John Cameron

Born in England in 1944, Cameron took up the piano at six and spent his teenage years performing and arranging on a semi-professional basis. While pursuing music studies at Cambridge University he simultaneously played jazz piano in clubs and composed chamber works. During his subsequent tenure in London clubs, record producer Mickie Most commissioned him to arrange Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman.” Cameron also wrote “If I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind,” a 1960s hit for Cilla Black that resurfaced nearly forty years later as a European success for Agnetha Fältskog. He supplied library music for television commercials and drama series; one enduring example from that catalogue is “Half Forgotten Daydreams.” Throughout this period and beyond, his regular musical associates encompassed trumpeters Harry Beckett, Henry Lowther and Kenny Wheeler, trombonist Don Lusher, saxophonists Tony Coe, Tubby Hayes, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Harold McNair, Danny Moss, Ronnie Ross, Jimmy Skidmore, Kathy Stobart and Ray Warleigh, pianist Alan Branscombe, bass players Herbie Flowers and Danny Thompson, drummers Tony Carr and Barry Morgan, vibraphonist Bill Le Sage, and vocalist Norma Winstone.

As an arranger Cameron achieved success with Hot Chocolate on “Every 1’s A Winner” and “You Sexy Thing,” with Heatwave, and with artists ranging from Julie Felix and Stan Dorfman to Maynard Ferguson, Salena Jones and José Carreras. His eight-part setting of Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” appeared on the bestselling Agnus Dei. Prompted by Mickie Most in 1970, Cameron co-founded the band CCS (Collective Consciousness Society) alongside guitarist Alexis Korner and vocalist Peter Thorup. The group scored several hits, among them “Walkin’,” “Tap Turns On The Water” and “Whole Lotta Love,” the last of which served for several years as the signature theme for BBC television’s Top Of The Pops. Additional BBC themes included 24 Hours and Crimewatch UK. Cameron’s screen contributions encompass arrangements of Donovan’s cues for Poor Cow (1967) and original scores for Kes (1969), Black Beauty (1970, with Lionel Bart), the Oscar-nominated A Touch Of Class (1973) and David Essex’s Silver Dream Racer (1980); later film work includes Little House On The Prairie (2004). In musical theatre he prepared all scores for Les Misérables from 1979 onward, earning a New York Drama Desk award in 1986 and The National Broadway Theatre Award in 2002. Subsequent stage projects comprise The Far Pavilions (2005), Alfie, The Musical (2005, in collaboration with Dougray Scott) and Zorro, The Musical (2006, with the Gypsy Kings).