Quick Facts
Biography
John Barry Mason (known professionally as Barry Mason) (born 12 July 1935) is an English songwriter, grew up in the village of Coppull, near Chorley in Lancashire. A leading songwriter of the 1960s, he wrote the bulk of his most successful songs in partnership with Les Reed. Mason gained many gold and platinum awards for his work including five Ivor Novello Awards, the most recent of them in 1998.
Life and career
His songwriting credits included "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", "The Last Waltz", "Here It Comes Again", "I Pretend", "There Goes My First Love", "A Man Without Love", "Winter World of Love" "Now That You are Gone", "Rowbottom Square" and "Delilah".
His songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Dalida, P. J. Proby, David Essex, The Drifters, Rod Stewart, Petula Clark, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Fortunes, Charles Aznavour, Tony Christie, Mireille Mathieu, Barbra Streisand, The Dave Clark Five and Ashley Maclaine.
Mason and Reed wrote a song for Kathy Kirby, "I'll Try Not To Cry", as part of A Song for Europe 1965, the BBC's contest to choose the United Kingdom entry for that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Naples. The song was beaten by "I Belong". "The Last Waltz" became a million selling UK number one for Humperdinck in September 1967. In 1968, the duo scored another UK number 1 hit with Des O'Connor's recording of "I Pretend". Mason and Reed also wrote "Who's Doctor Who", a novelty song recorded by Doctor Who star Frazer Hines in 1967, but it failed to chart. They also wrote "Marching On Together" (aka "Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!"), the anthem of Leeds United F.C.
He was also the major songwriter for the English singer Declan Galbraith for his first album, Declan (2002), including the hit "Tell Me Why" (No. 29 in UK) and "Till the Day We Meet Again".
He founded his own publishing company, Barry Mason Enterprises Ltd.