Hit maker Albert’s Leip of faith

Music with Eddie Rowley

WHEN Joe Dolan had an international hit in 1969 with ‘Make Me An Island’ and performed the song on BBC’s Top Of The Pops, it brought a smile to the face of Albert Hammond.

The songwriter from Gibraltar had co-written the track that gave the Mullingar legend his first international hit. Hammond also cowrote Joe’s signature song, ‘You’re Such A Good Looking Woman’.

Hammond seemed to churn out hits at will in a remarkable career that has seen him notch up sales of 360 million records for himself as well as artists such as Leo Sayer (‘When I Need You’), Diana Ross (‘When You Tell Me That You Love Me’), The Hollies (‘The Air That I Breathe’), Whitney Houston (‘One Moment In Time’), Starship (‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’), Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias (‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’).

He had his first British hit song, ‘Little Arrows’, for Leapy Lee in 1968 at the age of 24. A few years later, Albert was celebrating his own Top 5 US hit, ‘It Never Rains In Southern California’.

At the age of 72, some artists would be hanging up their guitar and taking it easy, but Hammond still loves going out on the road performing the hits and he’ ll play Dublin’s 3Arena on Saturday, September 16. This ‘one night only’ show also features The Leipzig Symphony Orchestra and Singers.

Hammond is also about to release a new album, In Symphony, which features his remarkable hit songs lavishly adapted with orchestration and choir by award-winning producer Rob Mathes at the famous Abbey Road Studio.

Hammond, who lived rough and busked on the streets of Madrid as a teenager before getting his big break, still can’t believe his luck in making a living from music. Oh me, oh my!