Jonathan King |
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Jonathan King has proved to be one of the most enduring of the 'larger than life' figures to have emerged from the Pop world of the 1960s. The earlier part of his education had been at the public school Charterhouse, but it was at Cambridge that he came up with the idea for his first single. 'Everyone's Gone To The Moon' was the first of his many songs to gain chart success. This and his second, 'It's Good News Week' (performed by a group of RAF personnel, 'Hedgehoppers Anonymous') were derived by King in line with the fashion for 'protest' songs. His immediate follow-ups to these successes got almost nowhere, but Jonathan King's presence and influence on the Pop chart of the next decade or so would be great even if nobody was immediately aware of it. His shrewdness and good commercial judgement had been noticed by the founder of Decca Records, Edward Lewis, and he was appointed Lewis' personal assistant. Within a few years Jonathan King was running the company. Although not all King's decisions were good ones, he probably got most things right and later launched his own record company 'UK Records'. Jonathan returned to the charts himself, but usually under pseudonyms like 'Shag', St Cecilia', Bubblerock', '100 Ton & A Feather' etc etc. He had further hits under his own name too, including 'Una Paloma Blanca' during 1975, and also discovered 'Genesis'- a band that had been formed at his former public school. Jonathan King eventually decoupled himself from direct involvement with the record industry and managed to find himself a niche as a critic and musical journalist. He has been remarkably successful in this sphere and has always courted the maximum publicity though not all of it has been good. |
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| Decca F12187 | 1965 | Everyone's Gone To The Moon/ Summer's Coming | #4 |
| Decca F12237 | 1965 | Green Is The Grass/ Creation | |
| Decca F12286 | 1965 | Where The Sun Has Never Shone/ Don't talk To Me Of Protest | |
| Decca F12457 | 1966 | Just Like A Woman/ The Land Of The Golden Tree | |
| Decca F12517 | 1966 | Icicles/ In A Hundred Years From Now | |
| Decca F12540 | 1967 | Seagulls/ Take A Look At Yourself Babe | |
| Decca F12569 | 1967 | Round Round/ Time And Motion | |
| Decca F12950 | 1969 | Everyone's Gone to The Moon/ Round Round | |
| Decca F12988 | 1969 | Let It All Hang Out/ Colloquial Sex |
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