Denmark Street - Tin Pan Alley
The street was named after Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, and was later better known as Tin Pan Alley because it was home to several of London's music publishers.
Melody Maker started out at number 19 in 1926. Next door at number 20 Sir Elton John, then simply plain old Reg Dwight, worked as the office boy for Mills Music and was paid £5 per week in 1965. Paul Simon walked in one day with two new songs, "The Sound of Silence" and "Homeward Bound", which was exactly where he was told to go when Mills turned him down.
At number 21 Marty Wilde and Adam Faith were always hanging around to see if songwriter Lionel Bart, working for publisher Peter Maurice Music, had any songs for them.
The Small Faces and Manfred Mann recorded in the basement of Number 22 in 1964. Upstairs, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend bought their guitars from Rhodes Music, while Bob Dylan in Don't Look Back said, "Wow, they don't have guitars in the States like that, man."
At Number 25, the Kinks, the Troggs and many other groups were working "All Day and All of the Night" recording for Denmark Productions.
Across the street was Embassy Sound Studios that made all the cheap Woolworth covers on the Embassy Records label. Cat Stevens, a local boy from over the road, made his first record here for the Embassy label under his real name Steven Georgiou. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album in this recording studio for Decca Records.
Number 5 is Where the
New Musical Express began.
The Sex Pistols lived above the shop at Number 6 in 1975.
Number 8 with Donovan recording his first record Catch the Wind for Pye records, the Ivy League recording Funny how love can be and The Flowerpot men recording Let's go to San Francisco.
Next door to that was La Gioconda Restaurant where David Bowie, Stevie Marriott and the Small Faces would hang out.
So you can see how Tin Pan Alley became the street of Rock 'n Roll.
London Time
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