The art of the musical arranger has faded somewhat into history thanks to changing tastes and the galloping advance of music technology, but Charles Blackwell, who has died aged 84, was a pre-eminent practitioner. The list of artists with whom he worked in the 1960s and 70s resembles an encyclopedia of a vanished era of pop history.
Having cut his teeth in the music trade as a teenager, working with the brilliant but dangerously unstable producer Joe Meek – whose life ended in 1967 when he shot his landlady and then himself – Blackwell was in constant demand, his work as an arranger frequently extending into production as well as songwriting. He was versatile enough to cover virtually any musical style, and artists drawn into his orbit included Shirley Bassey, Lena Horne, Vera Lynn, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Fury, Adam Faith and Slim Whitman.
