Ken Howard

Sound

Born 1939-12-26 · London, England, UK · Died 2024-09-24

Ken Howard was an English songwriter, lyricist, author and television director. In the 1960s and 1970s, in collaboration with Alan Blaikley, Ken Howard composed the music and words for many international top 10 hits, including two UK number ones, "Have I the Right?" (The Honeycombs)[17] and "The Legend of Xanadu" (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich). Among other performers for whom they wrote were The Herd, Petula Clark, Phil Collins, Sacha Distel, Rolf Harris, Frankie Howerd (the theme song for his film Up Pompeii), Engelbert Humperdinck, Horst Jankowski, Eartha Kitt, Little Eva, Lulu and Matthews Southern Comfort. They were also the first British composers to write for Elvis Presley, including the hit "I've Lost You". Howard and Blaikley were responsible for theme and incidental music for several television drama series including The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) and By the Sword Divided (1983–1985),and the BBC's long-running series of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984–1992). Howard also scored BBC TV's BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Shadowlands with Claire Bloom and Joss Ackland in 1985, Mervyn Peake's Mr Pye with Derek Jacobi and Judy Parfitt, and Ronald Neame's last film, Foreign Body in 1986, plus BBC TV's The Black and Blue Lamp and The Angry Earth in 1989.