Guy Fletcher (songwriter)

Guy Fletcher, OBE (born in St Albans, England), is a British songwriter who, in partnership with Doug Flett, wrote several hits for other artists.

History

Guy Fletcher worked as a session singer for record producer Joe Meek, and as a jazz trumpet player. After deciding to turn to songwriting, he met lyricist Doug Flett in 1966 and their long partnership resulted in writing songs for several international artists. They were the first British writers to have a song recorded by Elvis Presley, when "The Fair's Movin' On" appeared on the B-side of his 1969 single "Clean Up Your Own Back Yard". The British branch of Elvis's fan club castigated the A-side as well below their hero's normal standards, and asked purchasers to register their disapproval by asking for "Fair's Movin' On" when requesting the record in shops.Other Elvis recordings followed. "Wonderful World", The opening song in the movie Live a "little Love a Little" and Just Pretend, featured in "That's The Way It Is".

Fletcher and Flett's first UK Top 10 success was with The Hollies' "I Can't Tell the Bottom from the Top" (1970), and they also had hits with songs performed by Cliff Richard, "With the Eyes of a Child", "Sing a Song of Freedom", "Baby You're Dynamite" and "Power to All Our Friends", which was the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973, achieving third place.

Their greatest international success was with "Save Me", a Billboard #1 country song by [Louise Mandrell] . Save me was also a Billboard entry for three other American stars,Helen Reddy,Donna McDaniel and Merrilee Rush . They also wrote hits for Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Helen Reddy, Joe Cocker, and the [Bay City Rollers] .Their song FALLEN ANGEL, a hit for Frankie Valli in the seventies is currently featured in the Broadway show JERSEY BOYS which is enjoying huge international success. Fletcher and Flett also discovered and nurtured the talent of singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh.

In 1975 Fletcher, Al Hodge and John Hodkinson formed the soft-rock trio Rogue, who released several singles, including "Cool Clear Air", "Lay Me Down", "Lady Put The Light Out", "Too Much Too Soon", "One to One", and "Borderline", and three albums, before disbanding in 1979.

Fletcher has been a Performing Right Society director since 1998, and is creative director of Music Copyright Solutions PLC which he helped to found in 2001. He was Chairman of The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters where he led several campaigns against the erosion of composers’ rights. He has won many awards including an ASCAP award in the USA and an Ivor Novello Award in the UK, and has also written TV music, songs, commercials and music for the stage.

Family

Fletcher has a nephew, also called Guy Fletcher, who is a longtime coworker with Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits

His children are Justin Fletcher, the children's TV presenter, Amity Fletcher, the music promoter, Juliette Fletcher, ITV South News presenter and Liberty Fletcher.

Rogue album discography

* Fallen Angel (Epic 69235, 1975)
* Let It Go (Epic 81987, 1977)
* Would You Let Your Daughter (Ariola 5028, 1979)

External links

* [http://www.guyfletcher.com/ guyfletcher.com Official Website for Guy Fletcher, songwriter]