ROB DAVIS (UK)
ROB DAVIS (uk)
Davis received his first guitar when he was 11 years old and music became a central part of his life. He was a founding member of the successful late 1960s and 1970s glam rock band Mud. In addition to playing lead guitar, he wrote a number of the band’s songs. He wrote the band’s first single, “Flower Power” which was released in October 1967. His first and biggest songwriting hit with Mud was ”L’L’Lucy” which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1975. It became a bigger hit in both Belgium and the Netherlands, where it reached No. 1 for twelve and nine weeks, respectively.
Although Davis wrote many of Mud’s songs, he achieved songwriting success after the band disbanded. Following a chance meeting with Paul Oakenfold, in the late 1980s, he shifted genres from rock to writing club and dance lyrics. He would receive instrumental tracks from producers and incorporate lyrics. He started working with Coco Star, writing “I Need a Miracle” which was released in 1996 and re-recorded version released in 1997 peaked at #39 in the UK.
In 2000, he achieved his biggest commercial songwriting successes. Fragma’s ”Toca’s Miracle” became Davis’ first #1 hit and was a mashup of Davis-written “I Need a Miracle” by Coco and Fragma’s instrumental “Toca Me”. The song was released on 10 April and won critical acclaim, peaking at #1 in both the UK and Scotland. There have been multiple re-releases that have achieved chart success. On 14 August Spiller released ”Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”, on which he provided important lyrical support. The song reached #1 in five countries including the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It finished #8 on the UK 2000 year-end charts.
In their first songwriting session together, Davis and Cathy Dennis wrote ”Can’t Get You Out of My Head” for Kylie Minogue. Released in 2001, it was the first song to have 3,000 radio plays in a single week in the UK, reached #1 in all but one European country and sold over four million copies. Davis and Dennis received an Ivor Novello Award for composing the most performed song of the year. The song was originally intended for Sophie Ellis-Bextor, but she turned it down. Davis soon met Minogue’s A&R manager Jamie Nelson who liked it and wanted her to record it. While Minogue was not the original artist selected, Dennis believes Minogue was the best artist for the song. The two writers also teamed up to write Brooke Hogan’s single, ”Everything to Me”, in 2004. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Singles Sales chart.
In the Grammy Awards of 2004, Davis shared a Grammy with co-producer Philip Larsen (Manhattan Clique) and performer Minogue, for another Minogue single ”Come into My World”, in the category of Best Dance Recording. The song reached No. 4 in Australia while peaking at No. 8 in the UK.
Davis also worked with Jan Johnston and together they wrote six songs including ”Am I on Pause?”. His latest commercial works include co-writing for the song ”One Foot Boy” from Mika’s album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much.]
