There are musicians who go down in history with one song. With Manfred Mann, this rule proves impossible. One generation knows him with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", another with "The Mighty Quinn", and a third hears his name in the title of "Blinded by the Light". All three songs are different, but the same keyboardist is behind them - Manfred Sepse Lubovitz, who celebrates his 86th birthday today.
Manfred Mann was born on October 21, 1940 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He turned to jazz as a young man, and in 1961 he left for Great Britain. There he worked as a pianist and teacher before meeting drummer Mike Hugg. The two formed a band, initially called the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers.
The name Manfred Mann was not the musician's idea. It was suggested by producer John Burgess and gradually became one of the recognizable brands of British rock. Manfred Mann was the keyboardist and leader of the band, while the vocals in its most famous period were entrusted to Paul Jones, and later to Mike d'Abo.
The hit that started as a foreign song
The first serious success came with “5-4-3-2-1“, which reached number five in the UK in 1964. Just a few months later, the band recorded “Do Wah Diddy Diddy“ – a song by Jeff Barry and Eli Greenwich, which was already performed by the American band The Exciters.
Manfred Mann's version, however, proved to be much more successful. It topped the charts in the UK and the US and made the group part of the British musical invasion across the Atlantic. Manfred Mann later admitted that after this success the musicians started working harder, but this did not necessarily mean huge wealth.
“We became much more successful, which meant we had more work. We started working even harder“, says Manfred Mann about the period after the international breakthrough of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy“.The curious thing is that the group often chooses songs by other authors, instead of relying on their own material. Manfred Mann never sees this as a disadvantage. For him, the artist does not have to be the author of every song – a position that distinguished him from the then-establishing model of the „Beatles“ and the „Rolling Stones“.
From Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen
In 1968, Manfred Mann recorded „The Mighty Quinn“ based on a song by Bob Dylan. The single reached number one in the UK and number ten in the US. A year later, the original group broke up, but Manfred Mann did not leave music. In 1971, he created Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, with which he began a new phase - heavier, more progressive and closer to album rock.
His most unexpected American triumph came in 1976 with „Blinded by the Light“, written by Bruce Springsteen. The song was included on the album “The Roaring Silence“ and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 – a feat that Springsteen's original version failed to repeat.
Manfred Mann says that he initially placed the song last among several possible singles. When reworking the composition, drummer Chris Slade suggested using the chords from “Chopsticks“. It was this detail that helped the band build the characteristic transition between the chorus and the verses.
A career that began with a jazz pianist from Johannesburg, who passed through London clubs, has reached two different musical eras and several songs that sound like completely different stories. This is Manfred Mann's most memorable legacy – he doesn't just perform other people's songs, he changes them to the point where many already accept them as his own.
Sources: theguardian.com, rhino.com, loudersound.com