Mike Sammes

For the similarly named British prisoner, see Michael Sams.

Michael William "Mike" Sammes^[1] (19 February 1928 – 19 May 2001^[2]) was an English musician and vocal session arranger, performing backing vocals on pop music recorded in the UK from 1955 to the 1970s.

Career

Born in Reigate, Surrey, Sammes was the son of pioneer photographer and film-maker Rowland Sammes^[3]. He began his interest in music by learning the cello and played in the school orchestra at Reigate Grammar School. He then worked briefly for the music publisher, Chappell & Co. in London.^[4] After national service in the RAF in the late 1940s, he worked a variety of jobs until a fellow musician, Bill Shepherd, convinced him to form a group called The Coronets. This male vocal group recorded some covers of current hits for Columbia Records and did some back-up work for the Big Ben Banjo Band, but Shepherd lost interest.^[4]

Sammes, however, was greatly interested in the work and saw the business opportunities it provided. After bringing together the core group of singers in 1955, the ensemble was soon working four sessions a day, six days a week. They did back-ups for all the major and minor British singers, soundtrack and radio work, and thousands of radio jingles.^[2]

Under the name of 'The Mike Sammes Singers' they recorded seven albums between 1962 and 1988. In addition, they performed on numerous albums for Disneyland Records. Among the many hit singles featuring the Mike Sammes Singers are "No Other Love" (Ronnie Hilton), "A Handful of Songs" (Tommy Steele), "Why?" and "Strawberry Fair" (Anthony Newley), "Walkin' Back to Happiness" (Helen Shapiro), "The Last Waltz" (Engelbert Humperdinck), "Green Green Grass of Home" and "Delilah" (Tom Jones) and "Tears" by Ken Dodd.^[4]

Barry Gray used them on the title themes for three of Gerry Anderson's shows, Supercar, Stingray, and The Secret Service.^[2] They helped out The Beatles on the songs "I Am the Walrus" and "Good Night";^[5] as well as on their last album, Let It Be, at the behest of Phil Spector. Sammes also provided the distinctive basso backing vocals on Olivia Newton John's early country crossover hits, including "Banks of the Ohio", "Let Me Be There" and "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)." However, his group, the Mike Sammes Singers, have only one entry in The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, for "Somewhere My Love" in July 1967. ^[4]

Sammes rewrote the song, "Marianne", with Bill Owen to provide Cliff Richard with a minor hit in September 1968.

The Mike Sammes Singers remained very busy into the 1970s, doing recordings for television (The Secret Service) and appearing on the small screen (The Val Doonican Show, 1971).^[5]

By the mid 1970s, though, the demand for backing vocals had faded considerably, due to the introduction of multi-tracking and synthesizers.^[2]

Sammes died at the age of 73 in May 2001, several months after a bad fall from which he had never fully recovered.^[6] Johnny Trunk, of Trunk records, was able to recover a number of reel-to-reel tapes from Sammes' house (despite it having been ransacked by house clearance), which he went on to compile as the CD 'Music For Biscuits', so-named because it features 1960s/70s advertising jingles for Tuc biscuits, Shield soap, Dulux paint etc.

See also

• Trunk Records

References

1. ^ Hymnsocietygbi.org.uk
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Spaceagepop.com biography
3. ^ http://www.reigatehistory.co.uk/lostfilms.htm
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Obituary from The Independent
5. ^ ^{a b} Biography at Allmusic.com
6. ^ Discogs.com mini biography

External links

• Mike Sammes obituary by Spencer Leigh from The Independent newspaper - dated 11 June 2001
• IMDb
• Trunk Records.com

Persondata
Name	Sammes, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 February 1928
Place of birth
Date of death	19 May 2001
Place of death