David John Bernard Sampson (9 January 1941 – 5 March 2014) was an English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

singer who released a number of singles in the early 1960s on Columbia Records.

Life and career

Sampson was born in

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the East Staffordshire borough of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. The town is from Burton upon Trent via the A50 and the A38, from Stafford via the A51 ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England. Upon completing his education, he worked as an errand boy in the advertising industry. In his spare time he recorded songs and dropped one of his demo's with Cliff Richard who got him a recording contract. He had a UK

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

in May 1960 with his backing band, The Hunters, with "Sweet Dreams", which peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. "Sweet Dreams" was released on the

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

, and spent six weeks on the

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

. His first ever

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

was a four-tune EP demo with Steve Laine, later of the

Liverpool Five The Liverpool Five were a beat group that was part of the British Invasion-era of the 1960s. The group played throughout Europe and Asia before achieving the peak of their success in the United States between 1965 and 1967. Career Formed in En ...

. Both were singers on the EP with a backing band that was never named but included Don Groom on drums, John Milner on bass and Tony Haslett on guitar. His lack of subsequent

presence left him listed as a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

while he moved to Hamburg. There he played at the Star Club, until he returned to England and opened a record shop in Walthamstow. A collection of his early material was released in the 1990s and he appeared at occasional nostalgia shows. Sampson died at Colchester Hospital,

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, in March 2014, aged 73.

Discography

Singles

*"Sweet Dreams" / "It's Lonesome" (with The Hunters) – Columbia 1960 *"See You Around" / "If You Need Me" (with The Hunters) – Columbia 1960 *"Why The Chicken?" / "1999" (with The Hunters) – Columbia 1961 *"Easy To Dream" / "That's All" (with The Hunters) – Columbia 1961 *"Wide, Wide World" / "Since Sandy Moved Away" (solo) – Fontana 1962

Albums

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, ''Sweet Dreams: the Complete Dave Sampson & the Hunters'', was released in 1999, and included the following

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s: #"Sweet Dreams" #"It's Lonesome" #"If You Need Me" #"See You Around" #"Why The Chicken" #"1999" #"Goodbye Twelve Hello Teens" #"Talkin' In My Sleep" #"Little Girl of Mine" #"Walking To Heaven" #"Easy To Dream" #"That's All" #"I've Got A Crush on You" #"Don't Fool Around" #"Why The Chicken" (

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l version) #"Teenage Dreams" #"Wide Wide World" #"Since Sandy Moved Away" #"My Blue Heaven" ( demo) #"Sweet Dreams" (demo)

References

External links

Cherry Red - RPM - Dave Sampson
1941 births 2014 deaths British male singers British pop singers English rock singers Musicians from Staffordshire People from Uttoxeter {{UK-singer-stub