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Alan MerrillAlan Merrill is a rock and blues artist. Early Life Born into music, the son of legendary jazz singer Helen Merrill, Alan Merrill started his semi-pro career in his mid teens. He began playing in Greenwich Village's "Cafe Wha?" with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, and Watertower West. The bands played the club during the 1966-1968 period, and they also did the High School dance and party circuit in Westchester New York, earning decent money. Professional Career After an audition in 1968 with the New York hit band The Left Banke (where he got the job, but the band disbanded), Alan Merrill left for Japan, where he started his professional career with the band The Lead, on RCA Victor Records. The band were a foreign Tokyo based act. The Lead had one hit single, Aoi Bara (Blue Rose), but soon disbanded when two American members of the group were deported. In 1969 Merrill quickly obtained a management contract with Watanabe Productions, who signed him to Atlantic records. He recorded one album with Atlantic, Alone In Tokyo, which yielded one hit single, Namida (Teardrops), and he was then the undisputed top foreign domestic market pop star in the Japanese market. Merrill acted on the TV soap opera Ji Kan Desu Yo, and had his own corner as a regular on Young 720, a morning show for teens. He also was the featured principal as a model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, and GT Jeans. In 1971 he recorded an entire album in the English language of his own compositions, titled Merrill 1, for the Denon/Columbia label. It was a popular album and a critical success, but Merrill had already decided to move on musically from the teen market. In late 1971 he formed the now legendary band Vodka Collins, who became Japan's biggest glam rock act. The band included Japanese superstars Hiroshi Monsieur Kamayatsu, formerly of The Spiders, and Hiroshi Oguchi, formerly of The Tempters, both huge bands in Japan. Vodka Collins recorded one album in 1971-1972 titled Tokyo-New York, on the EMI Toshiba label, which is still available today in re-issues. The album featured all Alan Merrill compositions. The recording had some songs in English and some in Japanese. The Japanese language songs were hit singles, Sands Of Time, and Automatic Pilot, and the song Scratchin became a TV theme for a popular yakusa drama starring actor Kenichi (Shoken) Hagawara. The band Vodka Collins' success was peaking in late 1973, and it was at that time that Alan Merrill left the band. The management of Vodka Collins were embezzling the band's earnings, and after giving the management warning, Merrill simply got on a plane for London. This was a few days before the band were to play a headlining show at the 10,000 seat Budokan. In London Alan Merrill formed the band The Arrows, with guitarist Jake Hooker and drummer Paul Varley. They signed with Mickie Most's RAK Record label, and by March of 1974 were in the top 10 in the UK charts with the song Touch Too Much. The Arrows became a popular band with teens, and once again Merrill had slid back into the teen market he had fought hard to get out of in Japan. His commercial good looks were in competition with the music he made, with his record company going for the teenybopper market with The Arrows. The Arrows had another hit single with My Last Night With You which made the UK top 30 in 1975, but the band's single releases were few and far between compared to their contemporaries as a result of their producer and mentor Mickie Most's winding down his own career momentum. They made one more single that would be an important one. I Love Rock 'N Roll (1975), a song that started out as a b-side to the 45 rpm Arrows single Broken Down Heart. The song "I Love Rock 'N Roll" was composed by Alan Merrill and Arrows bandmate Jake Hooker. Because of it being a late decision to flip the song to an a-side, the band had only one television appearance with the song. It was on a show called "45", produced by Muriel Young. As good fortune would have it, Joan Jett was in England with her band The Runaways, and she saw The Arrows perform the song on the TV show, and liking it so much she aquired a copy of The Arrows 45 rpm recording. Also as a result of the performance, the producer of "45" was so impressed with The Arrows, that she made a pitch to Granada / ITV for them to have their own television series. Granada agreed with Ms. Young, and the band got their own weekly TV series in 1976, taking over the Bay City Rollers Granada TV series "Shang A Lang." The band were obviously excited at the prospect of havng their own TV series, and signed with MAM Management, which less than thrilled their producer Mickie Most. In fact, Most was so angry at the band for signing the management deal, that he vowed to never release another Arrows record. So it came to pass that The Arrows had their own weekly TV series and no records released during that time. Their ratings were so good that they got a second weekly series, still with no records released. So the band are unique as the only band in the history of the music business to have their own networked TV show and no records released. The Arrows last single was released over a month before the first show of the first series. The band Arrows split up in frustration in 1977, with Merrill forming a new group, the AOR act Runner, with Steve Gould (Rare Bird), Mick Feat (Van Morrison band), and Dave Dowle (Whitesnake). Runner aimed at the US market, with the advent of punk in the UK. The Runner album charted in the top 100 in the USA for a few months, but the band's reluctance to tour ended the backing of the band's label, Island Records. Runner split up in 1979, and New York born Alan Merrill returned home. Based in New York in 1980, Alan Merrill joined forces with Rick Derringer as a guitarist/vocalist, and toured extensively with the band. They recorded two albums, Good Dirty Fun, and Rick Derringer and Friends, and a film, The Rick Derringer Rock Spectacular, while Merrill was in the band. In 1982 Joan Jett released the Arrows song "I Love Rock 'N Roll, " and it went to number one in the US charts for 8 weeks. It is now a bona fide rock classic. Around this time, Lou Rawls recorded Alan Merrill's song When The Night Comes as the title track of his Epic records album. The song won many R&B awards, and the album was taken into space by astronaut Gulon Bluford, the first music played in space by an astronaut! In 1983 Merrill left the Derringer band to record a solo album for Polydor Records, simply titled Alan Merrill. The album was released in 1985, and received critical acclaim. A video was shot for the single Hard Hearted Woman, and the song got heavy radio play in 1985. In 1986 Alan Merrill joined the Meat Loaf band for the promotional tour of his Blind Before I Stop album, and stayed for several years, recording Meat Loaf's 1987 Live At Wembley album for Arista records, contributing a lead vocal on the song "Slow Down" on that album. In 1989 Alan Merrill was offered a role in the television series Encyclopedia Brown on HBO, and was a part of the successful series in his role as Casey Sparkz. In 1990, due to a re-issue of the LP "Tokyo New York" on CD, and public demand, a Vodka Collins reunion tour was organized. The band toured Japan and started to record a reunion album. Meanwhile, back in New York, Alan Merrill started to work with producer Jon Tiven on his tribute album series, starting with a tribute to Don Covay and many others. This led to several R&B albums, Yes I Ram and Blue Guru in the mid 1990s by the Jon Tiven Group, with Alan Merrill singing lead vocals. At around the same time the band Vodka Collins was getting active again in Japan, so Alan Merrill was also recording and performing in Japan. Vodka Collins did three albums in the mid 1990s, Chemical Reaction, Pink Soup, and Boys Life. The band also did hour long live performance TV specials for NHK and Perfec TV. In the millennium Merrill has released solo albums Never Pet A Burning Dog, Cupid Deranged, A Merrilly Christmas, Double Shot Rocks, and Aleecat. Also in 2002 superstar Britney Spears recorded and released the Arrows classic song "I Love Rock 'N Roll", which was a hit single for her in the UK, Europe, and Asia, and appeared on her album Britney. In October 2004 a Vodka Collins compilation reissue was released titled Boys In The Band, on Polystar records of Japan. An Arrows compilation reissue was released on EMI records titled A's B's and Rarities in December 2004.
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