ABBA

He is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and album cover designer who started his life in music after picking up a guitar when he was 14.

He put together The Cosmopolitans who performed gigs at local parties and later changed their name to The Cosmos with changes to their line-up. He began songwriting after suffering a broken heart and wrote “I’ve Been Crying” which became a Top 40 hit for Denny Mitchell & The Soundsations and later became a bigger hit in France for Gerard Brent where it was known as “Pas de Larmes”. He formed a new band in 1964 known as The Chances but even though they had a single taken on by Decca, they didn’t get anywhere with it. After another unsuccessful single he decided to put together yet another band, this time called The Jeeps, but still nothing great would happen.

He took up various jobs at Strike Records and wrote more songs, sometimes in collaboration with other songwriters such as Mark Barkan. After J.J. Jackson recorded their song “But It’s Alright” he achieved success when it hit No. 1 in America. He then saw another hit when The Pretty Things recorded “Come See Me” and a further one when Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich recorded his “Here’s a Heart”. He became acquainted with Roy Harper and after using Pierre’s double garage as a studio, the album Sophisticated Beggar was released.

He then gets the credit for discovering Carl Douglas who he wrote several songs with. Carl would later become known for his hit “Kung Fu Fighting”. He formed another band called The Silence and they were given a contract in America with Red Bird Records for their “Hey You Lolita”. Strike Records folded but luckily Pierre managed to retain his and Roy Harper’s copyrights. Next he went to work at United Artists and became the producer of the soundtrack for The Charge of the Light Brigade.

He later went on to quite a career when he was involved in the production of Hair, signed the Average White Band who were then known as The Scots of St. James, became the first western producer to carry out work in Hungary with the band Fonograph and produced and wrote for countless artists. Other hits he managed to achieve during these years include “Fool” by Al Matthews and “Right Back Where We Started From” which was a huge hit for Maxine Nightingale.

As if all this wasn’t enough for him, he took to designing album covers. So popular were these cover designs that he has done over 1,000 to date and for a diverse range of artists and groups that include Fred Astaire, Shirley Bassey, Busby Berkeley, Canned Heat, Vicky Carr, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bing Crosby, Jackie DeShannon, Dr. Feelgood, The Flaming Groovies, Hawkwind, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bobby Vee, The Ventures and Slim Whitman.

After leaving UA he started to write jingles for many television adverts and enjoyed seeing his songs being featured in many movies that include The American Way, Slapshot, The Slums of Beverly Hills, Soul Survivors, Starsky & Hutch and The World is Full of Married Men.

In 1986 he and the musician Del Grace established the recording studio Universal sound where many artists have since recorded. In more recent years “But It’s All Right” has garnered him 5 awards and the version by Huey Lewis & The New is now one of the most regularly aired in the US. The singer Sinitta released “Right Back Where we Started From” which brought this song to the fore again too and he has released a CD of his early works entitled Pierre’s Plastic Dream.

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