DESCRIPTION:
"Don't bother to look, I've composed all this already." -- Gustav Mahler ▼▼▼

JOHNNY PEARSON (CONDUCTOR)
Johnny Pearson, was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.
Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Johnny Pearson showed talent with the piano at an early age. By nine, he had won a scholarship with the London Academy of Music. Here he spent four years under English pianist, Solomon. In his teens, he would give classical recitals, but his true love at the time was jazz.
His first band was the Rhythm Makers. After World War II, he signed up and became one of the founding members of the Malcolm Mitchell Trio. After leaving the Malcolm Mitchell Trio, Pearson turned his talents to British radio, as well as performing in the Peter York Concert Orchestra. By 1960, he was conducting the Romance in Rhythm Orchestra.
He recorded two singles for Parlophone, "Waterfall" in mid 1959, and "Theme from an L shaped room" in 1962. He was then offered a solo album deal with Oriole Records, which first teamed him up with John Schroeder. The Oriole album, Piano Sweet - Piano Wild was released in 1962 and was Johnny Pearson's first full vinyl album release. Also there was a 45 single released, "Ooh La La", in 1962 but this track and its b-side did not appear on the album. After the Oriole releases, Johnny Pearson continued to perform with various concert orchestras until 1964.
Sounds Orchestral was an idea by John Schroeder, who had moved from Oriole Records to become the label manager at Pye Records and was interested in producing and instrumental version of the US hit song "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". This had been suggested to him at the time by Pye staff member, Tony Reeves. As his project moved to fruition, Schroeder looked for a piano player. His efforts came about when he was reminded of Johnny Pearson from a few years earlier, after he heard him on Radio Luxembourg. Initially paid a session fee to record "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", Pearson was subsequently made a full partner in the Sounds Orchestral project. "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" was a number 5 hit in the UK Singles Chart in early 1965. Sounds Orchestral would end up recording some seventeen albums between 1965 and 1977. Some have subsequently been reissued on CD.
Pearson first came into contact with the BBC's Top of the Pops, in early 1965. Sounds Orchestral had just charted with "Cast Your Fate To The Wind", which featured on the first Top Of The Pops show. The following year, in 1966, Pearson took charge of the Top Of The Pops Orchestra. This would be a position he would fill for the next fifteen years, finally leaving the series in late 1981.
In 1966, Johnny Pearson also started his long association with the KPM library record label. KPM was originally known as Keith Prowse Music. KPM would later became part of the EMI Group of companies but was able to retain its independence due to its specialist nature. Johnny Pearsons involvement with KPM was to last many years until 1978, which is when Johnny Pearson switched over his music library efforts to Bruton Music. Johnny Pearson would however again later return to KPM during 1988.
As leader of the Johnny Pearson Orchestra, he reached number 8 in the United Kingdom chart in early 1972 with "Sleepy Shores", the theme from the television series Owen, M.D.. The Johnny Pearson Orchestra, which as a musical project was begun in 1972, ran side by side with his other projects. At the time, these projects included working on albums with John Schroeder for Sounds Orchestral and also providing library music to Britain's KPM Records.
Pearson worked together with British singer Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and The Carpenters (production). He created some world famous themes for television, such as "All creatures great and small" and "Heavy Action", originally used by the BBC for their show "Superstars" but later adopted by American broadcaster ABC for their show "Monday Night Football". After the 1980s, Pearson made occasional live appearances as part of a quartet.

EL RIO
Composed by Johnny Pearson for the A&M Records album "Viva Stereo" (1970) with an arrangement by Chuck Anderson.

MHO
Could easily have been the soundtrack theme for a western or tv series. Great melody, wonderful arrangement, perfect use of the available instrumentation.
Up tempo all the way - The ideal music we thought to feature in our theme presentation "Running Wild, Running Free" ;-) Enjoy !