Mike Chapman facts for kids

Michael Donald Chapman (born on April 13, 1947) is an Australian record producer and songwriter. He was very important in the British pop music industry during the 1970s. He helped create many hit singles for famous artists. These included The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Mud, and Racey. He worked closely with his business partner, Nicky Chinn. Together, they created a special sound known as the "Chinnichap" brand. Later, Mike Chapman also produced successful albums for Blondie and the Knack. In 2014, he received a special award called the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his contributions.

Mike Chapman's Early Career

Mike Chapman was born in Queensland, Australia. He went to school at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane. Later, he moved to Britain. There, he joined a band called the Downliners Sect. In 1968, he became part of another group called Tangerine Peel. This group released an album in 1969. They also had several songs that almost became hits between 1967 and 1970.

In 1970, Mike met Nicky Chinn while working as a waiter at a London nightclub called Tramp. They quickly became partners in writing songs. They started working with producer Mickie Most at his record label, RAK Records. This label soon became home to many artists like Suzi Quatro, Smokie, and Mud.

Nicky Chinn remembered how they started:

We wanted to meet someone who was already making hit records. We didn't want to just play our songs to people who didn't know much about music. I found Mickie's home phone number. His wife, Chris, put him on the phone. I told him, 'We write hits, and it would be great to meet.' Mickie said, 'Okay, 11:30 tomorrow morning.' Mike played him some songs. Mickie didn't like any of them until the last one, which was "Tom Tom Turnaround." He gave that song to New World, and it became a Top 5 record.

Chapman and Chinn: A Hit-Making Team

From 1970 to 1978, Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn created many hit singles. Just between 1973 and 1974, they had 19 songs in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. Five of those songs even reached number one! Their success on the charts in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand lasted even after glam rock music became less popular. Their success slowly faded as bands like Smokie and Suzi Quatro became less popular.

Chapman had a lot of control over the music the bands produced. He decided what songs would be on their albums. Some bands didn't like this much control. For example, The Sweet, who preferred heavy rock, didn't like the pop songs Chapman gave them. They eventually decided to try making their own music. Chapman even offered a song called "Some Girls" to Blondie, but it was later given to Racey instead. Deborah Harry, Blondie's singer, once said Chapman was very strict about how things should be done.

Chapman continued to write hits. These included "Kiss You All Over" for Exile in 1978. He also wrote "Mickey" for Toni Basil in 1982. This song was a new version of "Kitty," which they had written for Racey in 1980.

In 1979, Chapman and Chinn started their own record label called Dreamland. However, it only lasted for two years. In 2014, Chinn and Chapman worked together again on a musical called Blockbuster. This musical used their songs. It was the first time they had spoken in 25 years.

Mike Chapman's Solo Production Work

Producing for Blondie

Nicky Chinn was not very involved in the actual music production. So, Chapman continued to produce music by himself after moving to the U.S. in 1975. In 1978, he produced Nick Gilder's City Nights album, which included the hit song "Hot Child in the City." He worked on this with Peter Coleman, his long-time recording engineer. In May of the same year, he started working with Blondie to record their third album in New York. Chapman liked their music but thought their previous albums could sound better. He told the band he would make them a hit record, and he was right! Their album Parallel Lines made Blondie famous around the world. It was also one of the biggest achievements in Chapman's career.

The Parallel Lines recording sessions lasted three months. Singer Deborah Harry was impressed by how hard Chapman worked. She said:

It was completely different from working with our previous producer, Richard Gottehrer. He was very relaxed, but Mike was very energetic and excited. Mike wanted every recording to be technically perfect, so we would record many times. Richard, however, always looked for the most inspired performance.

Keyboardist Jimmy Destri remembered:

He was a very good producer. He wasn't very technical, but he was very natural. He was also a great mixer on his own. He knew the sound board better than anyone I've ever seen. He would say things like 'Jimmy, if you turn off the lights, I'll be able to EQ (adjust the sound) by ear' without even looking! He taught me a lot about making records. Mike was like another member of the band at that point. He was really important. From Parallel Lines onwards, Mike was essential; we couldn't go into the studio without him. We all learned a lot from Mike about recording those albums.

Chapman used the same skills he had used for Smokie and Gilder's records. He created a more polished guitar and keyboard sound for Blondie than they had ever had. He also added layers of vocals. The most important song on the album, and the one that made them famous, was "Heart of Glass". The source of its strong disco beat is debated. Chapman said he created the sound after the band presented it as a slower, reggae-style song. However, band members say it was always known as their disco song. They claim they created the sound by combining ideas from Kraftwerk and the movie Saturday Night Fever.

Working with The Knack

Just a few months after Parallel Lines was released, Chapman worked with another band that would also achieve great success: the power pop group the Knack. The band's website mentions that in November 1978, 13 record companies were trying hard to sign the band. Capitol Records finally signed them. Many producers wanted to work with them, even Phil Spector.

The website explains:

Chapman read an article that listed the producers the band most wanted to work with. His name wasn't on the list. Feeling that this band could be a huge success, Chapman convinced them to let him produce their music. With the team ready, The Knack and Chapman went into the studio. They wanted to capture the energy of their live shows. While artists like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac were spending over a year and a million dollars to make an album, Get The Knack was recorded in just 11 days for only $17,000. The Knack played the songs "live" with very few extra recordings. Chapman mostly just pressed the record button and let the band play.

The album and the single "My Sharona" both reached number one in the US. They sold millions of copies worldwide. Their next album, ...But the Little Girls Understand, was not as successful. Chapman was credited as "Commander Chapman" on the album. In the notes, Chapman seemed to brag about the album, saying it was "very dear to me and my bank manager." This led to a big disagreement between the band and the producer. Chapman claimed the album hurt his reputation. He said that he and the band made the second album thinking they couldn't do anything wrong. He felt the singer, Doug Fieger, was too confident. Fieger, in a 1994 interview, said that Mike Chapman was difficult to work with and was not in good shape to produce that second album when they really needed a good producer.

More Albums with Blondie

Chapman produced three more Blondie albums: Eat to the Beat, Autoamerican, and The Hunter. He also produced most of Def, Dumb and Blonde, a solo album for Deborah Harry. In an article, Chris Stein from Blondie was amazed by Chapman's attention to detail. He noted that for the song "The Tide Is High," the percussion included "eight tracks of drum sticks tapping on a piano bench." He said:

Chapman would work late into the night over the sound board. People would be pushed against the back wall by how loud he played the music. Lots of Jose Cuervo Gold (a type of tequila) was consumed... Finally, the main recordings would finish, and we would move to another studio nearby. This move meant the final stage: vocals, extra recordings, and then orchestral horns and other sounds. This was Mike Chapman's special room. The control room was filled with a huge blue sound board connected to computers and other equipment. Here, the songs got their 'chrome' put on, meaning they were polished and perfected.

How Chapman and Chinn Wrote Songs

Chinn and Chapman wrote their songs very quickly. They often thought of and finished songs overnight. They said they created their songs by first thinking of a title. Then, they would write the lyrics around that title.

In a 2002 interview, Chapman said that writing hit songs is an art that many people want to do but few succeed at. He explained: "It's always a risk. We had written about eight top 10 hits for Sweet when we heard they had gone into the studio to record their own songs. After that, their success ended. The main point is this: writing songs might seem easy, but it's incredibly hard to do well."

However, The Sweet did have several major hits with their own songs, such as "Fox on the Run" and "Love Is Like Oxygen".

Chapman's Work in the 1980s and 1990s

Mike Chapman continued to be a popular songwriter and producer throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He wrote songs like "The Best" for Tina Turner (which was first recorded by Bonnie Tyler). He also wrote "Better Be Good to Me" and "In Your Wildest Dreams" for Tina Turner. For Pat Benatar, he co-wrote "Love Is a Battlefield". All these songs were co-written with Holly Knight. He also wrote Nat Allison's "Anyone for Tennis," which was used in TV ads for tennis coverage in Australia. Another song he co-wrote with Holly Knight was "Hands Tied" for Scandal, which reached No. 41 in the US.

Chapman also produced albums for many other artists during this time. These included Altered Images, Australian Crawl, Agnetha Fältskog, Scandal, Divinyls, Rod Stewart, Lita Ford, Pat Benatar, Baby Animals, Tami Show, Nervus Rex, Material Issue, and Bow Wow Wow.

Later Work and Recent Projects

In 1998, Mike Chapman co-wrote two songs for the group Ace of Base: "Always Have, Always Will" and "Whenever You're Near Me". He wrote these with Jonas Berggren.

Between 1999 and 2001, Chapman wrote and produced an album called Babyphetamine for a teenager named Erin Evermore. This album was released on the Tigerstar label.

In 2006, he wrote "Back to the Drive," which was the title track for Suzi Quatro's album Back to the Drive. In the album notes, Suzi Quatro thanked Chapman for writing the song and helping with the whole project.

In 2007, Chapman started working with a rock band from Los Angeles called the Automatic Music Explosion. The band's lead singer, Matt Starr, traveled to Chapman's home to try and meet him. This bold move worked! Chapman flew to Los Angeles a month later to see the band play live. He then agreed to produce their first album.

In January 2008, Chapman produced the single "Spin It" for the Neighborhood Bullys. In May 2008, he began mixing songs for Lisa Douglass's album Your Doll. In September 2008, Chapman met the band Haim and started producing an album with them. In November 2008, Chapman also began writing and producing a solo album for Sarah Jeanette, who is the singer for the Mulhollands. In November 2009, Chapman recorded the first album for the UK band the Arcadian Kicks, but it has not been released yet. Between 2010 and 2012, Chapman worked in London with Twigs (now known as FKA Twigs) and David Jordan. He is also writing and producing songs with the Australian singer-songwriter, Holiday Sidewinder. In 2016, Mike Chapman Publishing made a deal with Jeremy Lascelles' new company, Blue Raincoat Songs.

Hit Singles Produced or Written by Mike Chapman

Here are some of the hit songs that Mike Chapman produced, or wrote and produced, which appeared on the UK Singles Chart:

• 1971:

• New World: "Tom Tom Turnaround", "Kara Kara"
• The Sweet: "Funny Funny", "Co-Co", "Alexander Graham Bell"

• 1972:

• The Sweet: "Poppa Joe", "Little Willy", "Wig-Wam Bam"
• New World: "Sister Jane"

• 1973:

• Mud: "Crazy", "Hypnosis", "Dyna-Mite"
• Suzi Quatro: "Can the Can", "48 Crash", "Daytona Demon"
• The Sweet: "Block Buster!", "Hellraiser", "The Ballroom Blitz"

• 1974:

• Arrows: "Touch Too Much"
• Mud: "Tiger Feet", "The Cat Crept In", "Rocket", "Lonely This Christmas"
• Suzi Quatro: "Devil Gate Drive", "Too Big", "The Wild One"
• The Sweet: "Teenage Rampage", "The Six Teens", "Turn It Down"

• 1975:

• Mud: "The Secrets That You Keep", "Moonshine Sally", "One Night"
• Suzi Quatro: "Your Mama Won't Like Me"
• Smokie: "If You Think You Know How to Love Me", "Don't Play Your Rock 'n' Roll to Me"

• 1976:

• Smokie: "Something's Been Making Me Blue", "I'll Meet You at Midnight", "Living Next Door to Alice"

• 1977:

• Suzi Quatro: "Tear Me Apart"
• Smokie: "Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone", "It's Your Life"

• 1978:

• Suzi Quatro: "The Race is On", "If You Can't Give Me Love", "Stumblin' In" (with Chris Norman)
• Blondie: "Picture This", "Hanging on the Telephone"
• Exile: "Kiss You All Over"
• Racey: "Lay Your Love on Me"
• Smokie: "For a Few Dollars More", "Oh Carol"

• 1979:

• Blondie: "Heart of Glass", "Sunday Girl", "Dreaming", "Union City Blue"
• Suzi Quatro: "She's in Love with You"
• Racey: "Some Girls", "Kitty" (later rewritten as "Mickey" for Toni Basil)
• The Knack: "My Sharona" (producer only)

• 1980:

• Blondie: "Atomic", "The Tide Is High"
• Suzi Quatro: "Mama's Boy" (producer only), "I've Never Been in Love" (producer only)

• 1981:

• Blondie: "Rapture"
• Exile: "Heart and Soul" (Co-written with Nicky Chinn) – Later covered by Huey Lewis and the News.

• 1982:

• Toni Basil: "Mickey"
• Blondie: "Island of Lost Souls", "War Child"

• 1983:

• Agnetha Fältskog: "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" (sole producer and co-written with Holly Knight)
• Altered Images: "Don't Talk To Me About Love" (sole producer only), "Love To Stay" (sole producer only)
• Bow Wow Wow: "Do Ya Wanna Hold Me" (sole producer only)
• Huey Lewis and the News: "Heart and Soul"
• Pat Benatar: "Love Is a Battlefield" (co-written with Holly Knight)

• 1984:

• Tina Turner: "Better Be Good to Me" (co-written with Holly Knight)

• 1985:

• Pat Benatar: "Invincible" (sole producer)

• 1986:

• Device: "Hanging on a Heart Attack" (sole producer and co-written with Holly Knight)

• 1988:

• Bonnie Tyler: "The Best" (co-written with Holly Knight), later covered by Tina Turner

• 1989:

• Tina Turner: "The Best" (co-written with Holly Knight), also reissued in 1993

• 1995:

• Smokie featuring Roy 'Chubby' Brown: "Living Next Door to Alice" (a funny version).

• 1998:

• Ace of Base: "Always Have, Always Will" (co-written with Jonas Berggren), "Whenever You're Near Me" (co-written with Jonas Berggren)

Awards and Recognition

Queensland Music Awards

The Queensland Music Awards (also known as Q Song Awards) are yearly awards that celebrate talented new artists and famous musicians from Queensland, Australia. They started in 2006.

See also

In Spanish: Mike Chapman para niños