Andy Hill (composer) - Career

Career

Hill first experienced his earliest success when he co-wrote and produced the UK's winning 1981 Eurovision Song Contest entry for Bucks Fizz, "Making Your Mind Up".

Hill took part in the 1981 A Song For Europe contest, alongside his partner (and later his wife) Nichola Martin, with their band Gem, performing "Have You Ever Been In Love?" This was released as a single under the name Paris but did not chart. Leo Sayer took his version of the single into the UK Singles Chart. The song been covered by many other musicians.

For much of the decade, Hill concentrated on carving a successful career for Bucks Fizz and following their Eurovision chart-topper, he went on to write and produce two further UK number 1's "The Land Of Make Believe" and "My Camera Never Lies". By 1986 he was responsible for (either writing or producing) all 11 of the band's UK Top 20 hits.

Since then, he has also written for Celine Dion, Cliff Richard, Ronan Keating, Diana Ross, Cher, and Brian Kennedy. These writing credits include Celine Dion's "Think Twice" (1994), which reached number one in the charts of Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In the UK, the song topped the chart for seven weeks in 1995, and went on to sell over a million copies. It remains Hill's biggest hit to date. He also gained success in the US, when he partnered with Peter Cetera for his World Falling Down album. From this, the single "Restless Heart" reached number 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart for 10 consecutive weeks.

More recently he has written songs for Il Divo on their debut album, and collaborated with Gary Barlow on Katherine Jenkins 2007 album, Rejoice. He wrote "Proud" on Susan Boyle's 2009 album, I Dreamed a Dream, and has written songs for Westlife and Boyzone.

Read more about this topic:  Andy Hill (composer)

Famous quotes containing the word career:

    I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.
    Ruth Behar (b. 1956)

    “Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.
    Lawrence Kutner (20th century)

    Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.
    Ann Oakley (b. 1944)