Ken Lewis (songwriter)

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Ken Lewis (born Kenneth James Hawker), 3 December 1942, Small Heath, Birmingham, England) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered one of the most successful songwriters of the 1960s as a result of his collaborations with John Carter. His biggest success was the million seller "Can't you hear my heartbeat", which was a # 1 hit for Herman's Hermits in the USA in 1965.

Biography

While still at elementary school Ken Lewis met his future songwriting partner John Shakespeare. They formed a skiffle band in the 50s called LVI. It was then they began writing songs together.In 1960 the duo went to London and presented themselves under their songwriting pseudonyms John Carter and Ken Lewis. Terry Kennedy became their manager and convinced them to start their own band as an outlet for their songs.

In 1961 the first single by Carter-Lewis & the Southerners was released "Back on the scene". But the band never broke through and their main claim to fame remains a brief stint that Jimmy Page did as their lead guitarist.

In 1964 they met Perry Ford (born Brian Pugh, 30 December 1940, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire), who worked as an engineer in a small studio in Denmark Street. They noticed their voices blended very well and started recording demos together, resulting in a single on Pye "What More Do You Want" as The Ivy League. Their luck changed when Herman's Hermits recorded "Can't you hear my heartbeat" and took it to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA. In the UK it was a smaller hit for Goldie & the Gingerbreads. They then provided backing vocals for "Can't explain", the first single of The Who.

In 1965 The Ivy League scored a couple of hits, "Tossing and turning" reaching # 3 in the UK. Further hits were penned for Brenda Lee ("Is It True?"), The Music Explosion ("Little Bit o'Soul") and Peter & Gordon ("Sunday for Tea").

Early 1966 Carter decided he'd had enough of touring and was replaced by Tony Burrows from The Kestrels. Lewis was also supposed to have left The Ivy League at that point, but decided to stay at the last minute, although he suffered from stage fright and didn't like performing at all. As Carter remembered from the Carter-Lewis & the Southerners era: "When we started doing gigs, Ken would duck out of a lot of them. The bass player was called Rod and would call himself Rod Lewis, so people would still think they were watching Carter-Lewis!"

Early 1967 Lewis finally also quit the Ivy league and was replaced by Neil Landon. He started writing & recording again with Carter. One of the first results was "Let's go to San Francisco", released as The Flower Pot Men. When the single became a hit, a band was put together to give the "band" faces, as both Carter and Lewis refused to tour again. The vocal quartet that mimed to the records included Tony Burrows and Neil Landon, leaving Perry Ford to carry on The Ivy League. Late 1967 Carter and Lewis formed Sunny records as their production company.Starting early 1968 the Carter/Lewis output became more and more confusing. Songs intended for The Flower Pot Men were released as Friends, Haystack and Dawn Chorus, only to be re-released in this century as The Flower Pot Men. The "touring" Flower Pot Men were forced by Deram Records to record songs by Roger Greenaway and after one abortive attempt changed their name to White Plains.

After a minor succes with the single "Chelsea" (which Carter and Lewis released under the band name Stamford Bridge), Lewis decided to leave to music business in 1971, suffering from depression. He went to live in Wallsend and hasn't been in the public eye ever since.

ources

*Melody Maker 1962-1979
*New Musical Express 1963-1979
*Record Mirror 1964-1967