Johnny Keating

Died: May 28, 2015.

EDINBURGH-born Johnny Keating, who has died aged 87, was a composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor who had success on both sides of the Atlantic and has been described as perhaps the greatest modern musician ever to have come out of Scotland. Based mostly in London or Hollywood during his heyday ("From Holyrood to Hollywood," the media liked to say), he wrote the scores for movies including Hotel (1967), featuring the theme tune This Hotel, soulfully sung by Nancy Wilson. He also arranged songs for stars such as Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr and Tony Bennett, all regular visitors to his Hollywood home.

Tony Bennett once said Mr Keating's arrangement for his version of The Very Thought of You, written by Ray Noble, was the best arrangement he had ever sung to and modern music greats such as songwriter Burt Bacharach and the Beatles' producer George Martin called him one of the greatest all-round musicians of the 20th century.

In the UK, where he started off playing piano and trombone in several big bands, and ultimately fronted his own, Mr Keating's arrangements helped create pop hits for Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Helen Shapiro and Eden Kane (real name Richard Sarstedt). Kane's Number One smash hit Well I Ask You (1961) was created by Mr Keating and his long-time lyricist, collaborator and friend Johnny Worth, aka Les Vandyke.

Much to the Scot's irritation as a serious musician, however, his name became best known in the UK for his hit version of a simple Liverpool children's street song Johnny Todd which was the theme tune to the popular BBC TV police series Z-Cars (1962-78). The series itself used an earlier version, arranged by Bridget Fry and her husband Fritz Spiegl, but it was Mr Keating's which became a Top-10 hit much-loved, hummed and whistled by the British public. With its military drum rolls, siren-like flutes and piccolos and a jazz/rock beat, Mr Keating's version also became the anthem of Everton Football club, blasted out as the team emerges from the tunnel at home matches.

Mr Keating's family have been joined by more than 1,200 (and rising) Everton football fans and the Liverpool Echo newspaper in petitioning for a blue plaque to be placed in his honour on Edinburgh's Royal Mile where he was born. He himself was a lifelong Hibernian FC fanatic and, according to his family, asked to be buried wearing his Hibs club tie. He produced two songs for Hibs fans on a 1973 single, Hibernian (Give Us a Goal, Glory to the Hibees) on the A-side (written by Sheila Hart) and Turnbull's Tornadoes on the flip side, both recorded by the Hibernian football team of the time and reaching No. 14 in the UK charts.

Always moving ahead of the times, Mr Keating was perhaps the only musician to have had hits in the genres of swing, Big Band (with the Ted Heath Band and later his own Johnny Keating Sound), jazz, rock, pop, classical (with the London Symphony Orchestra) as well as progressive music as one of the first to experiment and improvise with a Moog synthesizer. Always a regular visitor back to Edinburgh during his years in Hollywood or London, he wrote a classical piece called Overture 100 Pipers and another titled Hebridean Impressions, which debuted at the Royal Albert Hall with Mr Keating conducting the Royal Philharmonic. He later recorded a modernistic electronic version of the same work with the Electronic Philharmonic Orchestra.

Another of his futuristic works, the 1972 album Space Experience, was so ground-breaking in its sound techniques (using amplified bass harmonicas and wordless voices) that Mr Keating had to swear his already much-trusted musicians to secrecy as to how the effects had been achieved.

Since he first saw the light of the Edinburgh day at 5.25 pm on September 10, 1927, John Keating was bound to have historic fame. He was born in Huntly House in Bakehouse Close, off the Royal Mile. It was a poorhouse when he was born but is now the magnificent Museum of Edinburgh. He is thought to have been the last person born in it. His father Jock was an orphan whose parents had been Irish catholic immigrants and who made a basic living as a street bookmaker. He married Edinburgh lass Esther Aitchison when she was 17. According to historians, Esther, Johnny Keating's mum, was distantly related to James Aitchison, a famous Edinburgh goldsmith who built Huntly House almost 500 years ago.

One of four children, young John went to St Ninian's primary school and St Anthony's secondary, both in Lochend, Edinburgh. Smitten by music from an early age, he taught himself piano and added the trombone to get into local big bands. He played trombone with the famous Tommy Sampson Orchestra ("Scotland's King of Swing"), notably at the Eldorado Ballroom in Leith and Edinburgh's Fountainbridge Palais, before being snapped up by the nationally successful Ted Heath Band. On "Britain's Tin Pan Alley" (Denmark Street, London), he got involved in the pop music scene and burgeoning rock 'n roll. One of his earliest songs was Emily, written for his wife (later better-known as Emma), but it was overshadowed by an unrelated song of the same name sung by Frank Sinatra.

Always faithful to Edinburgh and regularly visiting his parents in Portobello, he founded the Johnny Keating School of Music in the capital, which has turned out numerous successful musicians. He spent his retirement writing a comprehensive four-volume reference book Principles of Songwriting: A Study in Structure and Technique, a must-read for budding songwriters.

Having retired to Notting Hill, London, Johnny Keating died in Chiswick Nursing Centre, west London, after suffering from Lewy Body Disease (LBD, a form of dementia). His wife Emma (née Roberts, from Edinburgh) died in 1991. He is survived by their children Martin, Kevin and Jill - all now well-known musicians - three grandchildren Callum, Emma and Kevin, and his beloved siblings Eric, Moira and Pat.

PHIL DAVISON