Murray was the first of the two to have songwriting success. He wrote the song "How Do You Do It" in 1962, when he was 22 years old. Producer liked it so much that he gave it to the Beatles for their very first single. The Beatles recorded it, but they wanted to release one of their own songs instead, which they did with "Love Me Do." So the song went to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who took it all the way to Number One in the British singles chart in early 1963. I went with the Beatles version, even though it wasn't released until 1995.
Murray had more hits over the next couple of years, with many of them being recorded by "British Invasion" bands. In 1964, he wrote the popular book "How to Write a Hit Song." Sting of the Police, who was 12 years old at the time, loved the book and later said it inspired him to start writing his own songs. Murray also had a minor hit of his own, "Down Came the Rain," in 1965, under the name "Mister Murray." I didn't include it though because it's a novelty song that doesn't bear repeat listening. (The twist is that the verses are sung normally, but the choruses are sung in an unexpectedly strange voice.)
Meanwhile, Peter Callander trained to be a professional chef, but soon switched to songwriting instead. He began having musical acts record his songs starting in 1963, though he was less successful at first. He wrote some songs with Les Reed, another songwriter I mentioned above, until he met Murray in 1965. They mostly wrote together from that point on, with Murray generally writing the melodies and Callander the lyrics.
Their first big success together was "Even the Bad Times Are Good" by the Tremeloes in 1967. From that point on, they generally had at least one sizable hit each year, including some I didn't put here because I didn't like them so much. They finished strong, with two Number One hits in both the U.S. and Britain in 1974, "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy, Don't Be a Hero."
But their songwriting partnership seems to have ended shortly thereafter, and so did their success. I didn't find any songs they wrote after that point worthy of inclusion. The last song here, "A Fool Am I," is from 2004, and recorded by Agnetha Faltskog, one of the singers in ABBA. But it was originally a minor hit for Cilla Black in 1966. The other songs are all the original hit versions from 1974 or earlier, with the exception of the Beatles one I mentioned above.
Murray soon switched careers from music to comedy. He did comedy T.V. shows, funny voices for recordings, and gave humorous speeches. That last skill led to him writing several best-selling books about how to give funny speeches. He is still alive and 86 years old as I write this in 2026. I don't what happened to Callander after the 1970s. He died in 2014 at the age of 74.
Here are their Wikipedia pages:
and
This album is 51 minutes long.
01 How Do You Do It (Beatles)
02 I'm Telling You Now (Freddie & the Dreamers)
03 I Like It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
04 Leave a Little Love (Lulu)
05 I Love Her (Paul & Barry Ryan)
06 Even the Bad Times Are Good (Tremeloes)
07 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde (Georgie Fame)
08 Suddenly You Love Me (Tremeloes)
09 Hitchin' a Ride (Vanity Fare)
10 Ragamuffin Man (Manfred Mann)
11 Turn On the Sun (Nana Mouskouri)
12 Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast (Daniel Boone)
13 I Did What I Did for Maria (Tony Christie)
14 The Night Chicago Died (Paper Lace)
15 Billy, Don't Be a Hero (Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods)
16 Black Eyed Boys (Paper Lace)
17 A Fool Am I (Agnetha Faltskog)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/mP1ECLeF
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/gAMYG7WgvV5FX86/file
For the cover image, I found two photos of Murray and Callander together, in a recording studio in February 1968. I liked Murray from one and Callander from the other, so that's what I used. Callender is the one with the light colored shirt and blue tie.
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