Derrick Martin "Del" Newman (5 October 1930 – 10 August 2020) was a British conductor, orchestral arranger and music producer. His orchestral arrangements appeared on songs by many rock and pop artists from the 1960s to the 1990s, including

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later i ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, memoirist, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include " Anticipation" (No. 13), " The Right Th ...

and

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. His work also encompassed Hollywood film scores and West End musicals.

Early life

Newman was born Derrick Martin Morrow in London. His father was a doctor of West African descent, and his mother was an Irish nurse. He was adopted by the Newman family when he was a few months old. At the age of seven, he began learning to play the cello and the piano. After serving with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

, he studied music at university in Exeter and London and then at

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

, where he chose to specialise in musical composition and conducting. He received tuition from composer

Elizabeth Lutyens Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 190614 April 1983) was an English composer. Early life and education Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a memb ...

and conductor

Antal Doráti Antal Doráti (, , ; 9 April 1906 – 13 November 1988) was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943. Biography Antal Doráti was born in Budapest, where his father Alexander Doráti was a vi ...

, among others.

Career

Newman worked on guitarist

Gordon Giltrap Gordon Giltrap, MBE (born 6 April 1948) is an English guitarist and composer. His music crosses several genres. He has been described as "one of the most revered guitarists of his generation", and has drawn praise from fellow musicians including ...

's self-titled 1968 album and subsequently provided string arrangements for Cat Stevens' ''

Tea for the Tillerman ''Tea for the Tillerman'' is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in November 1970. Overview Stevens' second album released during the year 1970, ''Tea for the Tillerman'' includes many of his best-known songs such ...

'' (1970). In addition to working with Elton John, Carly Simon and Rod Stewart, he contributed orchestral arrangements to albums by

Asha Puthli Asha Puthli is a singer-songwriter, producer, and actress born on February 4, 1945 and raised in Bombay, India. She has recorded solo albums for EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA. Her recordings cover blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno and ...

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, Scott Walker,

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and many other artists throughout the 1970s. Newman also conducted

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the ...

's orchestral score for

Paul McCartney and Wings Wings were a British-American rock band formed in 1971 by former Beatle bassist Paul McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney on keyboards, session drummer Denny Seiwell, and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. Wings were noted for their com ...

' theme song for the 1973 James Bond film '' Live and Let Die''. Referring to Newman's sympathetic work on John's ''

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' is the seventh studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John, first released on 5 October 1973 as a double LP. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is widely regarded as John's magn ...

'' album, author James E. Perone likens the "fully integrated" aspect of their collaborations to that of Martin's musical arrangements for

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. Among his projects as a record producer, Newman produced Scott Walker's 1973 album '' Stretch'', which included his composition "Someone Who Cared". He also produced

's debut, self-titled solo album in 1973. In the 2000s, Newman withdrew from recording to focus on teaching. His autobiography, ''A Touch from God: It's Only Rock & Roll'', was published in 2010. In October 2015, he received a Gold Badge Award from the

British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors The Ivors Academy (formerly the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – BASCA) is one of the largest professional associations for music writers in Europe. The academy exists to support, protect, and campaign for the interests ...

for his contribution to music in the United Kingdom. He died at the age of 89 on 10 August 2020 in Carmarthen, Wales.

References

External links

* British music arrangers English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) Musicians from London English people of African descent English people of Irish descent 20th-century Royal Navy personnel British record producers 1930 births 2020 deaths British autobiographers Alumni of the University of Exeter Alumni of Trinity College of Music 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians English adoptees Eurovision Song Contest conductors {{UK-conductor-stub