Ken Barnes (writer)

Kenneth Valentine Barnes (14 February 1933 – 4 August 2015) was a British writer, record producer, broadcaster, musicologist, film historian, film maker, songwriter and music publisher.

Born in Middlesbrough, he trained as a draughtsman after leaving the army, and moved to London where he worked in marketing for Polydor and Decca Records before becoming a record producer.[1] In the 1970s he worked with Bing Crosby, Peter Sellers, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee and Fred Astaire. In 1974, he convinced Johnny Mercer to record a two-disk collection of Mercer singing Mercer - with Johnny selecting his own favorites.[2] These were the last recordings made by Mercer before his death in 1976.[3]

Barnes also published several books, wrote liner notes for reissue albums, and wrote comedy scripts for BBC TV.[1] He was the founder and CEO of The Laureate Company, a music and movie restoration Company. He wrote and delivered the DVD audio commentary on Citizen Kane (1941) and Holiday Inn (1942),[4] starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. The DVD also contains a supplementary documentary A Couple of Song and Dance Men in which he appears with Fred Astaire's daughter, Ava Astaire-MacKenzie.

He died aged 82, after a long illness with diabetes.[5]