John Farrar

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For other persons named John Farrar, see John Farrar (disambiguation).
The cover of Farrar's self-titled album.
The cover of Farrar's self-titled album.

John Farrar (Fâr/ə/), born on 8 November 1946 in Melbourne Australia, is a music producer, songwriter, singer and guitarist who is best known for his work with Olivia Newton-John with whom he wrote and produced many hit songs.[1]

Farrar is a former member of the group The Shadows. He is also the father of Phantom Planet bassist Sam Farrar, and the naybrhood keyboardist Max Farrar.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Farrar began playing guitar when he was twelve, and by sixteen had begun playing with local rock bands.

Shortly after Farrar joined The Strangers, they became the house band for the popular TV music program The Go!! Show.[2] Both Farrar's future wife, Pat Carroll, and Olivia Newton-John appeared on The Go Show as singers. Pat Carroll was Australia's Queen of Pop for 4 years, touring Australia as one of Brian de Courcey's stable of Rock singers and establishing a strong following of Australian fans who slavishly copied her elegant dress style and distinctive hairstyle, while purchasing her 45 rpm singles which are collectors' items today.

Contrary to international perception, Pat Carroll was an established star in her own right when 14 year old Newton-John won a talent contest prize of a trip to England, which she initially postponed until she had gained more experience in the pop music industry. Carroll did indeed travel to England and ultimately sing in a duo with Newton-John, but Carroll was an exemplary professional and Newton-John an ingenue who gained from her partner's experience.

After returning from a tour with Newton-John, Carroll was obliged to return to Australia because her visa had expired, while Olivia (who was born in the UK) was able to stay on. Carroll dated and married Farrar. Following her marriage, Carroll ceased to pursue her headliner status and settled into occasionally reprising her duo work with Newton-John and back-up singing, mainly in session work for Farrar/Newton-John productions.

The newlyweds returned to England after Farrar was invited to become a member of Marvin, Welch & Farrar, a vocal-harmony group featuring two former members of The Shadows, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch. Marvin, Welch & Farrar put out two albums, an eponymous album released in 1971 and Second Opinion which was released in 1972. A third album featured just Hank Marvin and Farrar. The Shadows reformed soon after this time in order to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, and John Farrar joined them as second lead guitarist and vocalist. Two years earlier Farrar had appeared on the same show as a backing guitarist and vocalist for Cliff Richard.

Farrar appeared on a number of Shadows albums in this period; "Rocking with Curly Leads", "Specs Appeal" and "Live at the Paris Olympia" in particular owe much to his distinctive talent as arranger. Also during this time, Bruce Welch and Farrar began working on singles for Newton-John and found considerable success with her cover of Bob Dylan's If Not For You. With Newton-John's signing with MCA Records, Farrar began a prolific songwriting and production career with the successful vocalist. His participation in Newton-John's career produced a stream of gold and platinum hits. His discography reflects an artist with a wide range of styles, from You're the One That I Want to Physical.

Farrar's biggest successes with Newton-John as writer-producer came with the film version of the musical Grease in 1977 -- after a chance meeting with producer Alan Carr at a Hollywood party hosted by her old friend Helen Reddy, Olivia was selected for the lead role of Sandy. During filming, the producers realised that the original score of the musical was too short to bring the film to regular feature length, and that several extra songs were needed, so Farrar wrote and submitted two original songs, "Hopelessly Devoted To You" and "You're The One That I Want". Both were accepted and incorporated into the movie and they proved to be two of the most successful songs on the soundtrack, with both tracks becoming major international hits when released as singles during 1978.

In the mid-1990s, Farrar collaborated with Newton-John and lyricist Tim Rice for the musical score of Cliff Richard's musical Heathcliff based on the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights.

[edit] Discography

[edit] As a performer

[edit] Solo

  • John Farrar
  • With Rainine on My Mind
  • John and Mary

[edit] Marvin, Welch & Farrar

  • Marvin, Welch & Farrar
  • Second Opinion
  • Hank Marvin and John Farrar
  • Best of Marvin, Welch and Farrar

[edit] The Shadows

  • Rockin’ With Curly Leads
  • Specs Appeal
  • Live at Paris Olympia
  • Tasty
  • Dakota
  • Shadows in the 70’s
  • Run, Billy, Run
  • It’ll Be Me, Babe
  • John Peel session

[edit] The Strangers

  • Best of The Strangers
  • Bobby & Laurie
  • Colin Cook & The Strangers
  • Let’s Go With The Strangers
  • Colin Cook and The Strangers

[edit] As a songwriter and producer

[edit] With Olivia Newton-John

  • Olivia Newton John
  • Olivia
  • Music Makes My Day
  • Long Live Love
  • Clearly Love
  • Have You Never Been Mellow
  • Making a Good Thing Better
  • Totally Hot
  • Physical
  • Soul Kiss
  • Warm and Tender
  • Greatest Hits
  • 20 Golden Greats
  • Grease
  • Xanadu (with ELO member, Jeff Lynne), and John Farrar, which has been adapted for a 2007 Broadway musical of the same name. John Farrar provided a string of classic hits from this movie for Olivia such as;
  • Magic
  • Suddenly (Olivia Newton John with Cliff Richard)
  • Suspended in time
  • Whenever you're away from me (Olivia Newton John with the legendary Gene Kelly).
  • New studio album 2009

[edit] Production credits

[edit] Hit records

  • "If Not for You"
  • "Let Me Be There" #6 Pop; #10 Country
  • 1974 "If You Love Me, Let Me Know" #5 Pop; #1 Country
  • 1975 "Have You Never Been Mellow" #1 Pop
  • 1975 "Have You Never Been Mellow (LP)" #1 Pop on the LP chart
  • 1975 "Please Mr. Please" #3 Pop
  • "Something Better to Do" #13 Pop
  • 1976 "Come on Over" #1 Country; #23 Pop
  • 1976 "Don't Stop Believin'" #33 Pop
  • 1978 "Grease (soundtrack)" Multi-platinum
  • 1978 "You're the One That I Want" #1 Pop US; #1 Pop UK
  • 1978 "Hopelessly Devoted To You" #3 Pop US; #2 Pop UK
  • 1978 "A Little More Love"; #3 Pop
  • 1978 "Deeper Than the Night" #11 Pop
  • 1980 "Xanadu (soundtrack)" #1 Pop on the LP chart; platinum
  • 1980 "Magic": #1 Pop August
  • 1981 "Physical": #1 Pop, 10 weeks
  • 1982 "Make A Move On Me": #5 Pop
  • 1982 "Heart Attack": #3 Pop
  • 1983 "Twist Of Fate": #5 Pop

[edit] References

  1. ^ John Farrar and Pat Carroll bio
  2. ^ The Strangers 1961-1975
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