Jonathan King

Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King, 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, achieved chart success. As an independent producer, he discovered and named the rock band Genesis in 1967, producing their first album From Genesis to Revelation. He founded his own label UK Records in 1972. He released and produced songs for 10cc and the Bay City Rollers. In the 1970s King became known for hits that he performed and/or produced under different names, including "Johnny Reggae", "Loop di Love", "Sugar, Sugar", "Hooked on a Feeling", "Una Paloma Blanca" and "It Only Takes a Minute"; between September 1971 and 1972 alone he produced 10 top 30 singles in the UK. While living in New York in the 1980s, King appeared on radio and television in the UK, including on the BBC's Top of the Pops and Entertainment USA. In the early 1990s he produced the Brit Awards, and from 1995 he selected and produced the British entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, including the winning entry in 1997, "Love Shine a Light" by Katrina and the Waves. Rod Liddle, in 2010, described him as "truly talented" and someone who could "storm the pop charts at will, under a hundred different disguises". The Guardian reported in 2002 that he had sold over 40 million records during his career. In September 2001, King was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to seven years in prison for having sexually assaulted five boys, aged 14 and 15, in the 1980s. In November 2001, he was acquitted of 22 similar charges. He was released on parole in March 2005. A further trial for sexual offences against teenage boys resulted in several Not Guilty verdicts and the trial being abandoned in June 2018.

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