Alan Merrill

Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951 – March 29, 2020) was an American vocalist, guitarist and songwriter.

Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 19, 1951, the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs.

He went to Aiglon College in Switzerland from age 9 to 13, a British-style boarding school.

On returning to the United States, he attended schools in New York and Los Angeles, and later, briefly, at Sophia University in Tokyo.

He started his semi-pro career in New York City aged 14 when he began playing in Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, and Watertower West.

The groups played the club during the 1966–1968 period.

In 1969, Merrill auditioned for the New York City band, the Left Banke.

The audition was successful, but the band dissolved.

Shortly thereafter, he left to reside in Japan, where his mother was living, and began his professional career there by joining the band The Lead, who were contracted to RCA Victor Records.

The band was a foreign Tokyo-based act.

The Lead had some chart success, but the project soon fell apart when two of the American members of the group were deported.

Merrill subsequently signed a solo management deal with Watanabe Productions, who contracted him to Atlantic Records, and changed his professional surname from Sachs (pronounced sax) to Merrill (his mother's stage name) apparently because "Merrill" sounded less lascivious and was more commercially viable when spoken by young Japanese pop music fans.

In the early 1970s, he was one of the few resident foreigners to achieve pop star status in Japan.

He recorded one album with Atlantic, Alone in Tokyo (February 1971) which yielded a single, "Namida" (Teardrops).

In other activities, Merrill acted on the TV soap opera Jikan Desu Yo and occasionally had his own 'corner' on the TBS's Young 720, a morning show for teens.

He was a featured model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, AnnAnn, Non-no, and GT Jeans.

In 1971, he released an LP of his own compositions titled Merrill 1 for the Denon/Columbia record label produced by Mickey Curtis.

Tiny Tim, at the peak of his fame, covered an Alan Merrill composition from the album, a song titled "Movies", in 1972 on Scepter Records.

He then formed the band Vodka Collins, which became a prominent glam rock act.

The band included notable Japanese musicians Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu and Hiroshi Oguchi.

Vodka Collins recorded an LP in 1973 titled Tokyo – New York, on the Toshiba-EMI label The band are best known for recording and releasing the first popular glam rock songs in Japanese, including the double A-sided single "Sands Of Time" and "Automatic Pilot", released June 1973.

In 1974, in London, Merrill formed the band Arrows (as lead singer and bass guitarist), with drummer Paul Varley and guitarist Jake Hooker.

Peter Meaden was the Arrows' first manager, but later they signed with Mickie Most's RAK Records.

In March 1974, the Arrows 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.

Recorded at Morgan studio in London 1974 Merrill played bass guitar on drummer Cozy Powell's chart hit single "The Man In Black" and the B-side "After Dark" produced by Mickie Most on RAK records.

The recording hit a peak position of No. 18 on the British charts.

With the Arrows, Merrill sang three chart hit records as the band's lead singer, all produced by Mickie Most, "Touch Too Much" (No. 8 UK charts) "Toughen Up" (No. 51 UK charts) and "My Last Night With You" (No. 25 UK charts).

They made one more single that would be an important one.

He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was recorded by his band the Arrows in 1975.

The Arrows had another hit single with "My Last Night With You" which reached the UK top 30 in 1975, but the band's single releases were few.

"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 but with a co-writer credit going to Arrows bandmate Jake Hooker, to whom Merrill owed some money.

The recording was later flipped to A-side status, and the band made only one television performance with the song.

The show's producer Muriel Young was so impressed with the Arrows that she made a pitch to Granada ITV for them to have their own television series.

The Arrows then got their own weekly TV series Arrows in 1976, taking over from the Bay City Rollers Granada TV series Shang-a-Lang.

The Arrows signed with MAM Management.

The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982.

Merrill was primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but also played the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, and keyboards.

He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the virus.