Alan Merrill
| Alan Merrill | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Allan Preston Sachs |
| Born |
February 19, 1951 The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Glam rock, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards |
| Labels | RCA, RAK, Atlantic, Polydor |
| Associated acts | Arrows, The Lead, Vodka Collins, Runner, Meat Loaf, Rick Derringer. |
| Website |
Official website Alan Merrill fansite |
Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951) is an American vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model. In the early 1970s Merrill was the first westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan. He is the lead singer of the first ever released version and co-author of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by the Arrows in 1975.
Merrill is best known as a vocalist and songwriter but also plays the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica and keyboards.
Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs. He went to Aiglon College in Switzerland from age 9 to 13, a British boarding school. He started his semi-pro career in his mid-teens in New York City age 14 when he began playing in Greenwich Village's "Cafe Wha?" with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, and Watertower West. The groups played the club during the 1966-1968 period.
In 1968, Merrill auditioned for the New York band, the Left Banke. The audition was successful, but the band dissolved. Shortly thereafter, he left to reside in Japan, and started his professional career there with the band The Lead, on RCA Victor Records. The band was a foreign Tokyo-based act. The Lead had one hit single, "Akuma ga kureta Aoi Bara" (Blue Rose), but the project soon fell apart when two American members of the group were deported.
In 1969 Merrill signed a solo management deal with Watanabe Productions, who contracted him to Atlantic Records, and changed his professional surname from Sachs (pronounced sax) to Merrill because "Merrill" sounded less lascivious and was more commercially viable when spoken by young Japanese pop music fans. He recorded one album with Atlantic Records, "Alone in Tokyo" which yielded one hit single, "Namida" (Teardrops) and he became the first foreign domestic market pop star in the Japanese Group Sounds.
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