Rod Temperton
| Rod Temperton | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Rodney Lynn Temperton |
| Born |
9 October 1949 Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | Late September / early October 2016 (aged 66) London, England |
| Genres | R&B, funk, disco, soul |
| Occupation(s) | Songwriter, record producer, musician |
| Instruments | Keyboards |
| Labels | Warner/Chappell |
| Associated acts | Michael Jackson, Heatwave, Quincy Jones |
Rodney Lynn "Rod" Temperton (9 October 1949 – September/October 2016) was an English songwriter, record producer and musician. He initially made his mark as the keyboardist and main songwriter for the 1970s R&B, funk and disco band Heatwave, whose hit songs included "Boogie Nights" and "Always and Forever".
After being recruited by producer Quincy Jones, he wrote several internationally known songs performed by Michael Jackson, including "Thriller", "Off the Wall" and "Rock with You". He also wrote George Benson's hits "Give Me the Night" and "Love X Love", and Patti Austin and James Ingram's US number one hit "Baby, Come to Me", among many others.
Temperton won a Grammy Award in 1991 for his work on "Birdland", from Quincy Jones's album Back on the Block.
Rodney Temperton was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, on 9 October 1949. Interviewed for the BBC Radio 2 documentary "The Invisible Man: the Rod Temperton Story", Temperton said that he was a musician from an early age: "My father wasn't the kind of person who'd read you a story before you went off to sleep – he used to put a transistor radio in the crib, right on the pillow, and I'd go to sleep listening to Radio Luxembourg and I think that had an influence". Temperton attended De Aston Grammar School, Market Rasen and he formed a group for the school's music competitions. He was a drummer at this time. "I'd get in the living room with my snare drum and my cymbal and play along to the Test Card, which was all kinds of music they'd be playing continuously." On leaving school he started working for Ross Frozen Foods in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
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