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Ken Lewis
Ken Lewis, like his long-time songwriting partner John Carter, was born in Birmingham in
1940. He gained a love of music from his mother, and, having a piano in the house, he began writing songs as early as 1956. In the late 50’s he joined John Carter in a local skiffle band.
In 1959 Ken and John came down to London and were signed initially to Noel Gay Music in London’s Tin Pan Alley. Soon after, Ken and John signed to peermusic as exclusive songwriters, their first hit co-writing credit, together with another friend, Bill Bates, being
“Will I What?”, the follow up to “Come Outside” by Mike Sarne. As well as writing their own songs, Ken and John demo’d other writers’ songs, and Ken was kept busy writing arrangements for recordings, some of which went on to be hit records, such as “Catch The
Wind” by Donovan. He also later arranged their own song “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”, for a recording by Hermans Hermits, which became Ken and John’s first US number 1 hit single.
In 1963 the group Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, fronted by Ken and John, notched up a
Top 20 hit with a song called “Your Mama’s Out Of Town” by another top writer of the time,
Mitch Murray. With a backing group which included Jimmy Page, they had more hits, appeared on the BBC’s “Easy Beat” and “Saturday Club” (including a guest spot on the
Beatles’ first-ever radio show) and toured with top American acts Duane Eddy, Gene Vincent &
The Shirelles.
The band split in 1965, and both Ken and John decided to concentrate on writing and providing backing vocals on other artists’ records including number 1 hits by Chris Farlowe,
Tom Jones and Sandie Shaw amongst others, whilst their own songs were recorded by successful artists like John Leyton, P.J.Proby and the Fourmost.
At around this time they teamed up with singer and writer Perry Ford and, under the name
“The Ivy League”, had the Top Ten hits on Pye Records with “Funny How Love Can Be” and “Tossing And Turning”. After John left to concentrate on writing and producing Ken continued the group for a while until he too decided to call it a day. Their songwriting continued to bring success, with hits by other artists, including “Sunday For Tea” by Peter and Gordon, “Is It
True” by Brenda Lee and “Little Bit O’ Soul” by the Music Explosion which became a US million-seller and topped the charts there in 1967.
Meanwhile, in that same year Ken and John formed another group, The Flowerpot Men, and had more self-penned hits, including the fondly remembered anthem from the summer of 1967, “Let’s Go To San Francisco” which became a worldwide success.
After a number of other projects, Ken moved over to working with peermusic in an A & R capacity. This continued into the 1970’s, including a stint in peer’s New York office in 1973.
Finally in the mid 70’s ill health forced his retirement from the music business and he subsequently moved to Cambridge where he has since devoted his energies to local charity work.
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