Les Vandyke

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Les Vandyke (born Yani Panakos Paraskeva Skoradalides, 21 June 1931, in Battersea, South London, England) was a popular singer/songwriter in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also known as Johnny Worth, and John Worsley.

[edit] Career

In his youth he was usually known as John Skoradalides. After schooling, he began work as a draughtsman prior to his compulsory two years national service. Returning to civilian life, he determined to become a singer, changing his name for the purpose to Johnny Worth.

He worked in pubs as a semi-professional until he managed to secure a television appearance. Watching was the wife of well-known bandleader Oscar Rabin, and Worth was signed to the band, with whom he remained for five years, making a number of recordings for Oriole Records and Columbia Records. He also recorded for the Embassy Records label, which produced cheap covers of popular hits, usually sold through Woolworth's stores. He then joined The Raindrops vocal trio, which appeared on the television programme (and subsequent LP) Drumbeat. It was on this show that he met Oscar-winning composer John Barry, with whom he was soon to work, and the singer Adam Faith.

Worth had aspirations to be a songwriter, and though initial attempts had failed, he asked pianist Les Reed to arrange a demo of his song "What Do You Want". Faith and Barry liked it, and with Barry's arrangements, Faith took the song to Number one in the UK Singles Chart in November 1959, within which it remained for 19 weeks. Worth's concern was that as he was still signed to Oriole, he should adopt a pseudonym, and combined Reed's first name with his own telephone exchange, to become Les Vandyke.

He provided Faith with his follow-up number one "Poor Me", in January 1960, and for the next two years penned a further six Top Ten British chart hits for Faith: "Someone Else's Baby"; "How About That"; "Who Am I"; "The Time Has Come"; "As You Like It" and "Don't That Beat All". Worth also wrote another chart-topper "Well I Ask You" for Eden Kane, a pseudonym for Richard, the eldest of the three Sarsted brothers.

By 1965 Vandyke was working in Australia, writing songs such as "Doin' The Mod" for The Flies, and "Dance Puppet Dance" for Little Pattie, which reached number twelve in the Sydney based pop charts. He also wrote music and songs for a number of low-budget movies during the sixties and seventies, including What a Whopper (1961 as Johnny Worth); The Kitchen (1961); Mix Me a Person (1962, as Johnny Worth); Some People (1962 as Johnny Worth - lyricist); Johnny Cool (1963 as Les Vandyke); Psychomania (1971); and The Playbirds (1978).

Over the years Vandyke has penned songs that were recorded by various artists, including Petula Clark, Vince Hill, Engelbert Humperdinck, Anthony Newley, Bobby Vee, Marty Wilde, Bobby Rydell, Jimmy Justice, John Leyton and many more.

Vandyke penned more big hit records in the early 1970s. These included writing the 1971 British Eurovision entry for singer Clodagh Rodgers, "Jack in the Box", which reached number 4 in the UK chart in March of that year. In addition, he wrote "Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse", a number 8 UK hit in 1973 for the American singer, and one-hit wonder, Jimmy Helms.