Tony Hatch - Early Life and Early Career

Early Life and Early Career

Hatch was born in Pinner, North London. Encouraged by his musical abilities, his mother – also a pianist – enrolled him in the London Choir School in Wansunt Road, Bexley, Kent when he was 10. Instead of continuing at the Royal Academy of Music, he left school in 1955 and found a job with Robert Mellin Music in London's Tin Pan Alley.

Before long, he was writing songs and making a name for himself within the recording industry, joining The Rank Organisation's new subsidiary Top Rank Records; there he worked for the once and future Decca Records A&R man Dick Rowe. While he served his National Service, he managed to become involved with the band of the Coldstream Guards. On his return in 1959, Hatch began his own recording career with a cover version of Russ Conway's piano instrumental "Side Saddle". In 1960, Garry Mills' (trumpeter Nat Gonella's nephew) recording of Hatch's composition "Look For A Star", featured in the film Circus of Horrors, became a Top Ten hit in the UK for Top Rank. Four versions of the song charted simultaneously in the United States, including Mills' original and a version by 'Garry Miles' (a recording alias of future member of The Crickets, Buzz Cason) Top Rank, despite some worldwide success with artists such as Jack Scott and The Fireballs, ultimately failed because of an unusual distribution arrangement with EMI. A swift succession of events ensued through 1961 that Top Rank was sold to EMI, briefly operated as a subsidiary, with hits by John Leyton, and shuttered, with its artist roster transferred to other EMI labels. Hatch moved on to a part-time job with Pye Records, where he assisted his new mentor, Alan A. Freeman, with the recording of "Sailor", a number 1 hit for Petula Clark.

Hatch continued to write songs for Pye artists, sometimes under the pseudonym 'Mark Anthony'. In 1963, Philadelphia teen idol Bobby Rydell hit the charts with "Forget Him" written and produced by Hatch, who went on to produce, arrange and write for other American stars such as Keely Smith, Connie Francis and Pat Boone. In 1964 he wrote (under the pseudonym of 'Fred Nightingale') the Searchers' hit "Sugar and Spice".

While at Pye, he produced many of their artists; The Searchers, David Bowie, and The Montanas, among others.