Mitch Murray
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Mitch Murray (born 30 January 1940, Hove, Sussex), is an English songwriter and author.
Murray’s first major songwriting success was ‘How Do You Do It’. It was picked up by producer George Martin, who insisted that The Beatles record it as their first single. They had already taped one of their own compositions, ‘Love Me Do’, in June 1962, but Martin considered it not strong enough, and reluctantly they rearranged and recorded it in September 1962. Their lack of enthusiasm was clear in the recording, which remained officially unreleased until it appeared on Anthology 1 in 1995. Martin allowed them to release ‘Love Me Do’ as a single instead, and passed song and arrangement to another young Liverpool group, Gerry and the Pacemakers. Their version launched their career with a No. 1 single the following spring. Thus encouraged, Murray sent them another of his songs, ‘I Like It’, which became their second single and also topped the British charts.
He had further success throughout the next ten years, writing ‘You Were Made For Me’ and ‘I’m Telling You Now’ for Freddie and the Dreamers, the latter in collaboration with front man Freddie Garrity. Most of his subsequent hits were written with Peter Callander, among them ‘Even The Bad Times Are Good’ (The Tremeloes), ‘The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde’ (Georgie Fame), ‘Ragamuffin Man’ (Manfred Mann), ‘Hitchin’ a Ride’ (Vanity Fare), and ‘I Did What I Did for Maria’ (Tony Christie).
In 1971, Murray conceived and founded the renowned Society Of Distinguished Songwriters (SODS). Current members include Sir Tim Rice, Les Reed, OBE, Guy Chambers, David Arnold, Mike Batt, Justin Hayward, Don Black, OBE, and more than thirty others.
Later Murray and Callender formed their own record label, Bus Stop, which enabled them to launch the career of Paper Lace. Their first two singles, released in 1974, were both written by Murray and Callander, "Billy Don't Be A Hero" (No. 1 UK, with a cover version by Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods reaching No. 1 in the US), and "The Night Chicago Died" (No. 1 US).
In the mid 1980s, in the final months prior to the privatisation of British Telecom, Murray wrote and starred in a series of comedy programmes, The Telefun Show, which were only available for listening via the telephone (by dialling 01-246 8070 in the UK) in a similar way to the contemporary Dial-A-Disc service.
Murray later turned to speechwriting and authorship, his titles including ‘One-liners for weddings’ (1994), and ‘One-liners for speeches for special occasions’ (1997).
