Lloyd Webber Rice

In the mid-1960’s Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber came to see me at my Manchester office to help them place a song of theirs with Herman’s Hermits.  I tried, but Mickie Most rejected it immediately.

In its original format the song was called “I Fancy You”, beginning with the simple couplet “I fancy you; I think you’re lovely”.  Its title became  “Any Dream Will Do” and with lyrics reworked Jason Donovan scored a U.K. No. 1 hit some twenty years later in June 1991 with his version.

Here is the original version by David Daltrey as recorded in 1968:

On hearing this and the other recordings for their musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat I signed them for three years to a management/development deal on a retainer of about £5/wk each.

It was the late 1960s and I took the songs to all the record companies but everytime they were rejected outright.  The other artistes on my roster at the time were disparaging about their material but from the outset I knew they had something.  Sadly I needed others to get it too.

Just after my tenure as manager was over at the end of the 1960’s they had overnight success with Jesus Christ Superstar. I remember seeing Tim Rice at the Ivor Novello Awards in the mid-70’s when 10cc was also at its creative zenith. He said he felt bad for not mentioning my input in his speech. Tim Rice and I have been good friends since.

I persuaded Sir Tim to write a song with Graham Gouldman and in the 1990’s they wrote “The Monkey and The Onion as a joint effort. The song is featured on 10cc’s final album in 1995 – “Mirror Mirror“:

The Monkey & The Onion:  Lyrics – Tim Rice / Music – Graham Gouldman