Brian Potter, the British songwriter behind Glen Campbell, Take This and more, has died aged 87 | Music

Brian Potter, one of the most experienced and successful British producers and songwriters of his generation, has died at the age of 87. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, his daughter told Billboard.

Working with fellow American songwriter Dennis Lambert, the Essex-born Potter was behind a number of impressive 1970s hits ranging from pop, soul, rock, country and beyond. Notables include Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy, US No 1 in 1975; It Only Takes a Minute, Tavares’ disco singing and later Take It; The smoothest performer Baby Come, another US No 1; and Ain’t No Woman, one of the Four Tops’ most popular songs.

Potter was born and raised in Essex and trained as a drummer, although he first achieved success as a frontman for the Small Faces, co-writing their 1965 hit Whatcha Gonna Do About It. He met Lambert when the latter was in London, and Potter moved to the US to help develop their creative partnership.

One of their first songs together was One Tin Soldier, a fable-like composition with angry lyrics about the Vietnam War: “Keep hating your friend / Keep lying to your friend / Do it in the name of heaven / Be justified in the end”. It collaborated with the Canadian group Original Caste, then won the American group Coven, where their song was used as the theme song for the film Billy Jack.

In 1971 Potter had a big hit in the US with the symphonic pop single Don’t Pull Your Love, which reached No 4 when it was covered by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, and was later covered by Campbell.

In 1973, Potter and Lambert helped reunite the Four Tops, who were on a new label after splitting from Motown Records. Driving them away from peppy music and into a more R&B sound, Is There No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got) gave the Four Tops their biggest post-Motown hit, taking them back into the US top five for the first time since 1967. Potter and Lambert also contributed to the Four Tops’ Top Keeper of the Castle, which was another top 10 hit in the US. They collaborated again on the follow-up album Main Street People which included another single, Are You Man Enough. The band paid tribute, writing: “We are deeply grateful for his contribution to the world of music and the legacy of the Four Tops.”

Potter continued to hit music in the African American world as the disco craze began in the mid-1970s, bringing material to Tavares’s It Only Takes a Minute whose soulful song was punctuated by downbeat, soulful verses about unemployment and illness. It was another US Top 10 hit, and later became the first UK Top 10 hit for boyband Take That, who covered it in 1992. Potter and Lambert had a fruitful collaboration with Tavares, producing two of their albums in the mid-70s and writing most of the material.

During this time he also produced Dusty Springfield’s 1973 album Cameo, worked with 5th Dimension on their album Ashes to Ashes, and released the Rock and Roll Heaven album for the Righteous Brothers, and wrote another song for the latter group, Dream On.

Potter and Lambert were Campbell’s best. Rhinestone Cowboy, written by Larry Weiss, became a hit after being produced by the duo, who also wrote the first four songs on the album of the same name including another single, Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in LA). The album’s success led to Potter and Lambert being nominated twice for the 1976 Grammy Awards, for record and producer of the year, Potter and Lambert also contributed to Campbell’s follow-up, Bloodline.

Later in the 1970s Potter and Lambert released Player’s Baby Come Back – a breakout hit that spent three weeks at No 1 in the US – and Santana’s 1978 album Inner Secrets.

Potter and Lambert’s song, Why Do People Fall in Love? was written by Tony Bennett and Dennis Edwards in the mid-1980s. After her amicable separation from Lambert, Potter had other recording credits with artists including the Pointer Sisters, George Duke and Kenny Rogers, and continued to work in music venues, children’s television and theme park tours.

According to Billboard, he is survived by his wife of 55 years, Karen, daughters Courtney and Mary Shirley.