Background
He was born on 1 January 1943 in Liverpool, and studied classical guitar and music theory.
songwriter film producer record producer
He was born on 1 January 1943 in Liverpool, and studied classical guitar and music theory.
He became well known, with Wayne Bickerton, as writer and producer of a series of United Kingdom chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes. He also received an Ivor Novello Award as "Songwriter of the Year". As well as sharing most of the singing, Bickerton and Waddington became songwriters for the group, which toured mainly in Germany and the United States, before they left in 1966.
Then Waddington spent time in the United States and on his return to the United Kingdom joined Decca Records as a songwriter and record producer.
He also studied orchestral writing under the tutelage of Henry Zajaczkowski. He and Bickerton continued writing songs together.
One of the most successful was "Nothing but a Heartache", recorded by American girl singing group The Flirtations, which reached Number. 34 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, and is now regarded as a Northern soul classic.
lieutenant was covered by Southside Johnny in 2005.
During this period, he and Bickerton also came up with the idea for a rock and roll musical. They co-wrote and produced a demonstration recording of a song, "Sugar Baby Love", originally intending to submit it for the Eurovision Song Contest but instead offering it to Showaddywaddy, who turned it down. Bickerton and Waddington then offered it to the demo musicians, provided that they would become an actual group.
The musicians agreed, were named The Rubettes, and "Sugar Baby Love" became a United Kingdom number one hit in 1974, also reaching number 37 in the United States chart.
They set up their own record label, State Records, which diversified in 1979 into owning Odyssey Studios and a new office building at Marble Architecture in central London, later sold to the radio station Jazz FM. Waddington has also co-written songs for Petula Clark, Tom Jones, and Brotherhood of Manitoba More recently, Waddington has orchestrated scores for television productions.
His music has been used in several films including Muriel"s Wedding (1994), Resurrection Manitoba (1998) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005). Presently Waddington is a director of Park Lane Media.
