Tony Burrows


Anthony Burrows is an English session pop singer and recording artist.

Career

Burrows was born in Exeter, Devon. In the early 1960s, he was a member of The Kestrels, a vocal harmony group which also included the future songwriting team Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook. Subsequently he joined The Ivy League, and was still with them when they metamorphosed into The Flower Pot Men. The Flower Pot Men had only one hit, "Let's Go to San Francisco", which reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1967. Two founding members of Deep Purple, Jon Lord and Nick Simper, were also part of this early band.
Later, Burrows sang the lead vocals on several other one-hit wonder songs under different group names, Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows " ; White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'" ; The Pipkins' novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding" ; and The First Class' "Beach Baby". He also sang lead vocals on The Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand", which reached #10 on the UK charts and also reached #13 in the U.S.
A published interview with Burrows claims that he became the first recording artist to appear on BBC Television's Top of the Pops fronting three different group acts appearing almost sequentially in a single broadcast show: Edison Lighthouse, White Plains, and Brotherhood of Man. However records show that this did not happen. He did, however, have two of his bands on the same Top of the Pops four times between 29 January and 26 February 1970. Appearing alongside Edison Lighthouse on the shows were Brotherhood of Man and White Plains. The appearances on 29 January, 5 February and 26 February 1970 are all still in existence.
Although he hit the Top 40 as the lead singer of five different groups, he only managed to have one chart single as a solo artist in the U.S. In 1970, he hit the Billboard Hot 100 with "Melanie Makes Me Smile", which peaked at #87. As well as fronting various hit-making acts, Burrows has also contributed vocals as a session singer to many other hits, claiming to have sung on 100 Top 20 hits in the 1970s.
He has also recorded as a session harmony singer with Elton John, Cliff Richard, and James Last. In 2011, Burrows was awarded with BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of his contribution to music.

Discography

;Singles