This thread was inspired by the discovery of a piece in the FDH library called It's Spring Again, written by Bruce Forsyth.
Bruce Forsyth? The legendary entertainer and game show host described by no less an authority than Kermit The Frog as 'a variety show all by himself'? Yes, that Bruce Forsyth!
It's Spring Again appears on FDH 249, and is the only library track Brucie wrote, being an instrumental version of one of his songs which the man himself recorded as a single with the Geoff Love Orchestra in 1960.
So, are there any other unlikely library music composers out there?
Well, there's
Spike Milligan - the massively influential comedian and writer, who had a couple of tracks released by Maximus Music, no doubt due to his long-standing songwriting partnership with Ed Welch who also appears on the same album: discogs.com/release/11705333-Mike-Maxfield-In-The-Mood
Redvers Kyle - who wrote a couple of tracks for KPM and Harmonic, his day job was as a continuity announcer for Rediffusion, and later Yorkshire Television. There is a brief glimpse of him at 2'53" in this incredibly rare clip from 1968:
American comedian
Red Skelton composed and conducted a number of tracks for Rediffusion's Reditune background music service, which while not strictly library music could well have ended up as such due to Rediffusion's dabbling in the field: discogs.com/release/8166099-Red-Skelton-Raindrops-On-A-Balalaika
Are there any other surprising people with a library skeleton in their closet? I don't know, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway!