LES VANDYKE PAGE

So who is Les Vandyke? Well, being an Adam Faith fan I was introduced to Les Vandyke as I started collecting Adam faith Singles many years ago. He had written many of Adam Faith's early singles and I liked his style of song, which was so right for the early sixties and gradually started checking my, then, vast record collection to see if he had written any more stuff. That led on to my  Eden Kane collection, Vandyke penning seven of his singles. So, I then started going to record fairs, boot sales and the like (This was all pre EBay) and I used to check early sixties records for any other Vandyke compositions. Gradually, my collection built up. Sometimes, I bought the naffest song going, but mainly I have picked up some little gems. I found that Les Vandyke had written songs performed by such big names as Petula Clark, Vince Hill, Engelbert Humperdinck, Anthony Newley, Bobby Vee & Many Others.

Having never been able to find a Les Vandyke discography, I may have some records in my collection that have been written by another composer of the same surname - hopefully, not all the little gems!! ☺The only ones I can be sure about are the ones that bear his full name of the label and not just "Vandyke".

Les Vandyke was the pen name of Johnny Worth and I also have records bearing HIS name in my collection. Although most of the songs here are from the early sixties, John Worth penned a 1973 Top 10 hit "Gonna Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse" for Jimmy Helms, and in the Eighties, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, who had achieved a number 1 hit with a remake of "It's my Party" in 1982 issued a cover of the 1960 Top 30 hit "Johnny Rocco" originally recorded by Marty Wilde and penned by Vandyke.

Below is a list of the Les Vandyke/John Worth songs in my collection. If there are any more Vandyke fans out there and they can tell me of any other compositions of his, or indeed if any on the list here are not his compositions, I would love to hear from you. After all, did my Les Vandyke REALLY write a song called "An Elephant's Looking At You"??????????????????

At the time of writing this, the Co-Writer section is incomplete.

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