Various Listen People - The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005 (CD)

From the Mockingbirds to McFly, two dozen exemplary songs by one of the UK’s most celebrated writers.

In the mid-60s barely a month went by when Graham Gouldman’s name did not feature in the UK charts under the title of a current hit. The young Mancunican wrote regularly for some of the biggest artists of the time – including Herman’s Hermits, the Mindbenders, the Yardbirds and the Hollies – as well as maintaining his own recording career in several groups, some real and others fictional aggregations that Graham and his chums in what became 10cc invented within the confines of their Strawberry Studios. His prolific nature was matched by a prodigious success rate. Almost everything Graham wrote for the acts that kept coming back for more was a hit somewhere in the world.

If anyone is overdue for inclusion in Ace’s Songwriter Series, it is Graham Keith Gouldman. “Listen People” brings together two dozen of his finest and most successful songs from a career that’s about to enter its 55th year, mostly performed by those who took them into the charts. It starts with his first recorded song, by his group the Mockingbirds from 1965, and ends with a collaboration with noughties teen sensations McFly. As you will hear from this carefully chosen selection, Graham has stayed totally in step with musical trends throughout his career.

Of Graham’s peers, probably only Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards can lay claim to similar songwriting longevity. Like those veterans, Graham is still out there on the road, successfully plying his trade with two separate shows – one featuring the hits of 10cc and the other focusing on the hits he wrote for others, including many of those heard here. In fact, as this is being written he’s packing his bags for a Scandinavian tour, with more gigs already scheduled for 2018.

TONY ROUNCE