Jeremiah Patrick Lordan (30 April 1934 – 24 July 1995) was an English songwriter, composer and singer. He had three hit singles on the UK Singles Chart before focusing purely on songwriting. Amongst his songwriting credits were the chart hits "I've Waited So Long", "

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

", "

Wonderful Land "Wonderful Land" is an instrumental piece written by Jerry Lordan and first recorded and released as a single by The Shadows in February 1962. It stayed at number one for eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, a feat only Elvis Presley (in 1960), ...

", "

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

", "

Diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

", and " A Girl Like You".

Early life and education

Born as Jeremiah Patrick Lordan in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, Lordan taught himself to play piano and guitar as a child. He attended Finchley Catholic High School and went into

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

as a

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

operator. On leaving the RAF in 1955, he held a number of jobs including comedian, singer and in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

Career

He began song-writing, and in 1958, with the help of contacts made in the advertising business a demo of one of his songs was heard by a record producer. The song, "A House, A Car and a Wedding Ring" was recorded by Mike Preston on

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. It did not sell well, but the song was successfully

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

by the American

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

Dale Hawkins Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins (August 22, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie. Career Hawkins was born in Goldmine Plantat ...

, on the Checker label. A later song, "I've Waited So Long" was recorded by the young

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, director, comedian, singer, and composer. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest ...

on Decca and got to number 3 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1959. He was signed as a singer to

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

and had three charting singles in 1960, the most successful being "Who Could Be Bluer?", produced by

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 Beatle ...

. He found real fame as a composer with the

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

, "

". It was originally recorded by

Bert Weedon Herbert Maurice William Weedon, OBE (10 May 1920 – 20 April 2012) was an English guitarist whose style of playing was popular and influential during the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first British guitarist to have a hit record in the ...

, but Lordan did not like the version. Weedon's label,

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including M ...

, did not release it immediately. On tour with

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. They served as the bac ...

, Lordan demonstrated the tune to bass player

Jet Harris Terence "Jet" Harris (6 July 1939 – 18 March 2011) was an English rock and roll musician. He was an original member of Cliff Richard's backing band the Shadows, serving as the bass guitarist from the group's inception until April 1962, aft ...

, reportedly picking out the tune on a

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

as confirmed by the Shadows on BBC Radio 2 documentary, ''Out of the Shadows''. When the rest of the band heard it, they agreed to record it. It was released in July 1960 and hit number one in August, staying at the top for five weeks. The Shadows' version was voted Top Record of 1960 in the ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a " rock inkie", the ''NME'' would become a maga ...

'' Readers' Poll. The tune was also recorded by the Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann, who took it to number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1961. Lordan gave up singing for full-time writing. He wrote the Shadows' UK number one hit "

" (1962) and their hits "

" (which reached number two in 1963) and "Mary Anne" (a rare vocal single from the group). He achieved a further number one, "

" for the ex-Shadows'

and

Tony Meehan Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan (2 March 1943 – 28 November 2005) was a founder member of the British group the Drifters with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which evolved into the Shadows. He played drums on early Cliff Richard and ...

in 1963. Harris and Meehan also recorded his song "

Scarlett O'Hara Katie Scarlett O'Hara is the protagonist of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 in literature, 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' and the 1939 Gone with the Wind (film), film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Le ...

" taking it to number two in the same chart. He wrote other hits for

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 ...

(" A Girl Like You"), Shane Fenton and Louise Cordet ("I'm Just a Baby"). By the end of the 1960s, the success was largely over and personal difficulties dogged Lordan through the 1970s. He became involved with the Cornish band the Onyx who under his guidance changed their name to Vineyard and released two singles on Decca and Deram in 1974. Later he made a brief foray in acting, appearing in the 1977

sex comedy Sexual comedy (also known as, sex comedy and erotic comedy) is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sexual comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary wor ...

, '' Come Play With Me''. The film was directed by his neighbour,

George Harrison Marks George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films. Personal life Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926 to a Jewish family, Marks was 17 when he mar ...

. In the 1980s, Lordan

remarried Remarriage is a marriage that takes place after a previous marital union has ended, as through divorce or widowhood. Some individuals are more likely to remarry than others; the likelihood can differ based on previous relationship status (e.g. di ...

and started to write again, although his songs were never published.

Personal life

Lordan's first marriage was in 1963 to Petrina Forsyth who (credited as Petrina Lordan) wrote the Shadows hit "A Place in the Sun" (1966) and also, with

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows. Early life and career Marvin was born as Brian Robson Rankin at ...

, "Love, Truth and Emily Stone" for

on his album '' Tracks 'n Grooves'' (1970). His second marriage was to Claudine Albus/Hammerschmidt in 1980.General Register Office of England and Wales, Marriages, September quarter 1980, Camden, Vol 14, page 1777.

Death

Lordan died on 24 July 1995 in Shrewsbury Hospital,

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, from

acute renal failure Acute kidney injury (AKI), previously called acute renal failure (ARF), is a sudden decrease in kidney function that develops within seven days, as shown by an increase in serum creatinine or a decrease in urine output, or both. Causes of AKI a ...

, aged 61. A memorial service was held for him at

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval pe ...

on 25 October 1995, which was attended by

Bruce Welch Bruce Cripps (born 2 November 1941), known professionally as Bruce Welch, is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, singer and businessman best known as a founding member of the Shadows. Early life Bruce Welch was born in Bognor Regis in ...

of the Shadows.

References

External links

*
45-rpm.org
* Allmusic discography – songs {{DEFAULTSORT:Lordan, Jerry 1934 births 1995 deaths English male composers English male songwriters English male singers English people of Irish descent Singers from the City of Westminster People from Paddington Deaths from kidney failure in the United Kingdom 20th-century English singers 20th-century English classical musicians People educated at Finchley Grammar School 20th-century English male singers