Leo Sayer

Leo Sayer (born Gerard Hugh Sayer, 21 May 1948) is an English and Australian singer and songwriter who has been active since the early 1970s. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009.

Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and became a top singles and album act, on both sides of the Atlantic, in that decade. His first seven UK hit singles reached the top 10 – a feat first accomplished by his first manager, Adam Faith. His songs have been sung by other notable artists, including Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey, and Three Dog Night.

In 1978, his song "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" became a Grammy Award winner as that year's Best R&B Song.

Sayer was born to Thomas E. G. Sayer and Theresa (née Nolan) in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex and grew up there. He is the second of their three sons. His elder brother, Michael, was born in 1939 and his younger brother, Brian, in 1951. His father was English and his mother was born in Maguiresbridge, Northern Ireland. He spent holidays on her father's small farm at Edenmore, a townland near the hamlet of Killesher; both Edenmore and Maguiresbridge are in County Fermanagh.

Sayer attended St Peter's Catholic Primary School in Shoreham-by-Sea and then Blessed Robert Southwell (now St Oscar Romero Catholic School) in Goring-by-Sea. He studied commercial art and graphic design at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing, Sussex.

Sayer was discovered by musician David Courtney from Brighton, who then co-managed and co-produced him, with former pop singer Adam Faith. In January 1967 at the age of 18, while working as a hall porter at the King's Hotel in Hove, East Sussex, Sayer assisted in rescuing elderly guests from a serious fire, which damaged the hotel's first floor. He was rescued himself from the blazing hotel by builders working on a block of flats beside the hotel.

Sayer began his music career co-writing songs with David Courtney, including "Giving It All Away", which gave Roger Daltrey of the Who his first solo hit in 1973. All but two of the songs on the album, Daltrey, were co-written by Sayer and Courtney. Also in 1973, Sayer began his career as a recording artist, under the management of Adam Faith, who signed Sayer to the Chrysalis label, in the United Kingdom and Warner Bros. Records, in the United States.

His debut single, "Why Is Everybody Going Home", failed to chart. He achieved national prominence in the UK with his second single, the music hall-styled song, "The Show Must Go On". Sayer performed the song on British television, wearing a pierrot costume and makeup. The single went to number two on the UK singles chart. That was matched by his debut album, Silverbird, on the UK albums chart, co-written with David Courtney, who also co-produced the album with Adam Faith. Three Dog Night's cover of "The Show Must Go On", which was the group's last Billboard Hot 100 top 10 record, reached number four on 25 May 1974. Sayer's subsequent singles were all major hits in the UK – "One Man Band" went to number six in 1974, "Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)" (UK number four, 1974) became his first top-10 hit in the US, reaching number 9, and "Moonlighting" went to No. 2 in the UK in 1975. In 1976, Sayer recorded three songs by the Beatles, "I Am the Walrus", "Let It Be", and "The Long and Winding Road", for the Beatles-themed concept film All This and World War II. His albums during the period were consistently successful in the UK: he scored five consecutive top-10 placings on the UK albums chart between 1973 and 1977.