Barry Blue

At the age of 13, Blue (born Barry Ian Green) made his first television appearance with his school band, the Dark Knights, performing on Stubby Kaye's Silver Star Show, a weekly children's talent show hosted by Kaye via Granada TV. By the age of 14, Blue had signed with record producer Norrie Paramor, whose assistant was Tim Rice; the producer of Blue's first song "Rainmaker Girl",[3] which became a hit for Gene Pitney in the United States. Later, he became a bassist in the line-up of Spice; the band featured Mick Box and David Byron, and was the precursor to the heavy rock band Uriah Heep.[2] He followed this in 1966 with a two-year period in A&R at the Bee Gees' publishing company Abigail Music, under the direction of their manager Robert Stigwood.

In 1970, Blue signed as a songwriter to ATV-Kirshner located in Bruton Street, London, where he joined a group of professional songwriters that included Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker. One of their earliest songs was "Sugarloaf Hill",[4] recorded by the reggae artist Del Davis. Other early career notable songs co-written by Blue and de Paul include "Tip of My Tongue" for the British group Brotherly Love,[5] as well as female vocal trio Ellie, and "House of Cards" recorded by a number of artists including John Christie, Australian artist Rob Guest, and the D.J. Tony Blackburn. Another from this period included "Crossword Puzzle", also co-written with de Paul, and which led to an appearance on Top of the Pops for Irish singer Dana. At the time, he was still using his real surname of Green.[6]

Blue wrote his first UK Singles Chart hit back in 1972 with de Paul, titled "Sugar Me". The song was originally written for Peter Noone, but de Paul's boyfriend at the time, Dudley Moore, suggested that she should take a demo version to manager Gordon Mills, who told her she should record it herself. The song also charted in the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium. "Sugar Me" was also covered in the US by Nancy Sinatra and Claudine Longet.

He released his first record in June 1971, under his real name of Barry Green, on the Ember label titled "Together", written by Jean-Pierre Mirouze,[7] taken from the French film Le mariage collectif.[8] He signed to Decca Records and released four singles between 1971 and 1974, including "Papa Do".[9] In a 2020 interview, he revealed that he decided to adopt Blue as a stage name after speaking with a record company employee who told him that green is considered an unlucky colour by circus performers, and because all the three singles released as Barry Green had been "quite unsuccessful", he eventually decided to be known as Barry Blue instead.[10]

His first UK chart success came with the change of name, and a record deal with Bell Records in 1973.[2] He had five hit singles, "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night)" (no. 2, 1973; co-written with de Paul), "Do You Wanna Dance?" (no. 7, 1973), "School Love" (no. 11, 1974), and "Miss Hit and Run" (no. 26, 1974),[11] followed by his final Top 40 hit in the UK Singles Chart in October 1974, "Hot Shot" (co-written with de Paul), which climbed to no. 23 in the UK[12] and reached no. 3 in Zimbabwe.[13] Blue returned to the UK charts in 1989 with a remixed version of "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night)".[14] Throughout 1973–74, Blue appeared on many major TV shows and tours alongside artists such as Queen, ABBA, and Status Quo.

Blue achieved a million seller in 1975 with "Kiss Me Kiss Your Baby", recorded by Brotherhood of Man. Two years later, in 1977, he co-wrote "Devil's Gun", a song by C. J. & Company from the album of the same name. The song was no. 1 on the Billboard disco/dance chart for five weeks. The single also peaked at no. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, and no. 2 on the R&B chart.^[2] Written by Blue, Ron Roker, and Gerry Shury, and produced by Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey, the song is notable for being the first record played at the opening of Studio 54 on 26 April 1977 by DJ Richie Kaczor.^[3] The instrumental portions of "Devil's Gun" were featured prominently in the international version of the film Crocodile. It also featured in the film The Real Bruce Lee. In 2016, the song was included in The Get Down soundtrack, and the following year it was featured in the film Borg vs McEnroe.

One of his major production successes was the multi-racial, Anglo-US funk/soul band Heatwave, who enjoyed hits in the UK and US with "Boogie Nights", "Always and Forever", "Mind Blowing Decisions", and "The Groove Line".[15][16][17] Other funk songs produced by Blue include "Funk Theory"[18] by Rokotto,[19] which reached no. 49 in 1978, "Somebody Help Me Out"[20] by Beggar and Co, which reached no. 15 in the UK in 1981, and "Say Yeah"[21] by The Limit, which peaked at no. 17 on the UK Singles Chart and no. 7 on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Club Play chart in 1985. In 1989, under the artist name Cry Sisco!,[22] Blue had another minor hit with a song called "Afro Dizzi Act", which reached no. 42 on the UK Singles Chart.[23][24]

• 1965: Silver Star (Stubby Kaye’s talent show)
• 1973: Carl Allan Award – Record of The Year (Dancing’ On A Saturday Night)
• 1977: 6 BMI / ASCAP Awards (Heatwave USA)
• 1977: Councillor – BASCA
• 1977: Music Week – Market Survey Top Record Producer
• 1986: Founded Aosis Studios in London[70]
• 1989: Founded The Escape Artist Company[71]
• 1995: Founded Connect 2 Music[72]
• 2007: Founded Plan 8 Music[73]
• 2010: Director, PRS for Music Ltd (2010–2019)
• 2014: Director, Karma Songs[74]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barry Blue.

• Barry Blue on Myspace
• Barry Blue discography at Discogs
• FavoredNationsMusic.com
• Barry Blue interview with M Magazine