Dave Edmunds (born April 15, 1944) is a singer, guitarist and producer from Cardiff, Wales. Though he was primarily associated with pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the late 70's and early 80's, he was steadfastly devoted to pre-Beatles rock and roll. An infrequent songwriter, Edmunds has largely relied on cover songs or custom-written material to sustain his career.
In the late 1960s he led a blues-rock trio called Love Sculpture, who scored a quasi-novelty hit by reworking Khachaturian's classical piece "Sabre Dance" as a speed-crazed rock number. "Sabre Dance" became a hit after garnering the enthusiastic attention of British DJ John Peel.
After Love Sculpture split, Edmunds had a UK #1 single with "I Hear You Knocking", a Smiley Lewis cover. This single also reached #4 US the following year, making it Edmunds's biggest hit by far on either side of the Atlantic.
His only acting role followed, as a band member in the David Essex movie Stardust (1974 movie). After learning the trade of producer, culminating in a couple of singles in the style of Phil Spector, "Baby I Love You" and "Born To Be With You", he became linked with the pub rock movement of the early 1970s, producing Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe, and also The Flamin' Groovies, using a stripped down, grittier sound.
His own solo LP from that era, Subtle As A Flying Mallet, was similar in style. In 1977, the Brinsley Schwarz connection brought about a collaboration with Nick Lowe under the name Rockpile, with Billy Bremner and Terry Williams. For contractual reasons they could not record as Rockpile until 1980, but contemporary solo LPs (such as Nick Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' own Repeat When Necessary) were in fact group recordings. Dave Edmunds had more UK hits during this time, including Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk", Nick Lowe's "I Knew The Bride", Hank DeVito's "Queen of Hearts" (a song that later became a smash U.S. hit for Juice Newton), Graham Parker's "Crawling From The Wreckage", and Melvin Endsley's "Singing The Blues" (originally a hit for Guy Mitchell).
Unexpectedly, after Rockpile relased their first LP under their own name (1980's Seconds Of Pleasure), the band split, generally attributed to tensions between Edmunds and Lowe. Edmunds spent the 1980s collaborating with and producing an assortment of artists, from Paul McCartney to King Kurt, and from The Stray Cats to Status Quo. He recorded the soundtrack for Porky's Revenge, supplying the main theme, "High School Nights", and was the musical director for a television special starring Carl Perkins, with assorted guests including George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Rosanne Cash.
On his 1983 and 1984 releases, Information and Riff Raff, Edmunds collaborated on two songs with Jeff Lynne, the lead musician of Electric Light Orchestra. The former album produced Edmunds's only other US Top 40 hit, "Slipping Away", which just barely made the list at #39 and was not a hit in the UK.
Edmunds recorded less frequently after the mid 1980s, and now lives in Wales in semi-retirement, touring Scandinavia infrequently, after surviving a quadruple bypass several years ago.
Discography
as Love Sculpture:
- Blues Helping (December 1968)
- Forms and Feelings (January 1970)
as Dave Edmunds' Rockpile:
as Dave Edmunds:
- Subtle As a Flying Mallet (April 1975)
- Get It (April 1977)
- Tracks on Wax 4 (September 1978)
- Repeat When Necessary (June 1979)
as Rockpile:
- Seconds of Pleasure (October 1980)
as Dave Edmunds:
- Twangin' (April 1981)
- D.E. 7th (March 1982)
- Information (April 1983)
- Riff Raff (September 1984)
- I Hear You Rocking (June 1987)
- Closer to the Flame (April 1990)
- The Best of Dave Edmunds (March 1991)
- The Anthology: 1968-1990 (April 1993)
- Plugged In (August 1994)
- Hand Picked: Musical Fantasies (January 2000)
- A Pile of Rock: Live (September 2001)
- From Small Things: The Best of Dave Edmunds (April 2004)
- Alive and Pickin' (February 2005)
Preceded by:
Rolf Harris
Two Little Boys
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UK Christmas Number One single
I Hear You Knocking
1970
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Succeeded by:
Benny Hill
Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)
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Categories: 1944 births | Living people | Welsh musicians
