Marcel Leopold Stellman (15 February 1925 – 2 May 2021) was a Belgian born British record producer and lyricist. Among the many artists who recorded Stellman’s songs are

Cilla Black Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer and television presenter. Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her singles "A ...

Petula Clark Sally "Petula" Clark (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child actor, child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 y ...

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( ; ; ; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a Armenians in France, French singer and songwriter of Armenian descent. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringi ...

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 ...

and

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

. In the UK he is best known as the man who brought the French show ''

Des chiffres et des lettres ''Des chiffres et des lettres'' (; ) is a French Television show, television programme which originally aired from 1965 to 2024. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants. It was one of the l ...

'' to the UK as ''Countdown''. His pseudonyms as a lyricist include Gene Martyn and Leo Johns. Stellman was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Belgium, one of 11 children. His mother, Lily, was Scottish and his father, Willy Stellman, was a Belgian Jew. In 1938, his father took him to his uncle Leopold’s jazz club, where he saw

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

perform. His father died of natural causes when he was young and five of his siblings were killed in

Nazi death camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. However, his mother, who was Scottish, escaped the German invasion of Belgium in 1940 with the 14-year-old Marcel and settled in Glasgow. Stellman's long association with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

began in the 1940s and 50s when he presented schools and children's radio programming. In the 1960s he worked on a television series for children featuring ''

Pinky and Perky ''Pinky and Perky'' is a children's television series first broadcast by BBC One, BBC TV in 1957, and revived in 2008 as an animated adaptation. Original series The title characters are a pair of anthropomorphic puppet pigs, named Pinky and Pe ...

'', two singing puppet pigs. In the 1980s he stood in for

Alan Dell Alan Dell, born Alan Creighton Mandell (20 March 1924 – 18 August 1995), was a BBC radio broadcaster, associated in particular with dance band music of the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s. Formative years Dell was born in Cape Town, South Afri ...

, presenting 'Sounds Easy' on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

. He died on 2 May 2021 at the age of 96. The episode of ''Countdown'' broadcast on 4 May 2021 was dedicated to him. Stellman won 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 ...

for the lyrics he wrote for

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 ...

" Dance On!", which was a hit for

Kathy Kirby Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 20 May 2011) was an English singer. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's " Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song C ...

in 1963. He also wrote the English lyrics to the songs '' Tulips from Amsterdam'' and ''Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht'' (''Marble Breaks and Iron Bends'').

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stellman, Marcel 1925 births 2021 deaths Belgian Jews Belgian record producers British people of Belgian-Jewish descent British record producers British lyricists People from Glasgow Scottish Jews Scottish people of Belgian descent Belgian television show creators British television show creators