Johnny Franz

Some of the artists he produced were artists that never made inroads in the U.S., such as Susan Maughan and Harry Secombe; he also worked with Shirley Bassey and Marty Wilde.

For Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers, Franz oversaw discs that matched first class pop rock material and vocalists with the better aspects of orchestral production that was more typical of middle of the road pop. Franz's role with these artists seems not to have been so much that of an innovator as one of a capable delegator. For Dusty Springfield's mid 1960s hits like "I Only Want to Be with You" — which were the best British equivalents to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound - he relied heavily upon arranger Ivor Raymonde. Raymonde also did some work on Walker Brothers hits (like "Make It Easy On Yourself"), which were also competently aided by engineer Peter Olliff; the more classical sounding Walker Brothers arrangements were frequently handled by Reg Guest. Read Less