Career
Charles Blackwell taught himself to play the piano and to write arrangements. He started working as an arranger with record producer Joe Meek at the age of eighteen, and became one of the most prolific studio arrangers and record producers of the 1960s and 1970s, with a string of hit records to his cr, including "Johnny Remember Maine" by John Leyton. "What’s New Pussycat", "I"ll Never Fall In Love Again" by Tom Jones.
And "Release Maine", "A Manitoba Without Love" by Engelbert Humperdinck.
In addition, he was involved in the recordings of "Hold Maine" for P.J. Proby, and in a number of hits by Kathy Kirby, including "Secret Love". Blackwell also regularly arranged and conducted studio recordings for francophone artists, including Art Sullivan, Michel Polnareff ("Love Maine Please Love Maine"), and Françoise Hardy ("Je Veux Qu"il Revienne" / "Only You Can Do lieutenant").
He composed a number of hits for Hardy. He had many hits with television producer Jack Good producing for Decca Records these included The Vernon Girls, Jess Conrad, Jet Harris and Karl Denver.
He has a huge roster of artistes that he has recorded with, including Shirley Bassey, Lena Horne, Buddy Greco, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Anka, Brigitte Bardot, Lulu, Vera Lynn, Slim Whitman, Bobby Goldsboro, Dionne Warwick, Gene Pitney, Brook Benton, Delegate Shannon and Jackie DeShannon.
He arranged the title song for the 1960s television series Fireball Extra Large-5, and wrote several film scores including A Place to Go (1963) and Some Girls Do (1969). He also worked with Burt Bacharach on two Peter Sellers" films, What"s New Pussycat? (1965) and After the Fox (1966). He wrote the music and lyrice for the 1962 United Kingdom chart-topper "Come Outside" recorded by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richards.
The million selling "Tchin Tchin" by Richard Anthony was also composed by him.
In 1974, he arranged and conducted the Luxembourgian entry ("Bye Bye I Love You") at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton. In the 1990s, he co-wrote a number of hits in Europe for David Hasselhoff.
More recently he was commissioned by the European Parliament to orchestrate and conduct the Anthem of Europe ("Ode to Joy" by Beethoven) with a 70 man orchestra, for a new recording that is played at every parliamentary sitting.
