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Tony Burrows

Tony Burrows

The Greatest Singer Whose Name You've Never Heard

by Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©1999 PopEntertainment.com.  All rights reserved. 

Tony Burrows. You may not know the name, but you know the voice. Burrows is
quite probably the greatest voice of seventies pop. He's definitely the only
singer in history to have four top forty singles with four groups in a space of
four months. As a studio singer, Burrows headed up many groups. You may or may
not remember the band names, but if you grew up in the seventies, you definitely
know the songs.

There was "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" with the Edison Lighthouse, "My
Baby Loves Lovin'" with White Plains, "Beach Baby" with First Class, "United We
Stand" with the Brotherhood of Man, "Let's Go To San Francisco" by the Flowerpot
Men and "Gimme Dat Ding" with the Pipkins. Burrows played in the group the
Kestrels, who toured with the Beatles twice. He also was part of the Ivy League,
one of the biggest bands in England in the mid-sixties. Tony also sang on the
famous Coca-Cola "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" commercial, as well as
doing backing vocals on tunes like Elton John's "Border Song," "Levon" and "Tiny
Dancer."

Varese Sarabande Records has now released Love Grows-The Voice of Tony Burrows,
a look at his distinguished career. The disk features songs by nine different
bands he's worked with. There are also some terrific solo tunes. Burrows
recently played live in the United States for only the second time in his long
career at Rhino Records Retrofest in Santa Monica, California. From his London
home, he agreed to have a chat with us about his career.

Do you remember the first time that you heard your music, on the radio or in a
club or something like that? What happened, and what was it like?

Wow, that was a very exciting time for us. I remember, that was with the
Kestrels, and we actually made a couple of tracks, which got played very near
the charts. It was a song called "Chapel in the Moonlight," believe it or not.
Hearing that on the radio and actually on a television plug program here called
Cool for Cats. It was actually very exciting.

The Ivy League changed to the Flowerpot Men and had a British hit with "Let's Go
To San Francisco," a psychedelic Summer of Love tune. Did you get into the San
Francisco scene at all?

I never did. The longest time I've spent in San Francisco was about three hours,
between flights.

After the Flowerpot Men, what made you decide to go the studio route?

Well, I'd been touring since the early '60's..., '61, really, I suppose. I'd had
nearly ten years on the road. I decided that's enough. One gets a little bored
living out of suitcases and in hotel rooms. I decided to concentrate on
recording work. I was married and I had a family. I'd toured the world. I'd seen
an awful lot of places and decided it was time to settle down and try and build
more of a career rather than a month by month tour of the world.

In the first six months of 1970, you had four different U.S. hits leading four
different bands with "Love Grows," "My Baby Loves Lovin'," "United We Stand" and
"Gimme Dat Ding." No one has ever done that before or since. What was it like?

It was a strange feeling, I have to say. But, they weren't all recorded at
exactly the same time. They were recorded over a period of between six and nine
months. I was doing a lot of session work. I knew most of the writers at the
time, and I was doing a lot of their work. They were all issued at the same
time. It was a little inconvenient, that's right on it. I was stretched. I tried
to stretch myself in four different ways.

I know that the White Plains was an offshoot of the Ivy League and Flowerpot
Men. How did you get hooked up with the other different bands?

Well, "Love Grows" specifically, I had done some recording for the musical
director on that particular record, a guy called Lou Warburton. I was doing
backing vocals, in actual fact, for (songwriter) Tony MacCauley, who was
recording a lot of his titles. I happened to have a tape of a track, which Lou
wanted to hear. So I asked everybody, "Would you mind if I play the track in the
studio for Lou?" They said, no, go ahead, which I did, and he listened, and
after he did, he came up and asked would I like to sing lead on "Love Grows?"

Did you ever want to make any of those bands a fulltime gig, or were you
enjoying the variety of playing in all different situations with different
people?

I'd made a conscious decision to stop touring, and I really didn't want to go
back on the road with a live band. So, what I said I'd do was the television
promotion with these groups, but I wouldn't go and work live with them. And I
never actually did.



In the early seventies after all of those hits, you started recording as a solo
act, but except for a minor hit with "Melanie Makes Me Smile" the solo stuff
didn't really take off. Why do you think that may have been?

Well, there is a story behind that, as well. With these four records out at the
same time, I had previously started recording solo titles. They all got
released, and all sold as we've just talked about. That was because of Top Of
The Pops, a record program, which has been running here for about... it must be
thirty years. In those days it was a major television show. I did three of the
titles on one particular night on the show (with the Edison Lighthouse, White
Plains and the Brotherhood of Man.) Imagine changing clothes on the side of the
sets to appear with different bands! After that, the producer came and spoke to
me, "I ought to tell you something, Tony. I had the word from above you're not
to be used again." I asked what he was talking about. He said one particular wag
from upstairs says this doesn't look right. It looks as if there's something
wrong with the situation where you appear with all these different bands. Well,
you asked us to do these shows. If you got on the chart, you go out and plug it,
do the show. They're all selling and you asked us to do the show and that's what
we've done. But he said, "well I just thought I ought to tell you." To be quite
honest, I got banned from BBC Radio for two years. That was the period when I
had the solo records, and I really and truly couldn't get played. We had no
commercial radio in those days, just BBC.

After the BBC incident, how did you get back into studio work and hook up with
First Class?

That was through John Carter. John Carter was part of the Ivy League. I'd known
him for years. He also wrote and produced "Let's Go To San Francisco." He called
me and said, "I've got this song I'd like to record. You fancy singing?" So, he
played me the demo and I said, let's go do it. It's as simple as that, really.

"Beach Baby" was quite possibly the best song the Beach Boys never recorded.
Throughout your career, songs sounded very strongly American, like that and the
psychedelia of "Let's Go To San Francisco." Was there a conscious decision not
to have British quirks, like, say, the Beatles or the Kinks?

No, I don't think it was a conscious decision. I grew up with American pop
music. That's what I remembered. That's what I listened to. That's what I
enjoyed. I think that just rubbed off more than anything else. I think that
probably applies to a lot of people in those early seventies.

I know of about six bands that you recorded with. Do you have any idea how many
there have been totally?

Oh, wow. (laughs) Actually recorded with or featured with? I mean, I do studio
work and session work. I've recorded with an awful lot of bands. But, featured,
I think probably, it's about eight. Something like that.

What have you been doing since "Beach Baby?"

Well, I've still been in studio work, but I got into commercials... I've been in
commercials for twenty years. I do voiceovers. I write. I produce. I do just
studio work, really. That's it.

Who are some of the people you've done studio work with?

I've worked with Rod Stewart and Elton John and Tom Jones and most of the
British acts that have been successful at some time or another, I've recorded
with. I toured with the Beatles. With the Kestrels, we did the two tours in
Britain with the Beatles.

How involved were you in the making of the Varese reissue?

In what respect? How do you mean?

I mean, did you help to decide which songs were going to be included...

No, that's been purely their choice. In fact, they've come up with one or two
titles which I didn't even remember singing. But, they sent me tapes and things
and I said, yeah, that's me. I did that.

Do you have a favorite song you recorded?

I suppose it'd have to be "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes.)" It was a
natural, if you know what I mean. I just heard it and said, oh, yes, that's a
good song. That's a hit. I think it's probably my favorite. (laughs) It's
certainly financially my favorite song.

Was there anything you would have liked to have sung but couldn’t?

I don't know if "Home Lovin' Man" is on the Varese Sarabande CD, but I did the
original demo of that for Roger Greenwood and Tony MacCauley, who wrote the
song. The recording company decided that it wasn't commercial enough for me as a
single. So Roger took it to America and Andy Williams recorded it and had a
monster hit. That I regret. He actually covered it note for note.

How about anything you would just as soon forget?

(laughs) I'm sure there are, which means to say I've already forgotten them.

Radio playlists are so regimented today. You used to be able to hear rock, soul,
pop and country all on the same station, and that just doesn't happen anymore.
Do you think that can inhibit new musicians?

Yes I do, very much so. Acts and singers and artists get bracketed and put in a
bag and that's where they are. So that can certainly mean that a large number of
the public does not get to hear the material because they don't listen to that
particular brand of music. I think that's wrong.

Suddenly lots of pop-based alternative bands like Matthew Sweet, Gin Blossoms,
Jellyfish and the Posies are celebrating seventies pop groups, acknowledging
that The Partridge Family, ABBA and your bands were as important to music
history as Led Zep and the Who.

I think so, yeah.

For a long time people had said that seventies music was pretty bad. Do you
think those years got a bum rap?

I don't know that it was a bum rap. I think it was a very successful period in
music history. Basically, because I think the songs were good. I think nowadays
far too much is produced in the studio. I think recording techniques have
advanced so far that music has become sort of robotically produced now. I don't
think there's enough emotion and heart goes into recordings anymore. They
certainly used to in our day. I think that's a bit of a shame. But that's
probably the old man in me speaking.

Why do you think pop is making such a revival?

Because good songs will always stand the test of time. We have a little working
band here which we go out and gig for, basically fun. I mean, they're all
session guys and we go out and enjoy ourselves. We do sixties and seventies
material and it's enormously successful. Even the youngsters, they don't got a
yearn I think to music these days that is produced on computers. To actually see
people performing live and working instruments, it is a change for them and they
enjoy it.

What musicians do you feel inspired you?

When I was very small it was the big band era, I suppose. We had Sunday big band
concerts in England when I was growing up. But, my early memories of seeing
artists were the Eddie Cochrans and Gene Vincents. Those were the guys that,
when I was twelve or thirteen, that I went to watch.

Are there any new musicians you've been listening to?

(laughs) The short answer to that is no.

How would you like for people to see your music?

How would I like people to see it? I don't know, I never thought about it. Well,
what we did was from the heart. We did it to enjoy ourselves and hopefully to
allow people to enjoy listening to it. It was never taken too seriously. We
weren't trying to change the world. There's room for all sorts of music, I feel.
One doesn't have to be educated every time one listens to a piece of music.
Sometimes it's just pure enjoyment. That's basically what we tried to do.

What is the misconception about your music or yourself that you would most like
to clear up?

I have a few regrets, in this country (England), I suppose. That I was put in a
bag, this is bubblegum music and that's what you do. I could do lots of sorts of
music. But if that was successful, that's how I was successful with the public,
so I suppose I don't have any real gripes about that. No, I don't think so. I
don't have too many regrets.

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Photo Credits: #1 © 1999 Jay S. Jacobs. All rights reserved. #2 © 1999 Jay S.
Jacobs. All rights reserved. #3 © 1970. All rights reserved. #4 © 1999 Jay S.
Jacobs. All rights reserved. #5 © 1999 Jay S. Jacobs. All rights reserved. #6 ©
1999 Jay S. Jacobs. All rights reserved.

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