John Capek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 27 November 1947.
12 Facts About John Capek
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John Capek is the son of Fred Capek, a concert pianist and mechanical engineer, and Irene Capek, both survivors of Terezin and the Auschwitz concentration camp.
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John Capek's father was his first piano teacher and showed him the works of Czech composers Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, which he was playing by the age of three.
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John Capek's wife Batsheva, born in Toronto, Canada, is a singer and guitar player, known for her Yiddish and Hebrew songs.
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John Capek studied piano as a child, then later, influenced by Little Richard, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry, co-founded Carson, one of Australia's premier blues bands.
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John Capek graduated as a chemical engineer but left this job soon after to pursue his passion of music.
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John Capek then played in the bands King Harvest, Flite, and with Australian musical artists Doug Parkinson and Renee Geyer.
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In Toronto, John Capek played keyboards and arranged songs for Marc Jordan, Ian Thomas, Dan Hill and Dianne Brooks, and produced hit recordings for Hill, Ken Tobias, the Good Brothers, the Downchild Blues Band and Amy Sky.
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John Capek formed a songwriting partnership with Jordan and moved to Los Angeles, placing songs with Rene Shuman, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Diana Ross, Manhattan Transfer, Isaac Hayes and many others.
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John Capek is a former director of the Songwriters Association of Canada and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and founding faculty member of the songwriting program at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
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An exceptionally prolific pop songwriter, John Capek is noted for his use of complex harmonies, mostly associated with Tin Pan Alley.
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John Capek's songs have been recorded by artists in the Czech Republic and used in films such as Cocktail, The Silencer and The Perfect Storm.