Barry Mason (1935-2021) *85

was an English songwriter. A leading songwriter of the 1960s, he wrote the bulk of his most successful songs in partnership with Les Reed. Mason gained many gold and platinum awards for his work including five Ivor Novello Awards, the most recent of them in 1998. Mason grew up in the village of Coppull, near Wigan in Lancashire. His songwriting credits included three UK Singles Chart number ones, "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", "The Last Waltz", and "I Pretend", as well as "Here It Comes Again", "There Goes My First Love", "A Man Without Love", "Winter World of Love" "Now That You are Gone", "Rowbottom Square", "Delilah", "Love Is All", and "You Just Might See Me Cry".

His songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Dalida, P. J. Proby, David Essex, The Drifters, Rod Stewart, Petula Clark, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Fortunes, Charles Aznavour, Tony Christie, Connie Francis, Mireille Mathieu, Barbra Streisand, The Dave Clark Five, Cliff Portwood, Malcolm Roberts, Our Kid and Ashley Maclaine.

Mason and Reed wrote a song for Kathy Kirby, "I'll Try Not To Cry", as part of A Song for Europe 1965, the BBC's contest to choose the United Kingdom entry for that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Naples. The song was beaten by "I Belong". "The Last Waltz" became a million-selling UK number one for Humperdinck in September 1967. In 1968, the duo scored another UK number 1 hit with Des O'Connor's recording of "I Pretend". Mason and Reed also wrote "Who's Doctor Who", a novelty song recorded by Doctor Who star Frazer Hines in 1967, but it failed to chart. They also wrote "Marching on Together" (aka "Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!"), the anthem of Leeds United F.C.. His last chart topping song was "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), for session group, Edison Lighthouse, in January 1970.

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