Rodney Temperton -

Rod Temperton

Rodney Lynn "Rod" Temperton (born 1947 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England)[1] is an English songwriter, record producer and musician most famous for writing a number of songs performed by Michael Jackson, including the title track of Jackson's Thriller,[2] the biggest-selling album of all time.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Songwriting credits
3 Production credits
4 See also
5 References
6 External links


[edit] Biography
As Temperton remembers music was in his bones from an early age; " My father wasn't the kind of person who'd read you a story before you went off to sleep - he used to put a transistor radio in the crib, right on the pillow, and I'd go to sleep listening to Radio Luxemburg and I think that had an influence." [3] Temperton attended the De Aston School in Market Rasen and he formed a group for the school's music competitions. He was a drummer at this time. " I'd get in the living room with my snare drum and my cymbal and play along to the Test Card, which was all kinds of music they'd be playing continuously." On leaving school he started working in the office of a frozen food company in Grimsby. He soon became a full-time musician however, a keyboard player now, and played in several dance bands, and this took him to Worms in Germany. In 1972 Temperton and guitarist Bernd Springer formed a soul cover band called Sundown Carousel. With Temperton on an old Hammond organ the band performed in clubs and GI bars in cities such as Mannheim.[citation needed] In 1974 he answered an advert in Melody Maker placed by Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and so became a member of the popular funk/disco band, Heatwave which Wilder was putting together at the time. "He was the first British guy that I had ever met personally. He spoke kind of funny but he had a good sense of humour and he was a very friendly guy. After meeting him and then seeing him play I kind of determined he was a good enough player and entertainer and I just knew he would fit in the group", said Wilder.[4] Temperton played tunes he had been composing to Johnny Wider, Jr. : "I was very interested because we were doing a lot of cover tunes - we weren't doing a lot of original material - I was really interested." The songs provided material for 1976's Too Hot to Handle including "Boogie Nights", which broke the band in Britain and the United States, and the memorable ballad, "Always and Forever" - both tracks were million-sellers in the U.S.[5]

Temperton's work attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, and he asked his engineer Bruce Swedien to check out the Heatwave album. " Holy cow! I simply loved Rod's musical feeling - everything about it - Rod's arrangements, his tunes , his songs - was exceedingly hip," recalled Swedien. Despite the slick American sound Temperton's working surroundings were still far from glamorous . Alan Kirk, a Yorkshire musician with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds who toured with Heatwave in the mid 1970s remembered; " The Always and Forever track was written on a Wurlitzer piano at the side of a pile of smelly washing - sorry to disappoint all the romantics." And producer Barry Blue recalled; "He had a very small flat, so everything had to be done within one room and he had piles of washing, and had the T.V. on top of the organ. It was a nightmare..he had trams running outside..but he made it, he just absorbed himself in the music and Rod seemed to come up with these amazing songs." [6] In 1977 Heatwave followed up the success of their first L.P. with their second, Central Heating, Barry Blue again producing, and Temperton behind the majority of the songs. It included Groove Line, another huge selling hit single with the by now familiar Heatwave sound and Rod Temperton hook. In 1978 Temperton decided to concentrate on writing and left Heatwave though he continued to write for the band.

In the early 1980s Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverly Hills, California.[7]

In 1979, he was recruited by Quincy Jones to write for what became Michael Jackson's first solo album in four years, and his first full-fledged solo release for Epic Records, entitled Off The Wall. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including Rock with You which became the second US #1 single from the album. In 1982, Temperton wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson's next LP, Thriller, which became the biggest-selling album of all time.

Temperton was nominated for an Oscar for a song on the soundtrack of the film, The Color Purple, as the co-writer of the song "Miss Celie's Blues".[8]

Songwriting credits
Temperton wrote/co-wrote for the following singers/bands:[9][10]

Michael Jackson: "Rock with You", "Off the Wall", "Burn This Disco Out", "Baby Be Mine", "The Lady in My Life", "Thriller", "Someone in the Dark", "Hot Street".
Heatwave: "Boogie Nights", "Always and Forever", "The Groove Line", "Gangsters of the Groove", "Lettin' It Loose", "Keep Tomorrow for Me", "Party Suite"
James Ingram & Michael McDonald: "Yah Mo B There".
Tamia: "You Put a Move on My Heart".
Rufus: "Masterjam", "Live In Me".
The Brothers Johnson: "Stomp!" and "Treasure" "Light up the Night", "All About The Heaven".
Donna Summer: "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)", "Livin' In America" and "Love Is Just A Breath Away".
Quincy Jones: "The Dude", "Razzamatazz", "Somethin' Special", "Turn On The Action", "The Secret Garden" and "Back On The Block", "You Put a Move on My Heart" and "Q's Jook Joint".
Herbie Hancock: "Lite Me Up", "Getting To The Good Part", "Motor Mouth".
Aretha Franklin: "Livin' In The Streets".
Jeffrey Osborne: "We Belong To Love" (which Temperton also produced).
Bob James: "Sign Of The Times" and "The Steamin' Feelin'".
The Manhattan Transfer: "Mystery", "The Spice Of Life", from their Bodies and Souls album.
George Benson: Give Me the Night LP, including "Love x Love", "Turn Out the Lamplight" and the title track.
James Ingram: It's Your Night LP.
Anita Baker: "Mystery" from her Rapture album.
Patti Austin: Every Home Should Have One LP; "Do You Love Me?", "The Genie", "Baby, Come To Me" (with James Ingram).
Second Image: "Lights Out" on Strange Reflections
Michael McDonald: "Sweet Freedom".
Stephanie Mills: "Time of Your Life" and "Hold On to Midnight".
Karen Carpenter: "Lovelines" and "If We Try".
LL Cool J featuring Boyz II Men: "Hey Lover".
Mica Paris: "Love Keeps Coming Back", "Two in a Million", & "You Put A Move On My Heart".
Mýa: "Man in my Life".
Klymaxx: "Man-Size Love".
C+C Music Factory: "Share That Beat of Love".
Angie Stone: "Lovers' Ghetto" from her Stone Love album.
Mariah Carey: "I'm That Chick" (which sampled Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall") from her E=MC² album.
[edit] Production credits
Kim Wilde: "Say You Really Want Me".
Jeffrey Osborne: "We Belong To Love".
Quincy Jones: "I'll Be Good to You", "The Secret Garden", "I Don't Go For That", "Stomp"[11]
Patti Austin: "Givin' In To Love"
[edit] See also
Grammy Awards of 1991
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement
Academy Award for Best Original Song
Academy Award for Original Music Score
[edit] References
^ Rod Temperton - Biography on imdb.com
^ 26/Jun/2009 Michael Jackson: How Rod Temperton invented Thriller Telegraph.co.uk
^ 'The Invisible Man' The Rod Temperton Story narrated by Paul Gambaccini, BBC Radio 2
^ 'The Invisible Man' BBC Radio 2 profile
^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 248. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
^ The Invisible Man Radio 2 profile, presented by Paul Gambaccini
^ Hoffmann, Christian. "Komponist von Michael Jackson war Wormser", Mannheimer Morgen, 18 July 2009, p. 30
^ Rod Temperton - Awards
^ allmusic ((( Rod Temperton > Songs > Songs Composed By )))
^ List of songs written by Temperton ASCAP
^ Qwest


External links
Six Million Steps - Rod Temperton Special radio show from March 2008
Rod Temperton biography at Allmusic website
Irreverent website info
Mini biography
"The Yorkshire Post" article (2006)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Temperton"










Music producer Rod Temperton Photo: GETTY
He came up with the title Thriller after being asked to work on the album by Quincy Jones, the American music producer.

Originally Temperton had called it Starlight but Jones asked him to come up with another title.


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Death sparks Google and Twitter frenzy Temperton once said: ""I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles and came up with Midnight Man.

"The next morning I woke up and I just said this word. Something in my head just said, 'This is the title'.

"You could visualise it at the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as 'Thriller'."

Thriller has sold an estimated 109 million copies worldwide.

Jones had got it touch after hearing Boogie Nights, which Temperton had written as the debut single for Heatwave, a disco band he joined after spotting a local newspaper advertisement.

At the time he joined Heatwave, Temperton had been working in a much less glamourous industry - in the Ross Foods frozen fish factory in Grimsby, Lincs.

Now 61, Temperton has made himself rich by writing a string of hits not only for the King of Pop but also for other stars including Donna Summer, Mariah Carey and Mica Paris.

He lives on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, which boasts the actors George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis as residents.

He also has homes in the South of France, Switzerland, Fiji, and a Kent.