Biografie

18. Mai 1944 · London, England, Vereinigtes Königreich

Albert Louis Hammond

His son, Albert Hammond Jr. is a guitarist in the band The Strokes.

His big hit song "It Never Rains in Southern California" has been covered by several other artists: Sonny & Cher recorded the song for their final 1973 studio album "Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer Papa Used to Write All of Her Songs," the country group 'Trent Summar & The New Row Mob' released a single version in 2000, and Barry Manilow covered the song on his 2007 album "Barry Manilow: The Greatest Songs of the Seventies".

[when asked how he feels about his son Albert Hammond Jr.'s current success with the band The Strokes] I'm extremely happy for him, for myself and for the rest of my family for my son's success with The Strokes. I'm also very happy for the rest of the guys because I feel like they're my sons, too, you know, because I've spent a lot of time with them. I give them a lot of advice, and I still feel that whenever they need that little something extra, I'm there for them, and they love it. They hug me, I really feel like a dad, man. Not just to the five guys, but to the six guys because I feel like a dad to their manager, too. Their manager is one of the greatest guys I have ever met in my life.

I never write songs as hit records or anything like that. I just write them because I love them. And I've never written a song for an artist. You know, when people say, "Oh, you wrote for Tina [Turner] and you wrote for Whitney [Houston]," I always wrote 'em for me, you know. Then the artist does them their way, fine, no problem -- but I wrote 'em for me. They become what I think are really unique songs, because you wrote them for you. What I think is that there is nobody more unique than oneself.