COLLABORATIONS

The following list of collaborations only comprises songs that have been recorded. The list of songs which have never seen the light of day and probably never will is infinitely longer, too long to include.  Denis King

Kings Comment

ALAN AYCKBOURN

DON BLACK

SAMMY CAHN

  • TWO’S COMPANY - Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden 1976 - click here

SID COLIN

  • THE BEST OF EVERYTHING - D. King Big Band 1985 - click here

ALBERT FINNEY - click here

  • BUT I WAS A CHILD
  • I’D LIKE IT TO BE ME
  • CRAZY SONG
  • WHEN IT’S GONE
  • WE’LL BE OKAY
  • HOW DO YOU KNOW?
  • THOSE OTHER MEN
  • THEY SAY
  • WHAT HAVE THEY DONE (TO MY HOME TOWN)?
  • THE BIRD OF PARADISE
  • THE STREAM OF LIFE
  • A STATE OF GRACE

BENNY GREEN

WILLIS HALL

JOHN JUNKIN

DENIS KING

HERBERT KRETZMER

PETER NICHOLS

JACK ROSENTHAL

MYLES RUDGE

BILL SOLLY

MARY STEWART-DAVID

  • STEPPING OUT - THE MUSICAL aka ONE NIGHT A WEEK - click here

DICK VOSBURGH

PETER WILDEBLOOD

KEITH WATERHOUSE (& WILLIS HALL)


KINGS’ COMMENTS:

I came home from the school run one day to find Denis standing on the stairs just inside the front door, holding a big brown envelope. 

“What are you doing?”  

“Waiting to be disappointed by my PRS check,” he said. “I can’t decide if I want breakfast first.”

PRS stands for Performing Rights Society and is money, royalties you get from composing. When you write a piece of music you register it with PRS and they keep track of what’s being played where, by whom, all over the world, twenty-four hours a day. I have an image of little old ladies in earphones sitting at desks in wooden huts with pencils poised saying, “Golly, this sounds like one’s of Den’s--have a listen here, Grace.”

 


How it works is four times a year a big envelope, now white, containing a computer print-out arrives, and you stare at it until you get the courage to open it. The big hope is the world can’t get enough of the 52 episodes of “BLACK BEAUTY” and then we can have the hall painted or buy a new washing machine pump or other girly frivolous things, but usually you tear it open to find there’s twenty-six pence coming from a song Den doesn’t even remember writing, having had one play on Radio Malta. He also seems to be popular in Chad.

Then there’s something called MCPS, known as mechanicals, which is something that’s been explained to me, but not very well, all I know is once instead of thirty pounds we got eight thousand for Den’s TV series “SMUGGLER” being shown in Germany. Nothing since, but you don’t want to call and check in case they added wrong.  Astrid King

Fact of the Day
Denis worked with Sir John Betjeman, who was asked to write a lyric for a TV theme of Denis' but the partnership was shortlived as after two months Sir John had only come up with four words, but apparently they had a good lunch together.
Listening Post
Twice Nightly