Mark Wirtz

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Mark Wirtz bigraphy, stories - French record producer

Mark Wirtz : biography

September 3, 1943 –

Mark P. Wirtz is an Alsatian born (September 3, 1943 in Strasbourg) pop music record producer, composer, singer, musician, author, and comedian. As a producer, Wirtz’s most famous output is from the mid to late 1960s, when he worked at Abbey Road Studios with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, under contract to EMI. Wirtz is chiefly known for the never-completed A Teenage Opera concept album, from which only four songs were ever finished before a concerned EMI pulled the plug on the project. (RPM, with Wirtz’s direct involvement, pieced together all surviving songs from the unfinished project and issued it on CD. Another track by Wirtz, ‘A Touch of Velvet, A Sting of Brass’ under the name Mood Mosaic, became well known in Germany as the theme tune for Der Musikladen and was used by some radio stations and DJs in the UK as ident. notably Dave Lee Travis on Radio Caroline.

His signature style has been described by Mojo magazine as "Phil Spector scoring Camberwick Green", a sound most perfectly encapsulated on Wirtz’s masterpiece, "Grocer Jack (Excerpt from A Teenage Opera)". This 1967 hit single is a densely orchestrated psychedelic marvel, which tells the whimsical and sad tale of an old man ("Grocer Jack"), who dies unappreciated, except by the children who loved him and miss him. The completed Teenage Opera songs all feature similar themes, usually based around elderly craftsmen carrying on with their outdated traditions (a weatherman, a steam train driver) to the ambivalence – and sometimes ridicule – of the community. The project has been likened to a British SMiLE, due largely to its near mythical status as a "lost" masterwork, but also because of the singularity of its creator’s strange and magical vision.

Wirtz was married to singer Ross Hannaman for a period of time. Together, they wrote and recorded the song "Barefoot and Tiptoe" under the name The Sweetshop, erroneously believed to have been from A Teenage Opera. Wirtz and Hannaman divorced in 1969, at which time Wirtz teamed up with poetry writer Maria Feltham to record Wirtz’s concept album, Philwit and Pegasus, for composer Les Reed’s Chapter One label. In 1970, Wirtz left London for the United States where, based in Hollywood, he joined fellow UK expatriate producer Denny Cordell at his Shelter Records company as associate producer and engineer.

Mark Wirtz began his music career while studying art at London’s Fairfield College of Arts and Sciences. A friend, with whom he was sharing a flat in neighbouring Wallington, recalls those days: "Three things already stood out in him at the age of seventeen: his prodigious talent as an artist – he could paint original work in the style of any of the grand masters; his natural ability as a musician – he could pick out any tune on the piano by ear; and his zany sense of humour – he idolized the comedian Jerry Lewis."

He studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, when his college rock band, The Beatcrackers, were signed to a recording contract in 1963 as Mark Rogers and the Marksmen by EMI producer Norman Newell. By 1965 Wirtz had started his first independent production company, releasing records that have since become enduring classics.

In 1967, Wirtz accepted EMI veteran producer/A&R chief Norrie Paramor’s offer to join EMI Records as in-house producer. Working at Abbey Road Studios alongside the Beatles and Pink Floyd (the latter whom he was instrumental in signing to the company), Wirtz wrote and produced landmark recordings by artists such as Keith West, Tomorrow, and Kippington Lodge. Most notably, he reached global success with his production of excerpts from the first ever Rock Opera, A Teenage Opera. Though never allowed to be completed or released as an entire work, the opera’s excerpts "Grocer Jack," "Sam," "Weatherman," and "Theme" became legendary trail-blazers, which have not only captivated several generations of music fans, but influenced and inspired artists and musicians worldwide.