The clock ticks every week on Channel 4 as contestants flex their mental muscles on Britain’s longest-running game show, Countdown. Vowels, consonants and numbers jiggle with each other on a programme introduced from France by the songwriter and Decca Records executive, Marcel Stellman, who was celebrated for his hit song, Tulips from Amsterdam.
Stellman, who has died aged 96, saw the potential of the French game show, Des Chiffres et des Lettres, and acquired the British rights to what became Countdown, in its English incarnation. It was the first programme to be broadcast on Channel 4, airing continuously since 1982. Stellman appeared on the programme’s celebrations for its 2000th episode in 1997 and subsequent anniversary episodes up till 2010. He also presented the trophy at the end of its 30th Birthday Championship. He received an honorary award from the Variety Club for the show’s 25th anniversary and another from the Guinness Book of World Records for Countdown’s record-breaking success
Stellman was a record producer and international manager at Decca from the mid ‘50s until 1989, working with such musical legends as Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Vera Lynn, Max Bygraves, the Moody Blues, the Rolling Stones, Gilbert Bécaud, Mantovani and Edmundo Ros. He was, according to colleague David Stark, who worked for him at Decca during the 1970s — “without doubt the best boss I ever had. He was the international manager, overseeing all Decca’s overseas releases, but also had his own little empire — as a part-time songwriter who provided lyrics or translations for innumerable artists.”
Marcel Leopold Stellman was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1925 to a Scottish mother, Lily and a Belgian father, Willy Stellman. He attended a French lycée in the city where he learned to play the piano. An inspirational moment came when his father took him to see Louis Armstrong at his uncle’s jazz club.
But everything changed during the Nazi occupation when he lost several family members and was himself sent to Drancy, the notorious transit camp for Jews destined for Auschwitz and Dachau. Stellman was lucky: the camp was liberated in 1944 and he joined relatives in Scotland. His fluency in French gained him access to the BBC schools radio programme in the 1950s, which launched his long association with radio and television. In his role as children’s programmes presenter, he selected the songs the two pig puppets, Pinky and Perky would sing. He also produced The Goon Show’s classic Ying Tong Song, which reached No 3 in the 1956 Hit Parade. He was made a lifetime honorary member of The Goons Society.
Spike Milligan once called him –“the dreaded Marcel Stellman”— a soubriquet for which he said he would like to be remembered. But David Stark was impressed with his linguistic skills. “I remember him conducting telephone conversations in three languages simultaneously. He was also the consummate artist relations professional who knew every five-star restaurant in town.
“Marcel was charm personified, and never got bored relating his many tales about his encounters with the stars – from Edith Piaf to Tom Jones and especially Charles Aznavour, with whom he was close friends. A most remarkable and unique character who taught me the ropes of the industry, and to whom I owe an enormous debt.”
Stellman knew Decca needed a presence in French-speaking Europe and offered himself as the man to do it. In a matter of years, his natural entrepreneurship, musical instincts and language skills would see him become a key figure at the record company and one of boss Edward Lewis’ most trusted lieutenants. Decca was conscious of not having signed the Beatles, and made up for their failure by snapping up the Rolling Stones. Stellman became the go-to the man on the ground when the Stones toured Europe.
He went on to produce an extraordinary range of records for Decca, working in the recording studio with UK stars including Dusty Springfield and Engelbert Humperdink, while also recording with international singers like Charles Aznavour and Tony Bennett. Although English was not his mother tongue, he carved out an impressive niche writing English lyrics for foreign language songs.
His new English lyrics for Tulips From Amsterdam, originally a Dutch song, became a hit in 1958 for Max Bygraves. Because Stellman considered his real name “too Jewish” on the label credits, he blended his wife’s and his cousin’s names to create the pseudonym, Gene Martyn. Other successful songs included Johnny (Is The Boy For Me) by Les Paul and Mary Ford (1953); Un Garçon des Îles by Henri Salvador (1962) and There I Go by Vikki Carr (1967).
Clearly a romantic at heart with a Midas touch for business, Stellman was inspired by the French hit song, Maladie d’Amour by Henri Salvador, about a love-lorn bird who flies away and finds romance again. In his hands it became Cha Cha Cha d’Amour in 1961.
His finely tuned business instincts launched an album by Dirk Bogarde, the heart throb of his era but an indifferent singer. Bogarde himself was aware of his vocal limitations and did not want to make a fool of himself on record. Stellman said: “OK, forget singing. Speak the words!” The result was the successful Lyrics For Lovers.
Recognised for his gifts in the rarified world of musical entertainment, Stellman was hailed by the British Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, now known as the Ivors Academy, in a BASCA gold badge award in 1988, and he was a member of the Society of Distinguished Songwriters. He received an Ivor Novello Award as lyricist for Dance On by Kathy Kirby in 1963. Other plaudits included Freeman of the City of London and Chevalier de l’ordre et des lettres (France).
But it was not all success and euphoria. Marcel married Jean Myers in 1951 and they had two children, Rosie and Victor, both of whom tragically died of the same rare genetic disease. Yet —unusually in the capricious world of show biz — Jean and Marcel remained a glamorous and inseparable team for 70 years. He is survived by Jean.
GLORIA TESSLER
Marcel Stellman: born February 15, 1925. Died May 2, 2021
