy movies with sexual content usually referring to those made in the United Kingdom in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour,...
film,
Secrets of a SuperstudSecrets of a Superstud, also known as It's Getting Harder All the Time and Naughty Girls on the Loose is a 1975 British Sex Comedy, one of many to be also filmed in a hardcore version for export...
.
He played the trumpet on two of his son Costello's albums,
Out of Our IdiotOut of Our Idiot is a 1987 compilation album of then rare and unreleased recordings dating back to 1979 by Elvis Costello, which was released in the U.K. on Demon Records. It was only available as an import in the U.S. and other markets...
(1987) on the song "A Town Called Big Nothing," credited to the MacManus Gang and originally recorded for the film
Straight to Hell) and
Mighty Like a RoseMighty Like A Rose is the 13th studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1991 on compact disc as Warner Brothers 26575. The title is presumably a reference to the pop standard "Mighty Lak' a Rose", and although that song does not appear on the album, the...
(1991) on the song "Invasion Hit Parade".
Family
MacManus married Lillian Alda Ablett in 1952; the couple later divorced. Their son Declan, known professionally as
Elvis CostelloElvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, was born in 1954.
His second wife, Sara, died 12 November 2011; their sons, Ronan, Ruairi, Liam and Kieran were formerly in the band Riverway.
External links