- Born
- Birth nameJames John Turner Phillips
- Nickname
- John or Johnny
- John Turner was the the chosen pseudonym, as well as the name he preferred to use and be referred to by others, used by British lyricist James John Turner Phillips, who was born in London, England, UK on July 7, 1932).
He owned and ran the Peter Maurice Music Company. His company's most important lyricist was Geoffrey Parsons. His company's specialty in the music business was adaptations of original foreign language compositions for the English language, and to write lyrics for previously "instrumental only" songs, especially those songs known primarily in non-English markets. Most commonly, he would assign a song primary lyricist Parsons and when Parsons would complete his lyric compositions, Turner would "suggest" (really order or require) changes. The credits for the final lyrics composition would thenceforth be published under both names, and credited to "John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons,"
The most famous song which they adapted was "Smile," original music by Charles Chaplin, which Chaplin composed for his masterpiece film The Great Dictator (1940), and after re-publishing in 1954, would thereafter be forever credited to John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, Peter Maurice Music Company, Denmark Street, London.
Other songs which he is known for include: "Oh! My Pa-Pa" based on the German song "O Mein Papa," music by Paul Burkhard; "Mama," based on an original song by Cesare A. Bixio (as Cesare Andrea Bixio) for music, and original Italian lyrics credited to Bixio Cherubini (a Bixio pseudonym, for lyrics written with Bixio Cherubini) under the Italian title "Mamma son tanto felice" (Mum, I am so happy); and "Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart," written by German composer Eberhard Storch around 1950 (when and for his wife, who was in the hospital and he thought she was going to die), with English language lyrics written by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, with the best-known version of the song recorded by English singer Vera Lynn.- IMDb Mini Biography By: TrivWhiz
- He also collaborated with 'Nathan Korb,' a pseudonym for French composer Francis Lemarque on "The Little Shoemaker," which was originally composed as a French language song "Le petit cordonnier," by Lemarque.
- His best known writing partner was lyricist Geoffrey Parsons, who was much older than Turner, and died in 1987.
- Best known for either adapting foreign language songs by writing English lyrics, or for writing English lyrics for instrumental songs, the most famous of which is "Smile," originally composed by Sir Charles Chaplin in 1932 for Chaplin's great film Modern Times (1936) (which was a totally instrumental piece which originally had no title, as used in Chaplin's films).
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