Producer, arranger, songwriter, and vocalist Mark Wirtz was one of the more underrated behind-the-scenes characters of the U.K. music scene in the 1960s. He was responsible for a number of classic psychedelic pop records, and his musical influence spread far beyond its commercial prospects. His recordings with Tomorrow on their 1967 self-titled album helped invent psychedelic pop, and his never-finished A Teenage Opera album inspired musicians like Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney to look beyond the three-minute pop songs and into more conceptual work. Wirtz was also a fine producer of girl group sounds, mainstream pop, and, under the Mood Mosaic moniker, a first-rate creator of groovy easy listening music. His career petered out in the late '70s, but as his music was rediscovered in the '90s and 2000s, he took a well-deserved victory lap, writing and producing music until his death in 2020. Wirtz was born in Germany in 1943, growing up a music fan and a budding musician. He moved to London to go to art school, then once he began attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art formed his first group, the Beatcrackers. They were soon signed to EMI under the name Mark Rogers and the Marksmen and issued a pre-Beat Boom novelty track called "Bubble Pop." It didn't do much on the charts, but it did propel Wirtz into a career writing and producing artists, beginning with a stint working with Marlene Dietrich. He also worked with girl groups, female singers such as Peanut, and the pre-Hot Chocolate group the Soul Brothers. His first foray into concept albums was his work as a easy listening producer, making sunny orchestral versions of the hits of the day as well as Wirtz-written songs as the Mood Mosaic and Mark Wirtz and his Orchestra. One of the tracks -- "A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass" -- featured vocals by the Ladybirds and ended up being used as theme music by a number of TV shows. Wirtz got a job in 1967 as an in-house producer for EMI Records and worked on Tomorrow's psychedelic classic single "My White Bicycle" and their self-titled debut album. At the same time, he had hatched a plan for a concept album called A Teenage Opera based around his lush psychedelic productions and songs about the characters of an imagined village. The first single -- "Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'" -- featured Tomorrow's Keith West on vocals and nearly topped the U.K. singles chart upon its 1967 release. Wirtz continued to work doggedly on the project, calling on all his skills as a writer and arranger. The second single, "Sam," also featured West and didn't do quite as well in the charts. West left the project soon after, and the third single -- "(He's Our Dear Old) Weatherman" -- failed to garner much radio or sales support. Wirtz put the project on the back burner and continued to write and produce songs for other artists and for himself (under various guises such as Sweetshop). Many of the songs used recycled pieces of the Teenage Opera; some, like Kippington Lodge's "Shy Boy," were definitely meant to appear on the album. He did eventually move on from the project, recording another concept album as Philwit and Pegasus. The harmony-filled record was co-written with Maria Feltham and featured a who's who of session vocalists including John Carter and Roger Greenaway taking the leads. Wirtz had left EMI by this point to become an independent contractor, helming sessions for vocalists like Samantha Jones and forming a bubblegum group called the Matchmakers. Nothing clicked commercially, and as a result he packed up and moved to Los Angeles. Once there, he tried his hand as a solo artist, releasing two late-period Beatles-influenced albums in 1973, Hot House Smiles and Balloon. Even though he had immigrated to L.A., Wirtz went back to London to record both albums with his old studio cronies and Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. Once again, his music didn't connect with the record-buying public, and he went back behind the scenes to work as an arranger/producer for hire, scoring gigs with the likes of Dean Martin, Helen Reddy, and Leon Russell. By the time the '70s ended, Wirtz had retired from the music business to raise a family and pursue his interest in comedy. He also wrote novels, worked a series of jobs, and took up painting. His music began to be reissued in the mid-'90s, with RPM finally issuing a full version of A Teenage Opera with his blessing. Further reissues followed, and then in the mid-2000s he began producing and recording again. In 2005 he released Love Is Eggshaped under the name Mark Wirtz Ear Theatre, produced a 2006 album by Spyderbaby titled Glassblower, and in 2011 issued Lost Pets 2 under his own name. That would prove to be his final album, as he passed away in August 2020. Cherry Red honored his legacy with the 2024 release of Dream, Dream, Dream: The Anthology, a five-CD set that gathered music from all facets of his '60s and '70s career including unreleased demos, two rare albums of his easy listening music, and a handful of 2024 stereo mixes done by the set's compiler, Stephen C Wilson. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi