Michael William "Mike" Sammes[1] was an English vocal arranger and session musician/singer, performing backing vocals on pop music recorded in the UK from 1955 to the 1970s.
Career[]
Born in Reigate, Surrey, Sammes was the son of pioneer photographer and film-maker Rowland Sammes.[2] He began his interest in music by learning the cello and played in the school orchestra at Reigate Grammar School.[citation needed] He then worked briefly for the music publisher, Chappell & Co. in London. He returned to music after national service in the Royal Air Force in the late 1940s when he formed a male vocal group called the Coronets at the urging of fellow musician Bill Shepherd. The Coronets did back-up work for the Big Ben Banjo Band and recorded for Columbia Records, releasing some covers of current hits.
After Shepherd withdrew, Sammes persisted. By 1957, he had assembled the core group that would form the Mike Sammes Singers, finding them soon steadily employed, for singers, soundtrack, and radio jingles, working sometimes as many as four sessions in a day and up to six days a week.
Sammes died at the age of 73 in May 2001, several months after a fall from which he never fully recovered.[3]
Credits[]
The Mike Sammes Singers performed vocals for numerous Disney projects, including:
- Fiddler on the Roof (1968)
- Now We Are Six (1968)
- Disney's Christmas Favorites (1979)
- Disney Presents A Family Christmas (1980)
- Disney's Christmas All-Time Favorites (1980)
References[]
- ↑ "The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland". Hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/.
- ↑ Reigate History (archive). Reigate History. Retrieved on 24 April 2012.
- ↑ "Mike Sammes". Discogs.com.
External links[]
Mike Sammes on IMDb- Disney-related Mike Sammes Singers credits at Discogs
 |
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Mike Sammes. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |