Ross passes....R.I.P. Mr. MacManus

[History History]

Here it is, BA

Obituary from The Times, Saturday November 26, 2011:


Ross MacManus was best known in recent years for being the musical father who nurtured the talent of Elvis Costello, but he carved out his own place in popular culture by writing and singing The Secret Lemonade Drinker which became the theme for a hugely popular, long-running advertising campaign for R.White's Lemonade.
In the original 1973 advert, a nerdy, bespectacled man (played by Julian Chagrin) creeps downstairs in his striped pyjamas in the middle of the night and opens the fridge door. His eyes light up as he sees a bottle of R.Whites and, as he pours himself a glass, he loses all inhibitions and starts crooning to MacManus's rousing rock'n'roll tune, only then to be caught in the act by his bemused wife.
Thanks in part to the catchy theme, made memorable by MacManus's deep bass Elvis-like vocal, the award winning advert was so popular that it ran for 11 years.
Playing drums and providing the distinctive high-pitched "R.Whites" backing vocal, was his relatively unknown teenaged son, Declan, who at that time was in a folk duo called Rusty,but who would come to prominence later in the Seventies as the charismatic frontman and songwriter in Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Ross MacManus was born in Birkenhead in 1927 into an Irish family. His father had played trumpet in a military band on luxury liners and from an early age Ross wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. In the early Fifties, he fronted a group called Ross MacManus and the New Era Music in which he sang be-bop numbers and played in Liverpool nightspots. This led to his recruitment in 1955 - the year Elvis Costello was born- to one of the most popular big bands of the day: the Joe Loss Orchestra. MacManus joined the band as the main vocalist alongside Rose Brennan.
He remained for many years, despite the fact that big bands were about to be overtaken by rock'n'roll. He resisted the temptation to leave and pursue a solo recording career in a more popular idiom, which his singing voice merited, although the band had a weekly radio show on which MacManus sang the pop hits of the day. Fearing the loss of his main vocalist, Loss discouraged him from doing so. MacManus decided that the regular employment in the big band was preferable and he was involved creatively, writing Pasty Girl, a popular song for the band, in 1964.
His sporadic attempts to record solo records were not very successful. He recorded a version of Can't Take My Eyes Off You for Decca in 1967, which had been a huge hit in the same year for Franki Valli. MacManus was unhappy with the way the record was produced and by the lack of marketing. It became a bit hit instead for Andy Williams in 1968. His 1970 cover version of the Beatles' ballad The Long and Winding Road was also relatively unsuccessful, though it was a hit in Germany and Australia. The latter was recorded as Day Costello and his son took the surname as he launched his own music career at Stiff Records.
As Elvis Costello developed into one of the most acclaimed songwriters of his age, Ross MacManus did not bask in his reflected glory. This was partly a deliberate attempt to give his son an air of mystery. MacManus remembers telling his son: "Don't tell anybody that your dad sings with the Joe Loss Band because they'll discount what you're doing." His manager, Jake Riviera, didn't want anything known about him, which was good marketing as he appeared as a mysterious, angry young man. It was only later when New Musical Express published a picture from one of his publicity shots as Day Costello, looking like a long-haired version of his son, that the connection was made. Costello himself acknowledged his father's influence: "He taught me that when you get a rough throat or you're feeling low, never look up to a note, always look down."
MacManus played trumpet on two Elvis Costello albums: Out Of Our Idiot in 1987, on the song A Town Called Big Nothing and Mighty Like a Rose (1991) on the song Invasion Hit Parade. Later, in 2008, perhaps taking advantage of nostalgia for The Secret Lemonade Drinker, he released a CD entitled Elvis's Dad Sings Elvis with versions of most of the King's classics.
MacManus wa immensely proud of his son's songwriting success and picked out The Birds Will Still Be Singing from The Juliet Letters as a particular favourite. "I'd like that to be my epitaph" he said.
Ross MacManus married first to Lillian, with whom he had one son (Elvis Costello), who survives him. He then married Sara, who predeceased him. They had four sons who played together in the band called Riverway. They also survive him.

Ross MacManus, musician, was born on October 20,1927. He died on November 24, 2011, aged 84

[johnfoyle]

Thanks History!

MacManus played trumpet on two Elvis Costello albums: Out Of Our Idiot in 1987, on the song A Town Called Big Nothing and Mighty Like a Rose (1991) on the song Invasion Hit Parade. Later, in 2008, perhaps taking advantage of nostalgia for The Secret Lemonade Drinker, he released a CD entitled Elvis's Dad Sings Elvis with versions of most of the King's classics.

Correct, basically. This link is more specific.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... s_MacManus

Elvis's Dad Sings Elvis was first released c.1970

[Top balcony]

MacManus wa immensely proud of his son's songwriting success and picked out The Birds Will Still Be Singing from The Juliet Letters as a particular favourite. "I'd like that to be my epitaph" he said.

This is very touching, guess I'll always remember this song now as "one for Ross", RIP

Colin Top Balcony

[jardine]

It really is touching, isn't it, just even by itself as a an already-nostalgic image? But then as a son's song taken by his father as something to be remembered by, an epitaph. That is a real deep touch. Very beautiful all 'round.

My thanks and thoughts, then, to father and son.

[History History]

Obituary in The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... Manus.html

[watercamp]

Goodbye Mr. MacManus, thanks for the influence you had on Declan.

My sympathies to the loved ones.

[strangerinthehouse]

R.I.P. Mr. MacManus. My deepest sympathies to EC and all his relatives.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGGkCfWT ... r_embedded

DAY COSTELLO- The long and winding road

http://www.noise11.com/news/ross-mcmanu ... 4-20111129






Ross McManus, Father Of Elvis Costello, Dies At 84

by Paul Cashmere on November 29, 2011


Ross was also a musician. In 1950, he formed Ross McManus and his New Era Music. He started out as a trumpet player but soon became the lead singer.

In 1955 he joined Joe Loss and his Orchestra as the trumpet player. With Loss, he recorded ‘I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ under his own name. It flopped but was later a hit for Andy Williams.

Later he started to record under pseudonyms. His biggest hit was in Australia. In 1970 at the height of the record ban on radio in Australia Ross released a cover of The Beatles ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and had the hit with that song in Australia. At the time, radio was fighting with the record labels and for 18 months refused to play certain labels including EMI, the label that distributed The Beatles Apple Records. So more than 17 years before Elvis Costello had his first hit in Australia, Ross McManus had a hit with a Beatles song under the name Day Costello. (Costello was his mother’s maiden name).

[MOJO]

How can you not love Ross's style and obvious keen eye on what's going on or down around town. I dig Ross. RIP. We shared the same birth date, too.. Libra on the cusp... May he rest in peace. My condolences to the family. For in this time of distress, you will find comfort.

[ramalama]

The youtube clip of the 1964 NME Patsy Girl performance disproves the the singer-doesn't-dance theory from the "I Cant Stand Up For Falling Down" video.

[johnfoyle]

Another obit.-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obitu ... 70103.html

[charliestumpy]

Commiserations to all on their losses/goodbye to those departed.

[ice nine]

Sorry to hear this. Long live Ross.

[johnfoyle]

The Independent obituary says -

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obitu ... 70103.html


MacManus recorded for the budget labels Embassy, Cannon, Crossbow and Saga, covering hits under pseudonyms such as Hal Burton, mostly because he didn't want Joe Loss to know of his involvement.

A 2006 issue of Record Collector had this letter from Bob Lusty -

FROM McMANUS...

Your excellent feature, Before The Beatles (RC 326) was the best read I've had for a long time. I would, however, like to correct the Embassy part. It says that Ross McManus (Elvis Costello's dad), recorded under the names of Hal Burton and David Ross, but this is untrue. I have been compiling information on Embassy for several years now and have corresponded with and spoken to Ross, who denies having recorded for the label at any point. When I sent him tapes of the Hal Burton and David Ross recordings, it was the first he had heard of them. Even Johnny Gregory at Embassy could not place Ross McManus.

But Ross did record cover versions of the days hits for Crossbow, Rocket and Cannon, labels owned by Australian Allan Crawford. These included a cover of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's I Want to Stay Here by Hal Prince (Ross McManus) and Joan Baxter. Joan recorded for several labels, even recording the same song for different labels on the same day. She tells me they were great days.

Decide for yourself -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaJ9zcKaa3c

Hal Burton - Move It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KCjTKj10c


Hal Burton Rave On Embassy 1958


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae8qdINMa50

David Ross Wake Up Little Susie Embassy 1957

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VnQ3bqq ... re=related

David Ross - "The Garden Of Eden" - original 78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElrEAZs0 ... re=related

David Ross Diana 1957


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGl03QdzNEc

I WANT TO STAY HERE CANNON by JOAN BAXTER & HAL PRINCE



The obituary , by Spencer Leigh, refers to this interview he did with Ross in the 2001-

http://www.elvis-costello.net/articles/ ... is_dad.php


Ross MacManus - Elvis' Dad

BBC Radio Merseyside's Spencer Leigh has interviewed Elvis Costello's father, the dance band singer Ross McManus.

Can you take us right back, I know you were were born in Birkenhead, so can you tell us when that was?

That was on October 20, 1927. I was born in 338 or 328 Conway Street. They thought so much of me in Birkenhead they've knocked it down now, so my birthplace hasn't got a blue plaque on it.

Were you singing from an early age?

Yes I was. When I was 9 I used to sing with Mr Lowry from St. Thomas'. He was a tall, cadaverous man, always sucking a throat sweet, but he always had me next to him and we did complicated Requiem Masses. Only yesterday I did Kenneth MacDonald's funeral, Mike from 'Only Fools and Horses', and his widow wanted some Latin in the Mass. I did it from memory, so Mr Lowry's work was not wasted. Plainsong requires a very flexible voice and this has helped me a lot.

I first know of you getting involved in music with Liverpool jazz bands. Is that correct?

That's true and that's what I wanted to be. We had an orchestra at St Anselm’s College and I played violin, but it was no instrument for jazz, not withstanding Stephane Grappelli, Stuff Smith and the guys who played violin with Duke Ellington. I wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. I was in the RAF for two years in Egypt and I met Russ Shepherd who lived in South -East London and we got interested in be-bop. I borrowed my dad's trumpet but Dizzy Gillespie was too clever for me. I could do a fairly good Miles Davis who was less complicated but a great chooser of beautiful notes. We had a group in Birkenhead called Ross McManus and the New Era Music in 1950 and we were doing be-bop things, but it depended on my singing really. There was Bert Green on piano, Tony Edwards on bass, Frank Platt on drums and George Carroll on tenor. George was like Mr Toad. He would huff and puff. He was like a steam engine as a hissing noise would come out of it as if he was driven by steam. We did very well with the group. We played the Grafton and the Kingsland and the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton.

What strikes me as odd is that you made so few records under the name of Ross McManus, almost as though you didn't want hit singles. You recorded under all sorts of different names, for example, for the Embassy label. Was that deliberate or did it just happen that way?

Joe said that the Ross McManus name belonged to him. He would say, 'If you want to be a star, go off to the record company and be a star. If you want to work every night and get weekly wages for as long as you want, stay with me, but don't complain.


Don't hanker to be a solo star when I can give you regular employment.’ My income was very good and people would ask me to do sessions and Joe would say, 'Let me handle the money. Don't take any money from them. You go in, sing it and come out. Don't talk to them, I'll do that.’ Joe didn't want me to use the name of Ross MacManus because 'You have no contract with these things and if, by some remote chance, one of them should become a hit, you will have no control over it.' I did 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' for Dick Rowe at Decca under my own name, but Ivor Raymonde arranged it in the wrong key so instead of being able to sing like a black rhythm and blues singer, I sounded like Rolf Harris. It was way too deep but Dick Rowe said, 'Nobody's interested in you as a vocalist. I’ve given you the best song in the world and you haven’t done anything with it.’ A year later Andy Williams had a tremendous hit with it, but Decca hadn’t promoted my version at all.

You released a cover version of 'The Long and Winding Road' in 1970 under the name of Day Costello. How did that come about?

I did budget records for an Australian, Alan Crawford, and he wanted me to cover 'The Long And Winding Road'. He had Danny Street sing it for a budget record for Crossbow, and when Alan realised that the Beatles weren’t going to put it out as a single, he said that we should do it. He got hold of Danny Street’s backing track, but it had been charted too slowly, even slower than the McCartney version, and when it was reviewed on ‘Newly Pressed’, Johnnie Walker held it against me. It was one of those situations that seem to happen in England where the one guy who's supposed to plug it is on holiday and the other guy has the flu and there's no one to do the work and it didn't come to anything. It was a first class failure.

When Elvis Costello started having hit records, he didn't give many interviews, so people didn't know his background. When did the public find out that you were his father?

The Joe Loss Band was the Establishment, and the music.hacks always discounted everything we did. We were band singers as if this inhibited us from being able to do anything good. In fact we were better singers than the people that were in the groups, but they were younger. I said to Declan, 'Don't tell anybody that your dad sings with the Joe Loss Band because they'll discount what you’re doing."' His manager, Jake Riviera, didn't want anything known about him, which was good marketing as he appeared as a mysterious, angry young man. One day the NME found a picture of Day Costello where I had long hair, beautifully cut, and they thought at first that it might be Declan. I said it was me and the cat was out of the bag then.


You must be very proud of your son's songwriting. There are so many songs and so many styles.

Well, he's written the works of Shakespeare, hasn't he? It's a big thick volume, heavy with words and significance and meaning. He's written classical things and he's always seeking to push himself on. When he first started, he couldn't read or write music, but now he can, he can write his own musical scores for orchestras. It’s a very strange feeling because I have a feeling that fairies stole my little boy, Declan MacManus and brought me this genius in his place. He's not really my son. When I'm at the Albert Hall, I'm looking down and thinking, 'I don't believe this. That's him, isn't it?' I tend to do the gig with him, 'Oh, I wouldn't do that at that point. What he should do now is...' And so on. I can’t help myself.

It also strikes me that his voice has changed so much over the years. It is used to be angry and defiant, but now he can sing very sophisticatedly with Burt Bacharach.

He's a good singer. He has a terrific range. His voice is edgy sometimes but that's just him, that's his tone. I’ve just got the collected Billy Eckstine and you can criticize him for the wobbly vibrato and the swooping tones, but that's him. It's idiosyncratic, it’s the way they sing.

Do you have a particular favourite record of his?

Yes, I love 'The Birds Will Still be Singing' from 'The Juliet Letters'. I’d like that to be my epitaph.


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk

[johnfoyle]

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/announ ... _Macmanus/

Ross Macmanus

Published in the Your Local Guardian on 2 December 11

ROSS MACMANUS Passed peacefully on 24th November 2011 following a long illness. Loving Husband of Sara and greatly missed by Sons Declan, Kieran, Liam, Ronan and Ruairi, and his beloved Grandchildren Matthew, Finn, Dexter, Frank, Alice, James and Eibhlin. Funeral to be held on 9th December 2011 at St Mary's University College Chapel at 1.00pm. Family flowers only, but if desired donations to the Cure Parkinson's Trust c/o Wake and Paine, 31 Church Street, Twickenham TW1 3NR Tel: 020 8892 1784

[johnfoyle]

A blogger has reproduced these essential words -

[wardo68]

I had to look up "perspicacious". This is an essential document.