John Valmore Pearson was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist.
21 Facts About Johnny Pearson
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Johnny Pearson led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.
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Johnny Pearson was born John Valmore Pearson in Plaistow in Kent, the only child of a steel erector.
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Johnny Pearson recorded two singles for Parlophone, "Waterfall" in mid 1959, and "Theme from The L Shaped Room" in 1962.
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Johnny Pearson was then offered a solo album deal with Oriole Records, which first teamed him up with John Schroeder.
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In early 1964, Johnny Pearson took part in helping launch the career of Cilla Black, a rising singer who had been spotted by The Beatles producer, George Martin.
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Johnny Pearson had released her first 45 single, "Love of the Loved", in 1963, but it had charted only modestly despite having been written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
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Early in 1964, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was recorded by Cilla Black at London's Abbey Road Studios, in an arrangement by Johnny Pearson which featured the use of bassoons.
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Johnny Pearson worked on other Cilla Black tracks, some of which featured on her album, Cilla Sings a Rainbow.
10.
Johnny Pearson's efforts came about when he was reminded of Johnny Pearson from a few years earlier, after he heard him on Radio Luxembourg.
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Johnny Pearson first appeared on the BBC music show Top of the Pops in January 1965 playing piano with Sounds Orchestral on "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", which charted at the time.
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Johnny Pearson continued contributing to the programme until the 900th episode in the summer of 1981.
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In 1966, Johnny Pearson started his long association with the KPM library record label.
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From 1967, Johnny Pearson started appearing on many of KPM's music library recordings, in his own right.
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In October 1971 Johnny Pearson helped produce the BBC Television special Carpenters: Live at the BBC, featuring the American musical duo of Karen and Richard Carpenter.
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Johnny Pearson was a successful composer of theme music for television series.
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Johnny Pearson wrote the scores to Michael Winner's swinging 60s comedy film The Jokers, the Robert Horton TV spy movies The Spy Killer and Foreign Exchange, the Grampian Television start-up music "Sounds On", and the ATV startup theme "Midlands Montage", as well as music used during intervals between schools programmes on ITV.
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In 1987, together with business partner Adrian Kerridge, Johnny Pearson negotiated the purchase of CTS Studios, in Wembley.
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In 1996, Johnny Pearson recorded a CD of library music, for the radio and television industry, titled Simply Piano.
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Johnny Pearson died at the age of 85, on 20 March 2011.
21.
Johnny Pearson is survived by Alex, his wife of many years whom he married in 1963.