“He” Is Mike Chapman, Writer, Producer Extraordinaire

From age 18 to 80 the fact that even novices of melody will recognize many of Mike Chapman’s songs, says a lot about his talent.

Mike Chapman (born in Queensland, Australia, April 13, 1947) is not just a record producer, but also a songwriter of major importance.

He has written and / or produced music with The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, The Knack, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Divinyls, Nick Gilder, Scandal, Billy Squier, Agnetha from ABBA, Lita Ford, Smokie and arguably most successfully, Blondie.

But it’s Chapman’s skill at songwriting that will remain his legacy.

Chapman’s early partner was Nicky Chinn. Chapman says Chinn handled the business aspects of the music, but received writing and producing co-credits on Chapman’s songs for “dotting the “I’s and crossing ‘T’s” through the 1970s. Chapman and Chinn do not speak anymore and he feels that Chinn used him.

From 1979 into the 1980s, Chapman’s true songwriting partner would be Holly Knight.

Here are seven of Mike Chapman’s biggest songs and his views on songwriting and the music business.

Sweet

The Chinn-Chapman team would first rise to prominence with The Sweet.

The best known Sweet song is Ballroom Blitz (1973). A year earlier in 1972, Sweet recorded “Little Willy” which reached #4 in England and #3 on the U.S. charts.

Eventually Sweet had their own ideas about what it meant to be a band and grew weary of singing Chapman penned tunes. Chapman and Sweet mutually split and Sweet would go on to record their own compositions. After the break, Sweet would have some hits of their own, though they never achieved the same popularity they previously attained with Chapman.

 

Suzy Quatro – Chris Norman

Is there a love song more evocative of the 1970s than Suzi Quatro and Smokie’s Chris Norman’s 1978 duet on “Stumblin In”?

Exile

“Kiss You All Over” by Exile is not a title you might recognize. But most music listeners know the song instantly. Its chorus refrain of “Till the night closes in” is what many listeners mistakenly believe is the actual title of the song. Lead singer Jimmy Stokely of the Kentucky based band was battling health issues and left the band soon after this huge hit. Tragically, Stokely died from a liver ailment in 1985 age of 41.

Toni Basil

An interesting point about Mike Chapman was that if a song didn’t do well on the pop charts the first time an artist recorded it, a song might be recycled by another artist. Many times the later version became a smash.

“Mickey”, a huge hit in 1981 for Toni Basil was originally recorded in 1979 by another Chapman  helmed band, Racey. Its original title was “Kitty.”

Huey Lewis and The News

Another example of, “if it first you don’t succeed,” is “Heart and Soul,” first recorded in 1981 by Exile, but the song made no impact. It took Huey Lewis and The News to bring the song to the top 40 charts in 1982.

Pat Benatar

With “Love Is A Battlefield”, Pat Benatar would hit number one on Billboard magazine’s  Mainstrean Rock chart in 1983. Chapman and Holly Knight wrote the song is a single day.

Benatar dramatically changed the demo she was given. Both Chapman and Knight hated the result and thought Benatar had ruined their song. Benatar’s record company, Chrysalis, assured Chapman and Knight that the song as recorded was going to do well.

Chapman still likes his demo, but admits he was wrong.

Tina Turner

Chapman and Knight’s song “The Best” was written for Paul Young, but Young’s manager rejected it. “The Best” was first performed by Bonnie Tyler in 1988 and did okay. Tina Turner’s 1989 version “The Best” was a worldwide hit.

Catching Lightning In A Bottle (Many Times)

While there will always be critics of writing pop rock, you cannot argue that it takes a special person to come up with a catchy melody and memorable lyrics. If you can do it once, you can achieve some sort of musical immortality.

Mike Chapman achieved dozens of hits, reaching the UK and US pop charts especially in the 1970s and continuing into the 90s.

But there was much scorn from critics, as Chapman acknowledges, “It’s complicated, the press are never kind to people who are having commercial success… which I condemn them for. I’m really not a fan of of the average pop journalist. They put my music down, they trampled all over it. They said it was the worst shit they’d ever heard.”

With over fifty top 20 hits written or produced in a period from 1970-1974 Chapman could afford to laugh all the way to the bank, “I was trying not to read the reviews,” he says, “you know, they were slamming me, they were telling me I was a waste of time and it’s crap and what is all this stupid music about.”

“I Write Hits”

There is some type of formula to a Mike Chapman song. Defining it is a bit harder.

A certain repetitiveness of quirky lyrics., lush harmonies, sometimes crunchy guitars and foot-tapping drumbeats and all done with the human touch and very clean production.

Chapman once said, “I do not write songs. I write hits.”

“I just don’t feel that I don’t have time to write songs. I’m not that kind of songwriter. I don’t sit down and go ‘hey man I’m going to write a song. Have you heard this? Hey listen to this.’ You know, I’m like, if it doesn’t sound like it’s got the possibilities of being a hit, then what’s the point of writing it?  Not every song I’ve written has been a hit. I haven’t written that many songs though and I’ve had 150 hits or somewhere in that region, so I think the batting average is pretty good.”

There are also people who complain that Chapman’s songs could have been done by anyone and the group presenting them was immaterial. That is debatable. One thing is not debatable and that is the variety of the groups that Chapman did have hits with.

Though Chapman did not write any of Blondie’s songs for Parallel Lines their 1979 breakout album, he did suggest recording Jack Lee’s “Hanging On The Telephone.” The band acknowledges Chapman’s contribution to their success mixing their punk attitude with a pop sensibility. As a taskmaster, Chapman made sure the band would play songs perfectly, having them do take after take and not settle for good enough as Blondie had done with their previous albums.

The Problem With Music Today

The music industry has changed drastically since Chapman’s pinnacle. Chapman still continues to write songs. But in all likelihood there will be no more Mike Chapman hits because the world has fundamentally changed in too may ways.

Chapman also knows knows that he would want to oversee the songs he writes…but he won’t.

In an interview with Matt Stocks, Chapman says, “I’m confronted by a music industry that I find appallingly distasteful. Artists who are disgustingly unappreciative. Millennials who haven’t got a fucking clue what they’re doing and think they’re entitled to everything in the world. Who have no respect for people from the past, even five years before their precious little lives began.”

“So I think the dilemma that I’m faced with now is a much greater one is that I don’t like the people in the business now. So even if they changed my songs now and I liked it I wouldn’t say I liked it, because I wouldn’t like them.  I think the personalities of people are sort of like the computers they make their music on.”

“…with no more record sales and this idiotic streaming concept where nobody actually owns a record anymore and they don’t even understand the concept of owning a record- the value of owning a record. Along with that has come this endless stream of kids in their bedrooms with their fucking laptops making this boring banal music with fucking loops and beats and everybody sounds as stupid as each other. Stop this nonsense. Please. Come on.”

“You know, we need a new fucking band with an attitude to come and kick everybody in the ass. You know, some of that great indie rock that’s out there that we never get to hear. Let’s hear it! We need to hear it. You know all these kids and bands –  they’re not getting a showing anymore because radio is…. dead.”