Tony Burrows

Anthony Burrows (born 14 April 1942) is an English pop singer and recording artist. As a prolific session musician, Burrows was involved in several transatlantic hit singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of which were one-hit wonders, including "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" by Edison Lighthouse, "United We Stand" by Brotherhood of Man, "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains, "Gimme Dat Ding" by The Pipkins and "Beach Baby" by The First Class.

During 1970, four singles by four different acts with whom he performed all charted at or near the top of the UK Singles Chart and additionally reached the top 20 in the United States, while a fifth single under his own name ("Melanie Makes Me Smile") reached the lower ends of the top 100 in the United States and Canada.

Early life and career

Burrows was born in Exeter, Devon, England.

In the early 1960s, he was a member of The Kestrels, a vocal harmony group which also included the future songwriting team Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook. Burrows recorded his debut album in 1965 under the pseudonym Tony Bond. Subsequently, he joined the Ivy League in 1966 after the departure of John Carter.

Bands

Burrows was still with the Ivy League when they metamorphosed into the Flower Pot Men. The Flower Pot Men had only one hit, "Let's Go to San Francisco", which reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1967.

However, Burrows had no involvement with the single, which was created and recorded in the studio by the song's writers and producers. He did feature on a few later Flower Pot Men singles which were not hits. Two founding members of Deep Purple, Jon Lord and Nick Simper, were also part of this early band for live shows.

Later, Burrows sang on several other one-hit wonder songs under different group names, Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (February 1970); The Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand"; and the Pipkins' novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding" (April 1970). He also recorded with White Plains on "My Baby Loves Lovin'," in which he shared lead vocals with Ricky Wolff. These songs were all recorded within nine months of each other, but were all released around the same time in early 1970. His other one-hit wonder group was the First Class's "Beach Baby" (July 1974). The Brotherhood of Man would have an additional minor and regional hit with Burrows as singer, 1972's "Reach Out Your Hand," before its founder Tony Hiller created an entirely new Brotherhood of Man with an entirely different lineup.

A published interview with Burrows claims that he became the first (and still the only) recording artist to appear on BBC Television's Top of the Pops fronting three different group acts appearing almost sequentially in a single broadcast show: Edison Lighthouse (the No. 1 British-charted hit that week), White Plains, and Brotherhood of Man. However, Top of the Pops records show that this did not happen; he had appeared with those three groups within the span of a month, and two on the same show one time—Edison Lighthouse and The Brotherhood of Man—on the 29 January 1970 episode of Top of the Pops, but never appeared with three bands on a single show. The recordings of his appearances on 29 January, 5 February (with Edison Lighthouse) and 26 February 1970 (with White Plains) are all still in existence.

Solo

In April 1970, in the midst of his session groups' success, he released a single under his own name, "Melanie Makes Me Smile", which reached number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100. His subsequent solo singles failed to chart.

Burrows has also contributed background vocals as a session singer to many other songs, claiming to have sung on 100 top 20 hits in the 1970s. He has recorded as a session harmony singer with Elton John on the songs "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer", with Cliff Richard, and James Last.

Awards

In 2011, Burrows was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of his contribution to music.

Discography

One-hit wonder singles

• 1970: "My Baby Loves Lovin'" (White Plains)
• 1970: "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (Edison Lighthouse)
• 1970: "United We Stand" (Brotherhood of Man)
• 1970: "Gimme Dat Ding" (The Pipkins)
• 1974: "Beach Baby" (The First Class)

Solo singles

• 1970: "Melanie Makes Me Smile" / "I'll Get Along Somehow Girl" (Bell 1103)
• 1970: "I've Still Got My Heart, Jo" / "Every Little Move She Makes" (Bell 1124)
• 1971: "The Humming Song" / "Recollections" (Bell 1140)
• 1971: "I'll Always Come Up Smiling" / "Back Home" (Bell 1172)
• 1971: "Hand Me Down Man" / "Country Boy" (Bell 1190)
• 1971: "In The Bad Bad Old Days" / "In the Bad Bad Old Days" (Bell USA 45-116, promo)
• 1972: "Rhythm of the Rain" / "Home Lovin' Man" (Bell 1235)
• 1973: "Take Away the Feeling" / "Lazy Weekend" (Ammo 103)
• 1974: "Have You Had a Little Happiness Lately" / "Can't Live With You, Can't Live Without You" (Ammo 111)
• 1975: "Run Joey Run" / "Girl I Used To Know" (RAK 216)
• 1976: "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" / "Changing" (as Magic featuring Tony Burrows) (Bus Stop Records 1036)
• 1976: "Oh My Jo" / "Girl You've Got Me Going" (Bus Stop 1039)
• 1976: "When My Little Girl Is Smiling" / "What Ya Gonna Do About Him" (DJM 10718)
• 1984: "Three Chord Trick" / "Wake Up America" (as Heart to Heart with Stephanie de Sykes) (EMI 5461)

With Edison Lighthouse

Singles

With Brotherhood of Man

Albums

Singles

With White Plains

With The Pipkins

Albums

Singles

With The First Class

Albums

Singles

See also

• List of performers on Top of the Pops

References

External links

• Tony Burrows interview
• 45cat discography
• Tony Burrows discography at Discogs

1. Edison Lighthouse
2. The Flower Pot Men
3. White Plains (band)
4. The First Class
5. Tiny Dancer
6. Brotherhood of Man
7. Beach Baby
8. Levon (song)
9. Roger Greenaway
10. Melanie Makes Me Smile
11. My Baby Loves Lovin'
12. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
13. The Ivy League (band)
14. The Pipkins
15. Change
16. Let's Go to San Francisco
17. Ron Dante
18. United We Stand (song)
19. Gimme Dat Ding
20. Elton John (album)