Smith, Mike

▪ 2009

Michael George Smith 

      British singer and songwriter

born Dec. 6, 1943, Edmonton, Middlesex, Eng.

died Feb. 28, 2008, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Eng.

was the lead singer and keyboardist for the Dave Clark Five (DC5), one of the most popular rock-and-roll bands of the British Invasion in the early 1960s. The DC5's hit songs included “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Can't You See That She's Mine,” “Because,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Over and Over,” “I Like It like That,” “You Got What It Takes,” “Everybody Knows,” and “Catch Us if You Can,” which served as the title song of the group's 1965 rock movie. Their popularity, which briefly rivaled that of the Beatles, led to a record for a British band—12 appearances on TV's The Ed Sullivan Show, but the group fell out of favour in the late '60s and disbanded in 1970. Smith formed his own short-lived band before concentrating on songwriting and producing until an accident in 2003 left him severely paralyzed. He died less than two weeks before the DC5 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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