In this episode of  Vinyl Vibes Jack talks with Mark Holden, the carnation kid, an Australian '70s pop artist. Mark grew up Listening to the likes of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and so he began to write many folk inspired songs during his teenage years. Appearing on shows such as Adelaide Today, Mark would be discovered by the shows host Ernie Sigley. Through Sigley, Mark would make appearances in Sydney and soon come into contact with John Bromall. Bromall would soon get Mark signed to a EMI recording contract.  In 1975 Mark would be signed to EMI and would release his first album Dawn in Darkness. The album was a commercial flop selling a mere two thousand copies. EMI kept their faith in Mark despite this and in April 1976 Mark got a call from Colin Petersen, former Bee Gee drummer, then A&R for EMI. He told  Mark he needed to record a song called "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", a song recorded by Eric Carmen that had not yet come out in Australia. Mark did so with Colin producing the song and it was Marks first pop hit reaching number 13 on the Kent music charts. His next hit " I Wanna Make You my Lady" would come in September 1976 after ABBA manager, Stig Anderson, gave Mark the song. After a performance of the song on Countdown in a white suit with a red carnation, Mark would become known as the carnation kid. He would go to have other hits in the '70s such as "Last Romance" and "Reach Out for the One Who Loves You".  By the tail end of the ‘70s Mark believed his pop career was coming to an end and made  his way to the United States in 1980. He would find success in the US as a songwriter in the mid ‘80s writing "Lady Soul" for The Temptations. Mark has remained in music throughout the years and today is working on the production side of things.  "I was in the lift going to The Logies and in the lift was Stig Anderson...manager of ABBA, and I had the length of an elevator ride to hassle him. I said 'Hi I'm Mark Holden, I've got this hit...have you got any songs' and he followed up and sent me a bunch of songs and one of the songs was a song in Swedish, the translation was "I'm Gonna Make You An Angel"...I re-wrote the English lyrics and 'I Wanna Make You My Lady' Was Born." - Mark Holden on this episode of Vinyl Vibes talking about how his hit "I Wanna Make You My Lady" came to be Episode Hosted and Produced by Jack Hodgins To hear the full on-demand version of this program, go to https://www.2nurfm.com.au/shows/vinyl-vibes The website for Vinyl Vibes.  If you like this content, we'd love to hear from you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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