Dave Townsend is a British songwriter, lyricist, and singer, and was born in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, in

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...

. Aside from a solo career, he was also a vocalist for

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock music, rock duo formed in London in 1975. Its core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared w ...

, singing lead vocals on "Don't Let it Show" on the album, '' I Robot'' (1977), and "You Won't Be There" from ''

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

'' (1979). Townsend was the singer for the

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

band Phoenix Press before going solo. He wrote the song "

Miss You Nights "Miss You Nights" is a song written by Dave Townsend and made famous worldwide by Cliff Richard. The song has been recorded by numerous other artists, most notably Westlife, who released it as the second track on a double A-side single in 2003 ...

" in 1974 while his girlfriend was away on holiday, and recorded it on an album for

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

, but the label shelved the album and offered the songs to other artists as covers.

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

recorded it in September 1975, and Townsend (as the composer) was nominated for an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

in 1977 for "Best Middle of the Road Song," although the winner was John Miles for "

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

.", a fellow vocalist with The Alan Parsons Project. His debut album, ''Making Up the Numbers'', was produced by Robin Geoffrey Cable and released on the Mercury label in September 1978, under the name ''David'' Townsend. A single, "When I Kiss You," backed with "High Endeavours," was released on 23 June 1978. The label promoted Townsend to record shops in ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' as "an imaginative composer, an inventive lyricist and a stylish singer," telling proprietors that they were "going to hear a lot of requests for the album from your customers, so stock up now." As a songwriter, he most notably wrote tracks for: *

– "

" . *

Jimmy Ruffin Jimmy Lee RuffinRibowsky, Mark (2010), ''Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations'', Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, p. 89. . (May 7, 1936 – November 17, 2014) was an American soul singer, and ...

– " That's When My Loving Begins" *

Elaine Paige Dame Elaine Jill Paige (born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff, 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Chipping Barnet, Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, m ...

– " Far Side of the Bay" Townsend formed his own music publishing company, Cappy Rat Music. As of 2003, it was reported that Townsend was writing a Ph.D. thesis in history at

Essex University The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass universities. The university comprises three campuses in the county, in Southend-on-Sea and ...

. Lyrics for many of his songs are on his official website.

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) British rock singers {{Songwriter-stub