Raymond Frogatt

Raymond Frogatt

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About Raymond Frogatt

Raymond Froggatt (born Raymond William Froggatt in Birmingham on 13 November 1941; died 23 July 2023), affectionately known as Froggie, was an English songwriter and singer. He is remembered for the success he had in songwriting in the 1960s, providing UK top-ten hits for The Dave Clark Five ("The Red Balloon") and Cliff Richard ("Big Ship"). He later became an internationally recognised country music performer. Froggatt started his working days as a pipe lagger, while his night time would be spent singing in the pubs and secretly writing poetry in his spare time, a great talent that maybe would have stayed hidden if not for the illness. He was diagnosed with TB in his teenage years and was forced to change his lifestyle. He and his band, initially known as The Buccaneers, later Monopoly, and ultimately The Raymond Froggatt Band, with guitarist Hartley Cain (H Cain), drummer Len Ablethorpe, and bassist Louis Clark (later of Electric Light Orchestra and Hooked on Classics), were signed by Polydor in 1964. Nevertheless, chart success eluded them. The Dave Clark Five had a No. 7 hit in the UK Singles Chart with Froggatt's "The Red Balloon" in 1968. His own original version of the song, under the title "Callow-la-vita", reached No. 3 in the Netherlands. Another Froggatt song, "Big Ship", was a No. 8 UK hit for Cliff Richard in 1969, and in the same year Froggatt's composition "Rachel" became a popular song in Australia and New Zealand, when it was released by the Australian artist Russell Morris. In the 1970s, the band was managed by Don Arden, hoping to break into the United States music scene, but the experience led to the collapse of the band. Froggatt later became an internationally recognised country music performer, releasing Here's to Everyone (1993) on his Red Balloon record label. Froggatt's autobiography, Raymond Who, followed in 1995. Artists such as Leapy Lee, Daniel O'Donnell, Dominic Kirwan and Gladys Knight are among those who have covered his material.

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