Albert Hammond biography

 

Albert Hammond is one of the more successful pop/rock songwriters to come out of England during the 1960's and 1970's, and has also enjoyed a long career as a successful recording artist, his work popular in two languages on three continents across four decades. Hammond was born in London in 1944 -- his family actually came from the British colony on Gibraltar, but wartime considerations caused his mother to be evacuated to London, where she gave birth. He spent his childhood and youth in Gibraltar, where he was raised fluent in both English and Spanish, and displayed an interest in music even as a boy. He came of age just as rock & roll was taking hold on British youth, even in the colonies, and in his teens, he took up the guitar and started playing on Gibraltar and in Spain. By his own account, Hammond also played and sang in a Moroccan strip club -- in an interview with John Tobler, he recalled performing in front of audiences of American servicemen, singing Dion repertory such as "The Wanderer."

He was part of a duo during the late 1950's and in 1960, with his singing partner Richard Cartwright, he formed the Diamond Boys, the two of them handling guitars and vocals, Hammond's younger brother Leslie on saxophone, Luis Balloqui on bass, and Luis Vinet playing drums. The group actually managed to get a single, "New Orleans" b/w "Fool in Love", out on Parlophone in England. By 1962, following a tour of Morocco and a win at a music festival in Madrid, the group was signed to RCA Victor's Spanish division and released an EP that included their cover of "What's I Say." The group disbanded soon after and Hammond and Cartwright eventually headed for England, where they briefly became a part of a band called Los Cincos Ricardos, through which they cut one single. One of the songwriters contributing to that band's repertory was Mike Hazelwood -- Hammond had been writing songs since childhood, but his contact with Hazelwood caused him to push that side of his music career harder than his performing for the first time. Hammond, in collaboration with Hazelwood and others, including Scott English ("Frisco Annie") and future star producer/songwriter Tony Macaulay, among others, made a particular specialty out of writing American-style songs, trading in images and references from the United States. One Macaulay-Hammond song, "Oklahoma Sunday Morning", was even recorded by Glen Campbell in his pre-stardom days. Hammond and Hazelwood found their first success on a television series in England, entitled Oliver in the Overworld, for which they wrote all of the songs, among them a novelty tune called "Gimme Dat Ding."

Hammond also picked up work as a session singer in London, appearing on the work of such acts as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. In 1967, with Hazelwood and their friend Steve Rowland, they formed Family Dogg, which managed to make some noise in the press and chart one single, "A Way of Life," in 1969, but never quite lived up to their publicity. Hammond and Rowland also wrote and recorded several singles together, issued under various aliases. His principal collaborator, however, was Hazelwood, and one of the songs they'd come up with was "It Never Rains in Southern California," based on a melody by Hammond and inspired by a photo-book owned by Hazelwood. The song languished for years, past a point where the two enjoyed hits with "Little Arrows" (1968) by Leapy Lee, "Make Me an Island" (1969) (a Top Three hit) and "You're Such a Good-Looking Woman" (1970) by Joe Dolan, "Gimme Dat Ding" by the Pipkins (1970), "Good Morning, Freedom" by Blue Mink, and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go" (1971) by the Fortunes. Hammond also found time to sing on Michael Chapman's fourth album, Wrecked Again, in 1971, and worked briefly with the Magic Lanterns, on recordings of his and Hazelwood's songs and other material.

By sheer chance, the two writers ended up in the United States in connection with a theatrical show (Welcome Home) that never got produced, and in the course of deciding his next move, Hammond tried knocking on the doors of various record companies in Los Angeles. He underwent a frustrating period of rejection, his string of chart hits as a songwriter either failing to impress executives sufficiently to take him seriously as a performer or, in at least one case, at A&M Records, getting him rejected by one songwriter-turned-artist who saw a competitor in the wings. He was finally signed to a new label, Mums, co-founded by ex-Dunhill Records partner Bobby Roberts within the Columbia Records organization, on the strength of a brace of new songs that he brought to the audition. A series of demos impressed all concerned, enough to get them released as singles, but it was "It Never Rains in Southern California," finished in California with some of the top session musicians in Los Angeles, that broke Hammond as a recording artist around the world.

That song reached number five in America and became a million-seller around the world, the first in a string of eight charting singles that Hammond enjoyed over the next five years. Also introduced on that album, along with "Down by the River" and "If You Gotta Break Another Heart" -- which was recorded by Cass Elliot in a slightly rewritten version -- and "The Air That I Breathe". The latter was Hammond's favorite song on the album, and it was later to become the last major international hit by the Hollies. Meanwhile, Hammond's follow-up album, The Free Electric Band (its title-track salvaged from the unproduced musical), was nearly as impressive musically as its predecessor, although it sold far fewer copies without a huge hit to drive its sales. His next hit, "I'm a Train", came amid a flurry of activity surrounding Hammond's career. He produced records by Johnny Cash ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup," a Hammond-Hazelwood composition), collaborated with Richard Carpenter and John Bettis ("I Need to Be in Love") and wrote songs with Art Garfunkel, and, growing out of the latter project, recorded a self-titled third album produced by Garfunkel producer Roy Halee. By the mid-1970's, he was working with producer/engineer Phil Ramone and collaborating with lyricist Hal David, generating a number one single on the adult contemporary charts with "99 Miles From L.A." -- the label, however, resisted releasing the accompanying LP or its successor, When I Need You, the latter only getting released in America after Leo Sayer generated a hit single with his version of the title song (which was also later cut by Perry Como), whose singing career started before Hammond was born.

By the end of the 1970's, Hammond was one of the busiest men in music, maintaining two full-fledged recording careers -- not only his string of English-language hit singles and albums, but also a late- 70's series of releases aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences -- and a songwriting career that included material recorded by Starship ("Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now") and Chicago ("I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love"), in collaboration with Diane Warren, and a monster hit for Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias in "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (with Hal David). Hammond has continued working into the 21st century, and has been followed into music during the first decade of the new century by his son, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr., a member of the Strokes.