Leo Sayer

Few singers of the 1970s crossed the Atlantic as readily as Leo Sayer, the stage name of Gerard Hugh Sayer, born in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1948. Though he began his career in Britain in the early 1970s, he later became an Australian citizen and now lives in New South Wales. His reputation rests above all on "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", a disco-styled hit that earned a Grammy Award in 1978 and remains the work for which he is best known.

His early run was swift. The debut single "Why Is Everybody Going Home" failed to chart, but "The Show Must Go On" reached number two in the UK, and his debut album Silverbird also charted there. Hits followed through the decade, among them "Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)", his first top-10 in the US, and "When I Need You", which in 1977 gave him his first UK number one and also topped the US chart. The Very Best of Leo Sayer became his first UK number-one album in 1979. His first seven UK hit singles all reached the top 10, a feat first achieved by his early manager, Adam Faith.