Алан Меррилл: Американский музыкант и автор хита "I Love Rock 'n' Roll"

American musician (1951–2020)

Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951 – March 29, 2020) was an American vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. In the early 1970s, he was one of the few resident foreigners to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was recorded by the band the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982. Merrill was primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but also played the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, and keyboards. He died during the COVID 19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the virus.

Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 19, 1951, and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs. He went to Aiglon College in Switzerland from age 9 to 13, a British style boarding school. On returning to the United States, he attended schools in New York and Los Angeles, and later, briefly, at Sophia University in Tokyo. He started his semi pro career in New York City aged 14 when he began playing in Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, and Watertower West. The groups played the club during the 1966–1968 period.

In 1969, Merrill auditioned for the New York City band, the Left Banke. According to Merrill, the audition was successful, but the band dissolved. Shortly thereafter, he left to reside in Japan, where his mother was living, and began his professional career there by joining the band The Lead, who were contracted to RCA Victor Records. The group was a foreign Tokyo based act, and had an urgent requirement for a fill in musician after one of its American members was deported. The Lead had previously had some chart success, but the project soon fell apart when a second member was also deported. Merrill subsequently signed a solo management deal with Watanabe Productions, who contracted him to Atlantic Records, and changed his professional surname from Sachs to Merrill which yielded a single, "Namida" (Teardrops). In other activities, Merrill acted on the TV soap opera Jikan Desu Yo and occasionally had his own 'corner' on the TBS's Young 720, a morning show for teens. He was a featured model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, AnnAnn, Non no, and GT Jeans. In 1971, he released an LP of his own compositions titled Merrill 1 for the Denon/Columbia record label produced by Mickey Curtis. Tiny Tim, at the peak of his fame, covered a composition from the album, "Movies", in 1972 on Scepter Records. Merrill then formed the band Vodka Collins, which became a prominent glam rock act. The band included notable Japanese musicians Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu and Hiroshi Oguchi. Vodka Collins recorded an LP in 1973 titled Tokyo – New York, on the Toshiba EMI label The band are best known for recording and releasing the first popular glam rock songs in Japanese, including the double A sided single "Sands Of Time" and "Automatic Pilot", released June 1973. A dispute with management led to Merrill's abrupt departure from Japan.

In 1980, Merrill joined forces with Rick Derringer as a guitarist/vocalist in New York City. They recorded three albums, Good Dirty Fun, Live at The Ritz, Rick Derringer and Friends, and a film, The Rick Derringer Rock Spectacular. Merrill wrote three songs on the Derringer Good Dirty Fun album, "White Heat" (Alan Merrill), "Shake Me" (Alan Merrill/Jake Hooker) and "Lesson Learned" (Alan Merrill/Rick Derringer). "Shake Me" was included in the soundtrack of the film Where the Boys Are '84 (1984). In 1982, Joan Jett released a cover of "I Love Rock 'N Roll", which was No. 1 on the U. S. Billboard charts for seven weeks and helped launch her career. The following year Lou Rawls recorded Alan Merrill's song "When The Night Comes" as the title track of his 1983 Epic Records album. The Rawls' version of the song was taken into space by astronaut Guion Bluford, the first music taken to and played in outer space. In 1983, Merrill recorded a solo album for Polydor Records, simply titled Alan Merrill, a collection of self composed tracks. Some friends contributing to this record were Steve Winwood, Mick Taylor and Dallas Taylor. It was released in 1985 and received critical acclaim. In 1986, Merrill joined the Meat Loaf band for the promotional tour of his Blind Before I Stop album, and stayed for several years, and appears on Meat Loaf's 1987 Live at Wembley (1987) album for Arista Records. In 1989, Merrill was offered a role on the television series Encyclopedia Brown on HBO, and was a part of the successful series in his role as principal character Casey Sparkz. Merrill wrote a song for the production, "Who Done It?" which he performed on the series and was featured in the concert scene. In 1990, a Vodka Collins reunion tour was organized due to popular demand as a result of the successful CD reissue of their vinyl LP Tokyo – New York. The Tokyo based band toured Japan, then several years later recorded the first in a series of reunion albums, Chemical Reaction (1996) which was followed by Pink Soup (1997), Boy's Life (1998) and Boys in The Band (2004). The Vodka Collins Tokyo – New York album has been reissued again as recently as October 2011 on EMI Japan. While working in Japan with his main project Vodka Collins, Merrill also had a side project in New York, starting with a tribute to Don Covay he began recording with R&B producer Jon Tiven. This led to the "Yes I Ram" and "Blue Guru" albums in the mid 1990s featuring Merrill on lead vocals. Merril released the solo albums Never Pet A Burning Dog (1998), Cupid Deranged (2002), A Merrilly Christmas (2001), Double Shot Rocks (2003) a tribute to songwriters Otis Blackwell and Arthur Alexander, Aleecat (2004), At The Candy Shop (2006), and Rive Gauche (2007) a tribute to The Left Banke. The reissue Alien in Tokyo, EP single Hard Road, and an in concert album The Aleecat, Live In Japan were all released in 2008. Albums by Merrill titled The Face Of 69 (2010), Numbers (2011), Snakes and Ladders (2012), Songer Singwriter (2013), Arrows, 40th Anniversary Edition (2014), Demo Graphic (2016) On A Blue Avenue (2017) and Radio Zero (2019 ) were also released. The Arrows 1974 top 10 UK hit "Touch Too Much", featuring lead vocals by Merrill appears on the soundtrack of the feature film The Look Of Love, a 2013 biopic of Paul Raymond. "Restless Soul", a song Merrill co wrote with Shinohara Nobuhiko that was on air nightly on the Asahi TV travel show Sekai No Kaido Wo Yuku (Traveling on the roads of the world) in Japan broadcast from 2014 to 2015. The Arrows' songs "We Can Make It Together" and "Moving Next Door To You" (composed by Merrill and Jake Hooker) were used on the BBC1 TV show Homes Under The Hammer series 18 episode 70 and series 19 episode 53 respectively in England, first aired on February 5, 2015. The songs were B sides of the Arrows RAK records top 30 hit singles "Touch Too Much" and "My Last Night With You" produced by Mickie Most in 1974 and 1975 with lead vocals by Merrill. In September 2015, Merrill added his guitar parts to popular Japanese vocalist Superfly's cover of his composition, "I Love Rock N Roll", released three months later on Warner Brothers Japan records. In early June 2016, he released a duet with fellow 1970s UK rock star Bob Bradbury of the band Hello titled "Brothers in Rock" and another duet, this one in Japanese with Bruce Bauer, "Hello Japan", out June 20, 2016. On November 28, 2017, he released a 15 song solo album, On A Blue Avenue. A film featuring Alan Merrill as a principal actor was released July 1, 2017, titled Re Agitator / Revenge Of The Parody. On December 15, 2017, Eminem released his album Revival including the title "Remind Me" crediting Allan Sachs (professionally known as Alan Merrill) as one of the song's co writers for use of "I Love Rock N Roll" samples. The Eminem album made its debut at #1 in the Billboard album charts. He hosted the television series Across the Pond for the MyJam Music Network. He also wrote and recorded the show's theme song "Across the Pond" which was released March 2018. In mid February 2019, Merrill released a Valentine's Day song he wrote titled "Your Love Song."

Merrill died in Manhattan on March 29, 2020, aged 69, from complications arising from COVID 19, during the COVID 19 pandemic in the United States. He was survived by his second wife, his three children and his mother Helen Merrill .