Peter Callander: Lyricist who wrote the words for hits by artists such as Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield and Sandie Shaw

His Eurovision song ‘A Man Without Love’ fared badly; Kenneth McKellar performed it in a kilt

Callander: Spike Milligan declared that his song ‘Billy – Don’t Be a Hero’ was the best anti-war song ever recorded

Even if you take Lennon and McCartney out of the reckoning, the 1960s was a glorious period for British songwriting. Many groups were writing their own songs, but there was still a Tin Pan Alley tradition with publishers pitching their songs to artists and managers. One of the most successful songwriters of the period was Peter Callander, who knew the industry well from his years as an office boy.

He was born in Hampshire in 1939 but moved to London at an early age, attending the City Of London School. On leaving, he went to a publishing office in Denmark Street and worked his way up from office boy to song plugger. His friend, Dick James, encouraged him to write lyrics and his first success was “Walking Tall”, written with Len Beadle of the Raindrops for Adam Faith, but he used the name Robin Conrad to avoid the embarrassment of promoting his own songs.

Callander had promoted “24 Hours From Tulsa”, a Top 10 success for Gene Pitney. When Pitney came to the UK, he decided at short notice to record here. “I’d never produced anything before, but I said I’d do, it, “Callander told me in 2003, “and it was pretty easy as Gene more or less ran the session himself. We did a song that Len and I had written called ‘Who Needs It’ and it became a hit in the States.”

Callander wrote several lyrics for Les Reed’s music including “Don’t Bring Me Your Heartaches” (Paul and Barry Ryan) and “To Make A Big Man Cry” (Tom Jones, P J Proby). “It was very easy to write with Les,” said Callander, “as he has melodies flowing out of him. If you don’t like one, you simply take the next one. We had a big hit with ‘Leave A Little Love’ for Lulu, written for an ITV song contest that was meant to rival Eurovision. It’s not a very good lyric as the sound of the words took priority over the meaning, but then I’m not writing poetry.”

Starting in 1966 the music publisher Cyril Shane would give Callander European hits and ask him to write English lyrics. Callander nearly always chose to write his own lyric rather than a translation and the hits included “Don’t Answer Me” (Cilla Black), “All My Love” (Cliff Richard), “Give Me Time” (Dusty Springfield), “Suddenly You Love Me” (Tremeloes) and “Monsieur Dupont” (Sandie Shaw).

In 1966 the orchestra leader Cyril Ornadel asked Callander to write a lyric for a melody he had written for the Eurovision Song Contest. “A Man Without Love” by Kenneth McKellar fared disastrously as it was out of keeping with current trends and McKellar sang it in a kilt. “The BBC had wanted to get away from those ding-a-dong type of songs but this didn’t work,” Callander reflected.

He befriended another songwriter, Mitch Murray, who had written for Gerry and the Pacemakers and Freddie and the Dreamers. In 1967 they wrote “Tell The Boys” for Sandie Shaw in the UK Eurovision heats. It came second to “Puppet On A String” and sold well as its B-side. Inspired by the film, they also wrote “The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde”, which went to No 1 for Georgie Fame.

They liked the idea of writing story-songs, having a hit in 1968 with “Hush, Not A Word To Mary” for John Rowles. They wrote and produced several story-songs for Tony Christie including “I Did What I Did For Maria” (1971) and “Avenues And Alleyways” (1973) as well as producing Christie’s version of Neil Sedaka’s “Is This The Way To Amarillo” (1971).

Working with Geoff Stephens, Callander wrote the lyric for “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast”, which was performed as a demonstration record by Peter Lee Stirling. The record label owner, Larry Page, liked it so much that he added strings and brass and released it under the name of Daniel Boone. It became a UK hit in 1971 and then a cover version from Wayne Newton reached the US Top 10.

Murray and Callander wrote the insidious “Hitchin’ A Ride” (1969) for Vanity Fare, “Ragamuffin Man” (1969) for Manfred Mann and “Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha” (1970) for Cliff Richard. “I always admired Cliff Richard because he was an artist who never asked for a part of the publishing,” said Callander, “That’s why he got so many good songs! I did do a song, ‘Lot 109’, with Geoff Stephens that Elvis was going to do but never got round to it. We would have had to give something away on that. In the end, the song was recorded by the Irish showband singer, Dickie Rock.”

Murray and Callander formed the Bus Stop label torecord, release and publish their songs. Bus Stop didn’t pick up many passengers with its first releases but in 1974 they wrote a song about the American civil war, “Billy – Don’t Be A Hero” and hoped to place it with a major artist. Callander’s wife Connie had seen a new group, Paper Lace, on Opportunity Knocks and thought they would be perfect. It was a UK No 1 and Spike Milligan proclaimed it was best anti-war song ever. Paper Lace followed it with another hit, “The Night Chicago Died”. It went to No 1 in America despite Mayor Daley dumping copies of the single in the bay.

After punk made its mark, Murray decided it was time to move into other ventures, while Callander remained a songwriter, often going to Nashville and trying to break into the country market. He wrote a song with Geoff Stephens the day before he died. “I always felt that Geoff and I could have had a massive country hit with ‘We Don’t Make Love On Sundays’,” he said. “Dennis Waterman did a very good job on it but if we could have got that song to Kenny Rogers, it could have gone to No 1.”

Most of his later success was with his old catalogue, such as Sinitta’s 1990 revival of “Hitchin’ A Ride. “I saw a film called Love, Honour And Obey,” he said, “and when the gangsters sing ‘Avenues And Alleyways’ at a karaoke bar, their leader said, ‘Good words’.”

He became an industry figure, and was deputy chairman of the Performing Right Society for several years. Mitch Murray recalls seeing him at the Society Of Distinguished Songwriters (SODS) on 21 February. “I saw him at the Ritz just four days before he left us. He looked perfectly fit and happy. Peter had his strengths and his talents but he also had his quirks. We were accustomed to him leaving a social occasion without saying goodbye, and what do you know, he’s done it again.”

Peter Robin Callander, songwriter: born Lyndhurst, Hampshire 10 October 1939; married Connie (one son); died Harefield 25 February 2014.