Harry Bannink (1929 – 1999) was a Dutch composer, arranger and pianist. he had an amazing output: he wrote over 3,000 songs!
He wrote music for several Dutch musicals, Dutch TV-shows (including "Ja zuster, nee zuster"), and a weekly (!) children's TV show.
If only the Beatles had written songs at the same rate as Bannink, then we would have another 30 Beatles albums....
In Lennon & McCartney's defense, we should mention that Bannink only wrote the music; he used a number of well know lyrics writers and - Dutch - poets to write the lyrics for his songs; he usually started with a text, and then wrote the music for it.
Bannink and the Beatles were contemporary composers, and there as striking similarities:
- like McCartney, his music is very 'melodic', certainly compared to post 60's music where the rhythm (percussion) becomes more and more important.
- like Lennon, Bannink used complex rhythms, and changed the rhythm during a song
- one key success factor that they all display, is that the words and music match so well together. Bannink is a master in having his music express the same emotions as the lyrics. Words and music intertwine, and Bannink wrote his melodies with specific voices (usually of actors) in mind.
- As composers, it is evident that they were influenced by other songwriters, and in many cases they would identify their influences themselves. But these influences added to their music, they didn't imitate their examples.
Bannink - obviously - knew the music of the Beatles, but he wasn't a great fan; it's just not his style of music.
But he admitted that for some of his songs he took inspiration from Beatles tracks. One of these songs is entitled "Wil u een stekkie". This song is about plants called "Fuchsia", a popular garden shrub, which can live for years with a minimal amount of care. The word "Fuchsia" is repeated endlessly in the song. The lyrics were written by Annie M.G. Schmidt who was unaware that the word had other meanings in English. Only one of the singers (an Englishman) had trouble keeping a straight face....
Bannink himself mentioned that "Wil u een stekkie" was inspired by "When I'm 64", and he quotes this Beatles song in its intro. But he makes "Wil u een stekkie" very much a Bannink song. To showcase the relationship between "Wil u een stekkie" and 'When I'm 64" we have produced a mash-up of those 2 songs. It nicely demonstrates that Bannink and McCartney were a close match in composing this kind of nostalgic tune.
And you can hear more about Bannink (in Dutch...) at:
https://soundcloud.com/avrotros/fab4cast-81-bannink-beatles-bonte-bespiegelingen
