{"id":4180,"date":"2014-03-19T15:46:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2014\/03\/19\/peter-callander-lyricist-of-pop-hits-in-60s-and-70s-dies-at-74\/"},"modified":"2014-03-19T15:46:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:46:09","slug":"peter-callander-lyricist-of-pop-hits-in-60s-and-70s-dies-at-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2014\/03\/19\/peter-callander-lyricist-of-pop-hits-in-60s-and-70s-dies-at-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Callander, Lyricist of Pop Hits in \u201960s and \u201970s, Dies at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"


Peter Callander<\/a>, a British songwriter who provided lyrics for hits of the 1960s and \u201970s like \u201cThe Night Chicago Died<\/a>\u201d and \u201cBilly, Don\u2019t Be a Hero<\/a>,\u201d died on Feb. 25 in Haresfield, Middlesex, England. He was 74. The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Connie, said. Mr. Callander was a throwback to Denmark Street in London, often referred to as Britain\u2019s Tin Pan Alley, where he wrote behind the scenes at a time when many pop groups were writing their own music and lyrics. His songs were recorded by singers like Tom Jones<\/a>, Cliff Richard<\/a> and Cilla Black<\/a>. Wayne Newton reached No. 4 on the Billboard singles chart in 1972 with his recording of \u201cDaddy Don\u2019t You Walk So Fast<\/a>,\u201d which Mr. Callander wrote with Geoff Stephens. <\/p>\n

Mr. Callander collaborated most successfully with Mitch Murray. Among their hits was \u201cBilly, Don\u2019t Be a Hero,\u201d which Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods took to No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1974. Although Mr. Callander and Mr. Murray were both British, some of their most successful songs were American gangster narratives despite their limited knowledge of the subject.<\/p>\n

Georgie Fame\u2019s version of their song \u201cThe Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde<\/a>,\u201d inspired by the 1967 film, reached No. 7 on the Billboard chart in 1968. \u201cThe Night Chicago Died,\u201d another Murray-Callander number recorded by the British band Paper Lace, reached No. 1 in the United States in 1974.<\/p>\n

Despite its upbeat melody, that song\u2019s lyrics, recounting a fictional battle between the Chicago police and Al Capone\u2019s gang, were bleaker than Mr. Callander\u2019s usual fare:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the sound of the battle rang<\/p>\n

Through the streets of the old East Side<\/p>\n

Till the last of the hoodlum gang<\/p>\n

Had surrendered up or died.<\/p>\n

There was shouting in the street<\/p>\n

And the sound of running feet<\/p>\n

And I asked someone who said,<\/p>\n

\u201c\u00a0\u2019Bout a hundred cops are dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon after the song became a hit, the band\u2019s manager wrote to Chicago\u2019s mayor at the time, Richard J. Daley, asking if the city might be interested in promoting it in some way. In \u201cThe Billboard Book of Number One Hits<\/a>\u201d Mr. Murray was quoted as recalling that Mayor Daley replied with \u201ca rather rude letter\u201d that ended with, \u201cAre you nuts?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter Callander was born in Hampshire, England, on Oct. 10, 1939. He entered the music industry after leaving the City of London School in 1957. He later helped found the Society of Distinguished Songwriters and served as a director of the Performing Right Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr. Callander lived in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Jason.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source: NY Times
Photo Credit: http:\/\/www.petercallander.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Callander, a British songwriter who provided lyrics for hits of the 1960s and \u201970s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}