Pat Aulton is best known for the successful pop and rock singles and albums he produced for Australian and New Zealand artists in the 1960s and early 1970s on the Sunshine and Spin Records labels and as the lead vocalist of The Clefs.
13 Facts About Pat Aulton
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Pat Aulton became a successful composer of commercial jingles and TV themes and was a vocal coach.
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Pat Aulton had five children in the meantime; Kerry, Samantha, Chelsea, Bridget, and Alexander, which led to having many grandchildren, Lydia, Taj, Maggie, Hanna, Jordyn, Ruby, Parker, Riley, Cooper, Charlie, Dakota, Stevie, Harley, Oliver, Declan, Carter and Jaycie.
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Around 1963, Pat Aulton began working for rising Adelaide entrepreneur Ivan Dayman and his Sunshine group, which grew to include a management and booking agency, record labels and a string of pop music venues from Adelaide to the north coast of Queensland.
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Pat Aulton established the Sunshine Records label for Dayman and produced records for most of the performers on its roster, notably the string of Australian hit singles, EPs and albums by vocalist Normie Rowe, who was Australia's most popular solo artist in the mid-1960s.
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Pat Aulton oversaw the installation of the 4-track recording equipment at Festival's new Pyrmont studio, and from 1967 to 1973 he produced and engineered most of Festival's pop output, as well as performing uncredited backing vocals and instrumental contributions on many of these recordings, one example being his distinctive falsetto on the 1968 Christopher James recordings "Goodbye Mama" and "Going Home for the Last Time".
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Between 1967 and 1973, Pat Aulton produced many hit singles for local acts, released on the Festival and Spin Records labels.
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Pat Aulton produced all the Spin singles recorded by Sydney band The Dave Miller Set including their 1969 hit "Mr Guy Fawkes", which made the Top 10 in Sydney and was named "Single of the Year" by Ed Nimmervoll in Go-Set magazine.
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Pat Aulton produced the first two singles by Sherbet, who became one of the most popular and successful bands in Australia in the 1970s.
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Pat Aulton produced Neil Sedaka's 1969 'comeback' album Workin' on a Groovy Thing and the Australian hit single lifted from it, "Wheeling West Virginia", which were recorded at Festival Studios with Australian backing musicians.
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Pat Aulton regarded his work with Sedaka as one of his career highlights.
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Pat Aulton spent several years in New York City as a jingle writer in the late 1970s.
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Pat Aulton died of cancer in Noosa, Queensland with his family, wife Jenny and some of his children by his side, on 13 February 2009, aged 70.