Alan Tew
Alan Stanley Tew was a British composer and arranger.
Also recorded as Alan Stanley Tew
Alan Tew
- Name
- Alan Tew
- Birth Name
- Alan Stanley Tew
- Born
- 7 July 1930
- Birthplace
- Leytonstone, London, England
- Died
- 10 January 1997
- Place of death
- Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England
- Occupation
- Composer, arranger
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
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wikidata · Q4707894 · wikipedia · Alan Tew
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Alan Tew • Birth Name — Alan Stanley Tew • Born — 7 July 1930 • Birthplace — Leytonstone, London, England • Died — 10 January 1997 • Place of death — Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England • Origin — United Kingdom • Genre — Music • Occupation — Composer, arranger • Instrument — Piano • Label — Pye Alan Stanley Tew was a British composer and arranger.
Career
Career
Tew got his start in the 1950s as the pianist and arranger for the Len Turner Band. Tew composed the song "Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo" with Bill Shepherd, originally performed by Sophia Loren in 1960. The song enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in 2012 after appearing in the TV show Mad Men. During his career, Tew released a number of orchestral albums, including This Is My Scene (1967), recorded in Phase 4 Stereo, and The Magnificent Westerns (1969), on CBS Records. Tew also led his own orchestra, the Alan Tew Orchestra, in the 1970s. He also collaborated with Cat Stevens. Tew was a composer of library music in the United Kingdom, and many of his cues subsequently became themes for television programmes in that region. These include Doctor in the House (titled "Bond Street Parade") and...And Mother Makes Three. Some of his library music was used as the score for the 1970s series The Hanged Man and was released as the LPs Drama Suite Part I and Drama Suite Part II. Some of these cues also later appeared as incidental music in The Two Ronnies, The Sweeney and SpongeBob SquarePants. One of Tew's library themes from the 1970s, "The Big One", would eventually be used as the theme for the American television series The People's Court. "The Big One" would also be used in the "Gold Plated Delinquents" episode of the British detective show Van der Valk (1977), as well as the erotic films Barbara Broadcast (1977), The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue (1980), and Malibu High (1979). Some of Tew's funk-influenced work was included in the score for the 2009 film Black Dynamite and was subsequently sampled by various hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Alan Tew, revision 1362939727 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Nijjar, Aneet. Alan Tew Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More. AllMusic.
- 2.Howe, Sean. The Musical History of Megan's French Mad Men Tune. Vulture. 25 March 2012.
- 3.Alan Tew. Starborne Productions.
- 4.The Hanged Man – Alan Tew's Music from The TV Series (1975). Soul Jazz Records.
- 5.Patrin, Nate. The Strange World of Library Music. Pitchfork. 20 May 2014.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 29 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
43,975 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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