Norrie Paramor

Paramor left school at the age of 15 and began working in an office. But he found his first musical work as pianist accompanist to Gracie Fields, and from there became involved with London dance bands, among them Maurice Winnick's orchestra.Reuben Musiker and Naomi Musiker. Conductors and Composers of Popular Music (1998), pp. 209-12 During the war he worked with Sidney Torch and Max Wall, and became musical director for the Ralph Reader Gang shows, touring the world entertaining troops. He worked with Harry Gold and his Pieces of Eight and toured with Bing Crosby. He also produced arrangements for Noël Coward, Mantovani and Jack Buchanan during this period. In 1950 he made his first recordings under his own name and with the The Big Ben Banjo Band. Peter Gammond. The Oxford Companion to Popular Music (Oxford University Press, 1991)

The term "producer" was not in circulation at the time Paramor started producing records. The usual term was Artiste and Repertoire Manager, or A&R man). He effectively began this role in 1952 when he became Recording Director for EMI's Columbia Records.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=930}} As well as being producer for Cliff Richard and the Shadows, he produced records for Ruby Murray, Eddie Calvert, Michael Holliday, Helen Shapiro, Frank Ifield, Frankie Vaughan, the Mudlarks, the Avons, and Ricky Valance, among others.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}} Per The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, Paramor and George Martin{{snd}} his opposite number at EMI sister label Parlophone{{snd}} jointly held the record for having produced the most UK Number 1 hit singles until Martin produced "Candle in the Wind 97" for Sir Elton John, 18 years after Paramor died.{{cite magazine|magazine=Music Week|title=From Rivals Chart To Popstars Rivals|page=5|edition=Celebrating 50 Years of the Singles Chart|date=16 November 2002|last=Williams|first=Paul}} This ignores The Beatles' second single "Please Please Me", produced by Martin, which was recognised as a number one hit by every other publicly available chart of the time, but not by Record Retailer and therefore not by British Hit Singles, which uses that chart as its source from 1960.

In the late 1960s he left EMI to form his own production company.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=September 12, 1979|page=114|title=Obituaries}} Kenneth Womack has written about the sometimes intense rivalry between Paramor and George Martin.Kenneth Womack. Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Early Years, 1926-1966 (2017)

In 1955, he formed Norman Paramor & His Orchestra and in 1956 they recorded one of the biggest-selling albums from the Capitol of the World import series, released by another subsidiary of EMI, Capitol Records: In London in Love, featuring the soprano Patricia Clarke, who was used in many subsequent selling albums. This became his trademark orchestral signature sound, and was featured on

a series of albums, including Autumn, Amor Amor, Emotions (1958) In London, In Love, In Love Again, Moods, My Fair Lady, Warm and Willing and The Zodiac Suite (1959) among others. Albums often featured his original compositions and those of Bobby Black.

Paramor also composed music for films, including Serious Charge (1959), Expresso Bongo (1959), The Young Ones (1961), No My Darling Daughter (1961), The Frightened City (1961), A Pair of Briefs (1962), Two and Two Make Six (1962), The Wild and the Willing (1962), The Fast Lady (1963), Doctor in Distress (1963), Father Came Too! (1963), and My Lover, My Son (1970).{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0660921/#Composer|title=Norrie Paramor : Composer|website=IMDb.com|access-date=2012-12-21}} He co-wrote the 1962 hit song "Let's Talk About Love" for Helen Shapiro.

In 1962, Paramor was the subject of "A Tribute to Norrie Paramor" by David Frost on the satirical British television programme That Was the Week That Was for, the sketch claimed, taking undeserved songwriting credits and royalties, "writing ordinary tunes with ordinary words" and "[making] everything ordinary."{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG3Uz4srwqo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/DG3Uz4srwqo| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=That Was the Week That Was, 15 Dec. 1962, from 13:30 |publisher=YouTube|access-date=2016-09-11}}{{cbignore}}

In 1968, he was the musical director for the Eurovision Song Contest, staged at the Royal Albert Hall, the first to be broadcast in colour. He also conducted the UK entry that year, "Congratulations", performed by Cliff Richard.

In 1970, he became the resident conductor for BBC Midland Radio Orchestra, a post he held until his death. In 1977, Paramor and his orchestra recorded with the Shadows for a final time, on the track "Return to the Alamo".

Paramor died on 9 September 1979{{where|date=January 2025}} at the age of 65, a fortnight after Cliff Richard had returned to the top of the UK Singles Chart with "We Don't Talk Anymore",{{cite book

| first= Jo

| last= Rice

| year= 1982

| title= The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits

| edition= 1st

| publisher= Guinness Superlatives Ltd

| location= Enfield, Middlesex

| isbn= 0-85112-250-7

| page=198}} his first number one single in more than ten years. Paramor and Richard had worked together professionally from 1958 to 1972.

• Just We Two, recording by Norrie Paramor and his orchestra

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0660921}}
• {{Discogs artist}}
• [https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195313734.001.0001/acref-9780195313734-e-21211 Norrie Paramor] at oxfordreference.com

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{{Cliff Richard}}

{{The Shadows}}

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Category:1914 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:People from London

Category:Deaths from cancer in England

Category:English male conductors (music)

Category:English music arrangers

Category:English record producers

Category:English male songwriters

Category:20th-century English conductors (music)

Category:20th-century English male musicians