He is
a singer, guitarist, percussionist and record producer born in
Willesden, Middlesex, England, to a family where his father was a
doctor, his mother a professional musician and his sisters are the
radio personality Clare Asher and the actress and ex-girlfriend of
Sir
Paul McCartney , Jane Asher.He also says that he was
told by the actor Mike Myers that he had fashioned his character
Austin Powers to look like him.He studied at Westminster
School and while there he met up with Gordon Waller.They teamed up as a duo and
before long were known as Peter & Gordon who had a No. 1 hit in
the UK and US with Lennon
& McCartney's "A World Without Love",
which was given to them by Paul
McCartney as one of the The
Beatles unrecorded songs.In 1968 he and Gordon went their own separate ways and he
took on the post of Head of Apple Records' A&R Department.In this position he signed
up the unheard of singer-songwriter James
Taylor and produced his first album which was unsuccessful.Not put off by that lack of
interest in the singer, he decided that he had enough potential for
him to give up his post and move to the United States as his
manager.This was an
extremely successful venture and since then he has produced the
majority of the now acclaimed star's recordings.Of course this didn't go
un-noticed and from then on he was being approached by other artists
for his skills.From
the 1970s he has managed the group Country and produced albums for
artists such as Tina Arena, Boyzone, Sarah Brightman, Peter Cetera,
Cher,
Neil
Diamond, Andrew
Gold, Heart, James
Ingram, Billy Joel, Olivia Newton John, Kenny Loggins,
Morrissey, Aaron
Neville , Randy Newman, Nirvana, Bonnie Raitt, REO Speedwagon,
Nelson
Riddle, Diana
Ross, David Sanborn, J.D.
Souther, Ringo
Starr, 10,000 Maniacs and Wilson Phillips and his long
association with Linda
Ronstadt has resulted in several platinum albums.Not content to leave his
production work to artists, he has produced the soundtracks of many
movies such as An American Tail, Armaggedon, Chances Are, Days of
Thunder, De-Lovely, The Land Before Time, The Mambo Kings,
One Fine Day and Runaway Bride. Albums he has appeared on as
a musician/singer include his own In Touch With..., World Without
Love, True Love Ways, Knight In Rusty Armour and Woman
with Peter & Gordon, Heart of Stone by Cher,
In My Lifetime by Neil
Diamond , What's Wrong With This Picture? by Andrew
Gold , Greatest Hits by Heart, Living in the U.S.A.
by Linda
Ronstadt , I Love You by Diana
Ross , Black Rose by J.D.
Souther , Time Takes Time by Ringo
Starr and Mud Slide Slim & The Blue Horizon by James
Taylor .Recognised
for his musical contribution he is a three-time Grammy Award winner
with one being for "Best Spoken Comedy Album" by Robin Williams in
2002 and two of them being for "Producer of the Year, Non-Classical"
in 1977 and 1989.Often
seen as an actor he has featured in the movies Isn't Life
Wonderful, Bernard and Doris and Escapade and in the
television shows The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sword of
Freedom and Colonel March of Scotland Yard. In 2005, after nearly four
decades, he re-joined Gordon for a benefit concert that was held for
Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five and since then they have toured in
America and Canada.
