[Dixielandjazz] Ken Barnes R.I.P. - Producer for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire

[Robert Ringwald]

Ken Barnes


Producer for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire


Ken Barnes was a British record producer and songwriter who worked with some of the biggest names in American music, including Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mercer and Peggy Lee. His productions sold more than five million records and earned numerous silver, gold and platinum discs.


After arriving in London from his native northeast in the 1960s, he took a job in marketing, first with Polydor and then Decca. He moved into production and wrote several books about the music he loved, including Sinatra and the Great Song Stylists (1972).


Not having the opportunity to work with “Ol’ Blue Eyes” was the greatest regret of his career. There were plenty of compensations, such as in 1974 when Barnes persuaded the veteran composer Johnny Mercer to record two albums of his own songs, drawn from his back catalogue and including versions of such classics as Moon River and That Old Black Magic.


The albums were a fitting coda to Mercer’s long career -- he died two years later -- and impressed Bing Crosby. Barnes was summoned to the singer’s California estate and made to wait. It was worth it. Barnes went on to produce the singer’s final six albums and co-wrote several songs for him, including Top Billing, Déjà Vu (As Tho’ You Never Went Away), Seasons, On the Very First Day of the Year and That’s What Life is All About.


Kenneth Valentine Barnes was born in Middlesbrough in 1933. After leaving school and doing National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals, he trained as a draughtsman. Eventually, he put away his drawing board for ever and headed to London.


His books included 20 Years of Pop (1974), The Crosby Years (1980) and The Sea Dogs (2014) -- a novel inspired by early swashbuckling movies.


He wrote more than 90 scripts for the BBC including sketches for Roy Hudd, Les Dawson and Peter Sellers, whose humour he loved, although Barnes complained that Sellers “was always deviating from the script”. He also wrote the script for a television documentary, Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s On Me (2009), which was produced by Clint Eastwood. Barnes is survived by his wife, Anne, to whom he was married for 41 years.


One of the albums he produced for Crosby was a collection of duets with Fred Astaire. When Astaire was asked by Barnes to include a short sequence of tap dancing, the Hollywood great, who was in his mid-70s, told the producer, “No way”. Barnes, after attempting an unconvincing few tap steps himself, told Astaire: “It’s no use. But somebody’s feet have got to be there. And if I get someone like Lionel Blair to do it, they’ll have an after-dinner story of ‘how I did Fred Astaire’s dancing for him’.” Astaire admitted defeat, called him a “son of a gun” and danced.

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Ken Barnes, record producer, was born on February 14, 1933. He died on August 4, 2015, aged 82

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