William Wylie MacPherson (9 November 1938 – 26 March 2020), known professionally as Bill Martin, was a Scottish songwriter, music publisher and impresario. His most successful songs, all written with Phil Coulter, included "Puppet on a String", "Congratulations", "Back Home", and "Saturday Night". He was presented with three Ivor Novello Awards, including one as Songwriter of the Year.
Biography
Bill Martin was born William Wylie MacPherson in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, to Ian and Letitia (Letty) and had an older brother, Ian. They lived in Taransay Road, Govan, near the Fairfield shipyard. Martin was educated at Govan High School, three years ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson; in 2011, they were both inducted into the inaugural Govan High Hall of Fame. After World War II, many of the Glasgow tenements were pulled down and the MacPherson family moved to Priesthill, a new housing scheme on the south side of Glasgow. Having tried, and failed to build a career in the shipyards, Martin completed his apprenticeship as a marine engineer. Although he had actually written his first song at 10 years of age, it was during his apprenticeship that he heard Bobby Darin's song "Dream Lover" which convinced him that his future lay in songwriting.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and had trials to become a professional footballer for Partick Thistle. In 1960, Martin and his new bride, Margaret (Mag) went to South Africa, where he played football for Johannesburg Rangers. On their return, he determined to make songwriting his primary focus, and began using the name Bill Martin as he thought that Wylie MacPherson was "too Scottish". He spent months working in Denmark Street and finally, in 1963, he had his first song released on record, with "Kiss Me Now" by Tommy Quickly. The song was released on 22 November 1963, the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and light-hearted songs were not the order of the day. In 1964, he entered into a writing partnership with Tommy Scott. As Scott & Martin he had success with such acts as the Irish trio The Bachelors, Twinkle, the Irish folk band The Dubliners, Van Morrison, and Serge Gainsbourg.
In 1965, he met Phil Coulter and the two became established as a successful songwriting team that lasted more than ten years (Martin for the lyrics, Coulter for the melody). They had records with such (mostly UK) acts as comedian and baritone Ken Dodd, American R&B artist Geno Washington, Los Bravos, Dave Dee & Co, The Troggs, Mireille Mathieu, Dick Emery, Tony Blackburn, Billy Connolly, Cilla Black, The Foundations, Cliff Richard, Sandie Shaw, and Elvis Presley.
Between 1967 and 1976 they had four No. 1 hits in the UK: "Puppet on a String", "Congratulations", "Back Home" and "Forever and Ever". Martin is the only Scottish songwriter to pen four UK number one hits for four different acts. There were also numerous Top 10 hits including the Bay City Rollers' "Shang-A-Lang", "Fancy Pants" by the glam rock band Kenny, "Requiem" by the Scottish pop group Slik, and "Surround Yourself with Sorrow" by Cilla Black. In 1975, Martin and Coulter were joint recipients of an Ivor Novello Award for 'Songwriter of the Year'.
The Bay City Rollers had a No. 1 hit in 1976 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Saturday Night", a song that was not released as a single in the UK. There were three No. 1 hits in the US for the songwriters, the other two (which were chart-toppers on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and the Adult Contemporary listings respectively) being "Thanks", performed by Bill Anderson, and "My Boy", sung by Elvis Presley.
In the early 1970s, Martin bought the former home of John Lennon – Kenwood, St. George's Hill – although he later sold it and lived in Belgravia, London and Southampton, Hampshire. He also owned a house in Val Do Lobo, Portugal which he bought in the early 1970s.