SONGWRITER
“Songwriting has always been the bedrock of what I do. When I perform, it’s almost always my own songs; recording or live. It’s the beginning of the process that then sets off arranging, producing, conducting, singing or working with another artist. I began writing when I was about 15 in 1965 but didn’t have a hit as a songwriter writer until the Wombles in 1973, when eight hits in a row happened in the space of a year and a half! So those songs have to go into my list and I’m proud of them.
Although people tend to think of me as a composer first and foremost (because of my arranging/conducting, and orchestral leanings) I think of the lyric as being if anything even more important than the melody. To me you don’t have a song until you know what it’s about and how it’s being expressed in words. I rarely if ever write a tune first. Maybe for a movie. But even then I know what it’s about. The lyric is pivotal and I like to think that f I didn’t compose, people would hire me solely as a lyricist, because I don’t think my lyrical skills are inferior to my musical ones. But I guess that’s for others to judge. I have collaborated (with Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber and even ABBA’s Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, albeit the latter remotely, adding lyrics for a musical) but I do not enjoy the process as much as I enjoy writing the complete song myself. It’s partly to do with self-expression and partly because if I control the music and the lyrics I can make them fit together more interestingly, and , incidentally, write more quickly”
a SELECTION OF Songs(Random order):
All songs Music/lyrics by Mike Batt (except “A Winter’s Tale Music by Mike Batt, Mike Batt/Tim Rice)
Bright Eyes (Art Garfunkel) – No 1 in 6 countries (for the Motion Pictutre “Watership Down”)
The Closest Thing To Crazy (Lead track on Katie Melua “Call Off The Search” No 1 album)
Nine Million Bicycles (Lead track on Katie Melua 2nd album“Piece By Piece” - International Number 1 album)
“I Will Be There” Katie Melua (streaming hit single commissioned by Buckingham Palace for The Queen’s Coronation 50th Anniversary
A Winter’s Tale David Essex, #2 UK single in 1982 (Music MB, lyric co-written MB with Tim Rice)
Blame It On The Moon (Katie Melua, Ana-Maria Kauffmann)
Tiger In The Night (Colin Blunstone), from the movie “Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Mary Pickford (Katie Melua) Lead track on “PICTURES” - International #1 album)
Idiot School (Katie Melua) from KETEVAN album
Never Felt Less Like Dancing (Katie Melua) from KETEVAN album
Summertime City (Mike Batt) #4 UK singles chart 1976
I Watch You Sleeping (Mike Batt)
The Ride To Agadir (Mike Batt) European hit single from “SCHIZOPHONIA” sol album
The Winds Of Change (Mike Batt) European hit single from “WAVES” sol album
Lady Of The Dawn (Mike Batt) European hit single from “TAROT SUITE” solo album
Railway Hotel (Taken from Schizophonina album)
Imbecile (Roger Chapman from Tarot Suite)
Run Like The Wind (Roger Chapman from Tarot Suite)
Caravan Song (Barbara Dickson) - single version
The Walls Of The World (Taken from Schizophonia)
Better Than A Dream (Taken from Dreamstone album)
If The Lights Go Out (Katie Melua)
Please Don't Fall In Love (Cliff Richard)
I Feel Like Buddy Holly (Alvin Stardust)
WOMBLE SONGS (SHORT SELECTION):
The Wombling Song [Underground, Overground] – (The Wombles)
Remember You’re A Womble (The Wombles)
“Wombling Merry Christmas” (The Wombles)
Minuetto Allegretto (The Wombles)
Wombling White Tie And Tails (The Wombles)
The Womble Shuffle (The Wombles)
Nashville Wombles (The Wombles)
The Myths And Legends Of King Merton Womble And His Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (The Wombles)