60 Facts About Jonathan King

Jonathan King was born on Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944 and is an English singer, songwriter and record producer.

Jonathan King first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, achieved chart success.

Jonathan King founded his own label UK Records in 1972.

Jonathan King released and produced songs for 10cc and the Bay City Rollers.

Jonathan King was born in a nursing home in Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, the first child of George Frederick John "Jimmy" Jonathan King, managing director at Tootal, a tie manufacturer, and his wife, Ailsa Linley Leon, a former actress.

Originally from New Jersey, Jimmy Jonathan King had moved to England when he was 14.

Jonathan King attended Oundle School and Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining the American Field Service during World War II and later Tootal Ties and Shirts as managing director.

Jonathan King's birth was a forceps delivery and a muscle on his upper lip was affected during it, giving him his slightly crooked smile.

Jonathan King was sent to boarding school, first as a weekly boarder to pre-prep school in Hindhead, Surrey, then, when he was eight, to Stoke House Preparatory School in Seaford, East Sussex.

Jonathan King would save his pocket money for train trips to London to watch My Fair Lady, The Jonathan King and I, Irma la Douce, Salad Days, Damn Yankees and Kismet from the cheap seats in the balcony.

Jonathan King discovered pop music and bought his first single, Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues".

In 1958, Jonathan King became a boarder at Charterhouse in Godalming, Surrey.

Jonathan King bought a transistor radio and earphones and joined the "under the bedclothes" club, listening to Tony Hall, Jimmy Savile, Don Moss and Pete Murray on Radio Luxembourg, and keeping track of the New Musical Express charts.

Jonathan King left Charterhouse in 1962 to attend Davies's, a London crammer, for his A levels.

Jonathan King accepted, but first took a gap year and spent six months travelling with a round-the-world ticket from his mother.

Around the time Jonathan King began at Cambridge, the Bumblies recorded a song he had written and produced, "Gotta Tell", which Jonathan King persuaded Fontana Records to release.

Jonathan King called DJs and television producers to ask them to listen to it and, because it was Easter, delivered hundreds of vinyl singles to music critics complete with Easter eggs he had painted himself.

Keen to break into the music business, Jonathan King contacted Tony Hall of Decca Records, who put him in touch with The Zombies' producers Ken Jones and Joe Roncoroni.

Jonathan King played them one of his songs, "Green is the Grass", and they asked him to write a B side.

Jonathan King offered them six songs, including "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", which became the A side.

Jonathan King's next release, "Green is the Grass", flopped, but the third, "It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous, was a hit.

Also in 1965, Jonathan King began contributing a column to Disc and Music Echo, a weekly magazine edited by Ray Coleman.

Jonathan King adopted a deliberately provocative style, promoting new acts but publishing criticism of the music industry and particular artists.

In early 1967, Jonathan King attended an old boys' reunion at Charterhouse School.

Jonathan King liked several songs such as "She is Beautiful" and, according to Philips, they got the deal with Jonathan King on the basis of that song.

Jonathan King signed the band to JonJo Music and licensed the short-term rights to Decca Records.

Jonathan King produced their first three singles, including "The Silent Sun" and an album, From Genesis to Revelation.

Jonathan King retained the rights to the first album and re-released it several times under different titles.

Rutherford said in 1985 that, "for all his faults", Jonathan King had given the band an opportunity to record, which at that time was hard to come by.

Jonathan King writes that Lewis recruited him twice for this position, once not long after graduation and again in the late 1970s.

Bell Records asked Jonathan King to produce four songs for the Bay City Rollers, including their first hit, "Keep on Dancing", on which Jonathan King sang the 13 backing vocals himself.

The arrangement featured in Reservoir Dogs, at least one episode of Ally McBeal, where it provided the music for the Dancing Baby, and Guardians of the Galaxy, although Jonathan King writes that he made no money from the Blue Swede version.

In 1972, Jonathan King founded the UK Records label which was distributed by Decca and later PolyGram in the UK and London Records in the US.

Jonathan King wrote to the charts committee of the British Phonographic Industry in August 1979 alleging that the lower levels of the charts reflected "clever promotion and marketing rather than good records", and suggesting that only information about the top 30 should be made available.

The UK Records New York office on 57th Street was turned into an apartment, and Jonathan King set about building a new career in writing and broadcasting.

Jonathan King was given a weekly five-minute slot on BBC Radio 1 called "A King in New York", a "Postcard from America" slot in Radio 4, and he reported for Radio 1 on the 1980 presidential election.

Jonathan King called and woke up BBC producer Tom Brook, who was living in New York; Brook became the first to announce to the UK that John Lennon had died.

Jonathan King devised and hosted a spinoff series, Entertainment USA, broadcast on BBC 2, which was nominated for a BAFTA in 1987.

Jonathan King created and produced No Limits, a youth programme.

Jonathan King was hired by Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, to write a weekly column, "Bizarre USA", which began in February 1985 and continued for eight years.

Jonathan King continued with several music projects, including with the hard-rock supergroup Gogmagog, which released an EP, I Will Be There.

In 1987, Jonathan King wrote and hosted the Brit Awards for the BBC, and from 1990 to 1992 was the event's writer and producer.

Jonathan King resigned just after the 1992 show because he and the British Phonographic Industry, which runs the awards, disagreed about the show's format.

Also in 1987, Jonathan King accused Pet Shop Boys of plagiarising the melody of Cat Stevens' song "Wild World" for their UK No 1 single "It's a Sin".

Jonathan King made the claims in The Sun, for which he wrote a regular column during the 1980s.

Jonathan King released his own cover version of "Wild World" as a single, using a similar musical arrangement to "It's a Sin", in an effort to demonstrate his claims.

In October 1997, Jonathan King received a Music Industry Trusts Award at a dinner held in his honour at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

Jonathan King reportedly turned down the chance to manage the KLF.

Jonathan King was arrested again in January 2001 on further allegations.

Jonathan King admitted having approached thousands of people with questionnaires about youth interests, doing market research.

Jonathan King appealed twice unsuccessfully to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and was released on parole in March 2005, strongly proclaiming his innocence.

Jonathan King has complained about his media coverage since his 2001 conviction.

The complaint was not upheld, but Roy Greenslade argued that Jonathan King had a good case.

Jonathan King described the cut as a "Stalinist revision approach to history".

Jonathan King maintained an interest in prison issues and writes a column for Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners.

Vile Pervert: The Musical, available for free download, is a 96-minute film in which Jonathan King plays all 21 parts and presents his version of events surrounding his prosecution.

Jonathan King portrays his viewpoint of the events responsible for his troubles.

The Pink Marble Egg is a spy story; for publicity Jonathan King drove down the Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes with a pink papier-mache egg on top of his Rolls-Royce during the Cannes Film Festival.

Jonathan King's trial began on 11 June 2018; on 27 June, he was declared not guilty on several charges, and the jury was discharged.

Jonathan King urged both the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner to go.