B. A. Robertson
| B. A. Robertson | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Brian Alexander Robertson |
| Born |
12 September 1956 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Genres | Rock, pop, new wave |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Ardent Records, Asylum, Epic, Swansong Records |
| Website | Barobertsongs.com |
Brian Alexander "B. A." Robertson (born 12 September 1956) is a Scottish musician, actor, composer and songwriter. He had a string of hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s, characterised by catchy pop tunes and jaunty, humorous lyrics, most notably "Bang Bang", a tongue-in-cheek commentary on famous historical and fictional couples. He also wrote with Mike Rutherford the Grammy-nominated and Ivor Novello Award-winning "The Living Years". It was a number one hit in the USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland and reached #2 in his native UK. He has also written music for films and been a television presenter.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Robertson was educated at the former Allan Glen's School, Glasgow.
He released his debut album Wringing Applause, recorded with Terry Manning, on the Ardent Records label (also home of Big Star) in 1973, but it was to be a further six years until he found success in the United Kingdom chart.
Robertson had hits between 1979 and 1981 in the UK Singles Chart, the first of which – "Bang Bang" – reached number 2 in August 1979. Follow-up singles "Knocked It Off", "Kool in the Kaftan" and "To Be or Not to Be" reached chart positions 8, 17 and 9 respectively. All the singles came from his third album Initial Success, which reached number 32 in the UK Albums Chart. In 1981 he had his last Top 40 hit performing a duet with Maggie Bell, of a cover version of "Hold Me" which reached number 11.
He wrote or co-wrote "Carrie", "Hot Shot" and "Wired for Sound" for Cliff Richard and wrote "Language of Love" which Richard released as a B-side. Robertson also penned and sang the theme music to the television series Maggie and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop ("Hello, Hello"), and wrote and sang backing vocals for the Swap Shop spin-off group Brown Sauce's UK Top 20 hit, "I Wanna Be a Winner".
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