Jack Robinson (songwriter and music publisher)
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Jack Robinson, born January 17, 1938 in Seattle, Washington, is a songwriter and a music publisher. His father, Bert, was English, his mother, Rena, Canadian.
Jack grew up in a musical family : His father was an amateur violinist, his mother a professional singer. Jack's three uncles and his aunt were professional musicians. But Jack wasn't interested. He studied journalism and American literature at the University of Washington.
He began his professional career as a journalist in Seattle, then moved to Bellingham, Washington, San Francisco, California, Carson City, Nevada and finally, after serving in the Marines, Jack moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent with United Press International.
But music was in his blood. Jack became a disk jockey on Radio Luxemburg. He dropped his news work to become a professional manager (directeur artistique) in an American publishing company which, among others, had just signed The Rolling Stones and the Who. The job of a professional manager is to take songs from the publishers' catalog and to find new writers and present songs to artists and record producers. Soon Jack decided he would be a record producer. It was at that time he met and began working with Georges Chatelain who had formed the most advanced studio in France with Bernard Estardy. Chatelain took the time to not only explain the technical side of a studio, but most importantly showed Jack what worked and didn't work when recording. Jack Robinson, Georges Chatelain and Bernard Estardy went on to produce 7 top ten hits with their artists Gilles Marchal and Martine Habib.
Not satisfied with producing records in French, Jack co-produced a group of Americans in Paris named King Harvest that had been signed by producer Pierre Jaubert. Their recording of Dancing In the Moonlight became a top ten hit in America and has remained a standard for over 30 years. Dancing In the Moonlight has been the theme song for Fidelity Investments television commercials for three years.
In 1973 Jack founded Robin Song Music, his publishing company which is now in partnership with the French office of Peermusic. Jack went on to write lyrics to the music of French singer/ composer David Christie. Together their songs have sold more than 30 million records around the world. Their biggest hits: I Love to Love, (Tina Charles), Saddle Up * (David Christie), Strut Your Funky Stuff *: (Frantique), Do It Yourself (Gloria Gaynor), Do or Die (Grace Jones),Love Me Like a Lover and Rendezvous (Tina Charles), etc. Jack also wrote the original, English language lyrics to Princess Stephanie of Monaco's hit Irresistible.
( * : produced by Jack Robinson and David Christie).
Jack continues to write for artists such as his old friends The Gibson Brothers and newcomers like Thiae, a teenager from Madagascar, who is being groomed by American producer Michael McGregor, his current co-writer. On the agenda are a musical comedy and several album projects.
Jack has two grown children, both excellent pianists.
