John Charles Franz (23 February 1922 – 29 January 1977) was an English record producer and A&R man at the Philips label. He was one of Britain's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s. While his recordings encompassed several forms of mainstream popular music, his most enduring contributions were to British pop music of the mid-1960s on records by Dusty Springfield, The Walker Brothers, and the early solo recordings of Scott Walker. From 1973, he was responsible for the production of Peters & Lee recordings, which included their No. 1 chart hit "Welcome Home". Career Franz was born in Holloway, London, England, and learned piano before joining the music publishers Francis, Day & Hunter as an office boy in Denmark Street, the British equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. He also worked as a club pianist in dance bands, and appeared on radio with harmonica player Ronald Chesney. By the late 1940s, he was regarded as one of Britain's top accompanists for singers such as Anne Shelton. He also worked as a BBC orchestrator before becoming the head of A&R at Philips Records in 1954. Franz went on to produce many prolific British artists for the label, including Dame Shirley Bassey, the Beverley Sisters, Frankie Vaughan, Robert Earl, Susan Maughan, Marty Wilde, Ronnie Carroll, Sir Harry Secombe, Winifred Atwell, The Springfields, The Four Pennies, Julie Rogers, Peters and Lee, Dusty Springfield, Anne Shelton, and the Walker Brothers in the 1960s, as well as American singers who recorded in Britain, such as Mel Tormé. He also worked with some American artists under license from Columbia Records, such as Johnnie Ray, Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney. Franz's production trademarks were a lush choir and big orchestras, provided by Wally Stott, Ivor Raymonde and Peter Knight. Franz oversaw discs that matched first-class pop rock material and vocalists with the sort of orchestral production that was more typical of middle of the road pop. Franz's role with these artists seems not to have been so much that of an innovator as one of a capable delegator. For Dusty Springfield's first solo record in 1963, "I Only Want to Be with You", and the many that followed – which were the best British equivalents to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound – he relied heavily upon arranger Ivor Raymonde, who also co-wrote "I Only Want To Be With You". Raymonde did some work on Walker Brothers