Gerard Kenny

Gerard was born in New York on 8th July 1947 into a musical family. Already at an early age Gerard showed a love of the piano. He became a member of the group "The Pheatons" in the 1960s and by the 1970s, he had teamed up with lyricist Drey Shepperd producing the autobiographical songs "Son of a Song and Dance Man" and "Nickels and Dimes". An appearance at the New York nightclub Reno Sweeneys resulted in Gerard meeting Barry Manilow, who went on to record one of the songs Gerard performed that night "I Made It Through The Rain". Barry Manilow went on to record several more of Gerard's songs. In 1977, Gerard came to Europe and was invited to a birthday party for Dennis Waterman in London. Gerard's playing and singing attracted the attention of Jill Arlon and shortly afterwards her husband, Deke, became Gerard's manager. As a performer in his own right he hit the charts with "New York, New York (So Good! They Named It Twice)", "D-d-d-Dancing" and "Fantasy". His following was strengthened with the release of his three albums "Made it Through The Rain", "Living on Music" and "City Living". His songs were much sought-after, being recorded by artists such as Jack Jones, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Shirley Bassey, Sacha Distel and James Last. In 1981 Gerard received the Ivor Novello Award for the Best Television Theme Music for his song "I Could Be So Good For You" for the TV Series Minder (1979). In 1985 Gerard began working with the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and they wrote a lullaby for Prince Harry. They also worked on a stage musical version of "My Man Godfrey" based on the William Powell/Carole Lombard 1930s film but sadly Alan Lerner died whilst working on this musical. Gerard has scored other notable successes working together with other songwriters such as Lynsey de Paul (There's No Place Like London, Take Back Your Heartaches and Just A Little Time), Michael Leeson (No Man's Land, theme song from the Thames television series [error]) and Barry Mason (The Other Woman, The Other Man).