Michael Peter Hayes (20 June 1938 – 30 May 2003), known as Mickie Most, was an English pop singer and record producer.
Born in Aldershot, the son of a regimental sergeant-major, Most left school at 15 and broke into Britain's fledgling 1950s rock 'n' roll scene as a member of the Most Brothers, who regularly played the Two Is coffee bar in London, a popular place for emerging rock acts. The Most Brothers enjoyed UK success with It Takes A Whole Lotta Loving To Keep My Baby Happy; then quickly faded. Changing his name to Mickie Most, the singer followed his wife Christine back to her native South Africa in 1959, and found pop stardom there, fronting The Playboys and scoring 11 consecutive No 1s with covers of contemporary American songs.
Most returned to England in 1962, but after scoring only one minor hit with Oh Mr Porter, he realised that he was unlikely to succeed. So he turned to other areas of the music industry. Initially this involved selling records in supermarkets and petrol stations, placing his discs in strategically placed racks (he named his company RAK). When this looked to be less than lucrative, he decided to start producing pop records.
Most was both talented and incredibly lucky - seeing Newcastle rhythm and blues outfit the Animals at London's Crawdaddy Club, he signed them to EMI with the proviso that he was their producer. Their debut single, Baby Let Me Take You Home, was only a minor hit, but the follow-up, House Of The Rising Sun, a powerful and brooding interpretation of a Josh White blues song that they released in the summer of 1964, proved an instant classic and topped both the UK and US pop charts.
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| Donovan & Most |
Most won a Grammy at that year's awards and the groups he produced would be at the helm of the British invasion that dominated the US charts for the next two years. His talent was in understanding what constituted a good song and how to create an arrangement that was distinctive on radio. He created the careers of Donovan, Lulu, the Nashville Teens and the Animals - all of whom enjoyed international success while Most was producing them.
Yet Most's most phenomenal success was with the lightweight Manchester act Herman's Hermits. The band's manager Harvey Lisberg presented the Hermits to Most in 1964. Most thought that the group's singer Peter Noone resembled a young John Kennedy, and agreed to sign them. He chose their material and by 1965 Herman's Hermits were challenging the Beatles as the world's most popular band, selling over 10m singles and albums over a 12-month period - all produced by Most.
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| L-R: Lulu, Most, Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, Lek Lekenby & Peter Noone |
Most did not adapt well to the new mood that entered rock music in the late-1960s: the Animals fired him in 1965, saying that he forced "too commercial" material on them. Then, having launched Jeff Beck's solo career in 1966 with Hi-Ho Silver Lining, his production of the Yardbirds 1967 album Little Games was a disaster. The band would soon evolve into heavy rock superstars Led Zeppelin, yet Most forced them to record Ten Little Indians and other lightweight fare. Aware that his tastes were not in tune with rock fans, Most stuck with producing pop - much of which critics dismissed as "bubblegum" - for the rest of his life.
In 1969 Most created RAK Records and RAK Music publishing. He and infamous rock manager Peter Grant formed RAK Management, which developed Led Zeppelin and Bad Company into two of the world's most popular rock bands. In the early 1970s, RAK Records scored consistent UK hits with the likes of The Sweet, Smokey, Mud and Suzi Quatro, while working with the songwriting/production team Chinn and Chapman. Meanwhile, Most's brutally honest assessments of new talent on the ITV variety show New Faces made him a household name.The longest-lasting RAK group was Hot Chocolate, a multiracial band whose hits included Every One's A Winner and You Sexy Thing.
The 1980s found Most scoring hits less often, and by 1983 RAK was sold out to EMI. In 1995, Most's fortune was estimated at £50 million and he appeared in The Sunday Times annual Rich List among the Top 500 in England. His house, Montebello, in Totteridge Lane, London, was claimed to be the largest private home in the UK, worth an estimated £4 million. His production work diminished after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2000.
(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)