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As a songwriter for the last 40 years, John Durrill has had his works recorded by over 60 major recording artists in the United States and around the world. From Frank Sinatra to Cher, his compositions have sold over 50 million units in singles, albums, cassettes and compact discs.

After teaching high school English in Oklahoma in 1962, John formed a group called "The Five Americans" http://www.fiveamericans.com and proceeded to Dallas, Texas where he wrote and sang the group's first hit "I SEE THE LIGHT". This Top Ten National Recording was followed by "WESTERN UNION", which went Number 1 and sold over 2 million.

Leaving the group in 1968, John went to Los Angeles, where he joined the VENTURES and recorded "HAWAII 5-0" with the group. In 1970, he wrote "KYOTO DOLL" which sold over 5 million singles in Japan and is a standard in that country today.

After writing and recording 20 albums with the VENTURES, John joined forces with one of Hollywood's most successful producers, Snuff Garrett. Virtually every record project produced by Garrett had the Durrill name on it as a writer. During this time, Durrill also worked with Clint Eastwood writing songs and music background for five of Eastwood's popular films. For "BRONCO BILLY", John wrote "MISERY AND GIN", which was a Number 1 song recorded by Merle Haggard.

Burt Reynolds' "SHARKEY'S MACHINE" was another motion picture John worked on, writing 5 songs, one of which, "BEFORE YOU" sung by Sarah Vaughn was nominated for an Academy Award.

CHER recorded six of Durrill's songs and one of them, "DARK LADY" was one of her biggest selling singles to date.

John, in addition to all his songwriting, works in many other areas of the entertainment industry. He recently produced a musical video for Phil Everly which was released in Europe. A musical for Broadway entitled "BAG LADY" is in the works with a focus for a 1998 opening. Durrill, along with two-time Academy award winner Joel Hirshhorn, just completed "THE GREAT REINDEER ESCAPE", a musical Christmas story for animation.

John, along with Oscar award winning Earl Wallace who authored Harrison Ford's "WITNESS", wrote "NOBODY'S CHILD", a country film treatment, and is looking for a female country artist to play the leading role.

Currently, John is collaborating with Jeff Silbar on several songwriting and recording artist projects in Los Angeles, California.

Tips for songwriting by John Durrill>>