THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,970) Peter Collins — “Girl By the Sea”
How many degrees of separation are there between Rush, Bon Jovi, and Alice Cooper and of this “[h]aunting [UK] folk sike” (happening45, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhltfEI6l4&list=RDwzhltfEI6l4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUdUGV0ZXIgY29sbGlucyBnaXJsIGJ5IHRoZSBzZWGgBwE%3D&ra=m), this “infectious folk masterpiece” (liner notes to Piccadilly Sunshine: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era)? Peter Collins was producer for these groups, and singer/songwriter of this ’70 gem.
The Times (London) wrote that:
While making his first, and only, album [’70’s First Album] he realised he didn’t have what was required to be an artist and was “more interested in being in the studio and in the process of making a record”. He took a job as an assistant producer at the Decca studios in north London — “in practice that came down to being tea boy” — but crept back after-hours and began recording his own radio and TV jingles.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/peter-collins-h8gptqkbx
Collins recalled:
I was a singer-songwriter in the sixties, in my teens, and I had a deal with Decca as an artist. I went in the studio and I realized in the course of making that album I wasn’t really interested in being an artist, I was interested in being in the studio and the actual process of making a record. That’s what totally captivated me. It wasn’t getting behind the microphone and feeding my songs into machines that was particularly of interest to me. It was the atmosphere in the studio, and the whole process of making records thrilled me. In those days, all the producers were very, very powerful people. They all smoked Cuban cigars, everybody held them in great reverence. One of my first jobs in a business was as an assistant to the producers at the Decca studios in West Hampstead. I was able to see how they wielded power in the studio and that’s what I wanted to be.
https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/interview-with-peter-collins/
Ed Hogan talks of Collins’ career:
Born in London . . . Peter Collins started playing guitar in his teens. An uncle manager fanned his interest in the music business. With Collins developing into a singer/songwriter, his uncle got him a deal with Decca Records, where he released one album. Around 1970, Collins’ uncle got him an entry-level job at a recording studio, then at a music publishing firm. Starting his own jingle-writing firm, Collins was mentored by jingle writer/producer Roger Greenaway (Coca Cola’s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”). . . . U.K. label Magnet Records hired Collins as their producer after hearing some of his masters. One of the first acts Collins produced for the label was Matchbox (“Rockabilly Rebel”). In 1985, Collins came to the U.S. to produce Rush, which led to him working with Queensryche . . . . Some other hits produced by Collins include Philip Bailey and Phil Collins’ number three R&B/number two pop hit “Easy Lover,” Bon Jovi’s number four pop hit “Always,” the number eight R&B/number ten pop hit “Pass the Dutchie” by Musical Youth, and Tracy Ullman’s number eight pop hit “They Don’t Know” as well as Indigo Girls’ Swamp Ophelia[ and] Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid[.]
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-collins-mn0000268491#biography
Wikipedia adds:
Collins moved to Nashville in 1985 for the “excellent studios…and superb musicians.” He produced albums for Rush, who called him “Mister Big” and credited him with giving their sound a commercial edge that broadened their appeal and improved their record sales, first working on Power Windows (1985) and then Hold Your Fire (1987).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Collins_(music_producer)
To hear Collins tell more about his career, check out: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/peter-collins, https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/interview-with-peter-collins/, and https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/peter-collins-h8gptqkbx.
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