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MILESAGO - Producers & Engineers |
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Pat Aulton |
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It's safe to say that, in our 'target' period of 1964-75, Pat Aulton was Australia's top producer. Through his association with the Spin, Sunshine and Festival labels, Pat produced many of the most successful and important singles and albums of the period. This truly multi-talented individual began his musical career ca. 1960 when he joined Adelaide band The Clefs (led by Tweed Harris) as a singer. His singing ability and his dexterity on a number of instruments stood him in good stead in later years, and Pat contributed uncredited vocals, instruments, arrangements and even lyrics to many of the recordings, most of which he engineered himself. After several very successful years producing for the Spin and Sunshine labels Pat took up the position of house engineer/producer with Festival in 1966, just before they moved to new premises in the old Castrol House in Miller St, Pyrmont; there Pat oversaw the construction of Studio A and the installation of Festival's first 4-track recorder in mid-1967. He stayed with the company through its most famous and successful period, producung many more hit singles and albums, before leaving to work freelance in 1973. Pat's amazing CV includes all Normie Rowe's pre-1967 releases including his classic double A-side smash Shakin' All Over / Que Sera Sera -- still one of Australia's biggest selling singles ever -- Kahvas Jute's acclaimed Wide Open LP and the first two hit singles for Sherbet. Another career highlight fo Pat was Working On A Groovy Thing, the 1969 album recorded in Sydney by the legendary Neil Sedaka, which included his Aussie hit single Wheeling West Virginia. Neil had been a regular visitor to Australia with his popular cabaret shows, and had already recorded several tracks at Chequers in Sydney on an previous tour. His recording career had been in limbo (his RCA contract ended in 1965) although he did write successful tracks for other artists including The Monkees. But in 1968 he scored a surprise #1 hit here with the single Star Crossed Lovers, a song he had recorded in a tiny New York demo studio earlier that year. Encouraged by that response, he returned to Australia the following year and cut a full album and the single with Pat producing; itincluded a number of songs co-written with the later-to-be-famous Carol Bayer Sager. Pat also developed a very successful career writing and producing advertising jingles and TV themes. Among his famous creations are the theme for the ABC's long-running current affairs show THIS DAY TONIGHT, TAA's early-70s "Up Up and Away" jingle, the ALP's indelible It's Time theme song (probably the most successful political campaign song in history), and the perennial "Singapore Girl" jingle for Singapore Airlines (created in 1972 and in use ever since).
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| Known production credits 1964-75 |
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The Lost Souls (1966)
Normie Rowe & The Playboys (1965-66)
The Love Machine (1968)
The Dave Miller Set (1967-70) Why, Why Why / Hard Hard Year (1967) Hope
/ Havin' A Party (1968) Get Together / Bread and Butter Day (1968) Mr Guy Fawkes / Someone Is Sure To (1969) Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? / No Need To Cry (1970) All
songs released through Spin/Festival
ABC Television (1967)
Sherbet (1971)
Allison McCallum & others (1972)
Singapore Airlines (1972-present)
ABC Television (1975)
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