Joe "Mr. Piano" Henderson born 2 May 1920

Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson (2 May 1920 – 4 May 1980) was a British pianist, composer, performer and a successful music publisher of Henderson Music Limited, who was most noteworthy during the 1950s.

Born in Glasgow*, Scotland, Henderson was taught to play the piano by his mother and became a professional at age 13. His parents had planned a medical career but the young pianist had other ideas. He entered the music business before World War II and played with Teddy Joyce and other bands before joining the Royal Air Force.

During his stay in the Forces, he came to prominence with service bands and entertainment units. The idea of composing and music publishing came more and more into his mind, and, when he was demobbed, he 'did the rounds' of Tin Pan Alley to offer his services to a number of the major publishing firms. Joe earned his 'Mr. Piano' label while visiting Holland. The owner of the hotel where Joe was staying found it difficult to pronounce his surname and knowing that he was a pianist, solved the problem by calling him 'Mr. Piano'!

After World War II, he began working for the Peter Maurice publishing company. It was there that he met the singer Petula Clark. From 1947 until 1960, Joe served as Petula Clark's accompanist, arranger and musical director. It was a chance meeting in 1947 that Joe met Petula. The then 15-year-old Petula stepped into Joe's Denmark Street office with her father Leslie. They urgently needed a song for her television show 'Petula Clark' that was going out live that same afternoon on BBC TV. Joe not only found the right song for Petula but he also insisted on rehearsing it with her and pointing out a couple of minor faults in 
her presentation of the song. Leslie Clark, impressed at the way Petula and Joe worked together at rehearsals, invited Joe to become Petula's permanent musical adviser and accompanist.

In 1949, Joe introduced Petula to Alan A. Freeman who, together with her father Leslie Clark, formed Polygon Records in order to better control and facilitate Petula’s singing career for which she recorded her earliest hit recordings.   Clark and Henderson later had a romantic relationship, which is said to have broken up because he did not want to be "Mr. Petula Clark". In 1957, George Hamilton IV scored a hit with Henderson and Jack Fishman's composition "Why Don't They Understand", a song they wrote about Henderson's relationship with Clark. Henderson later penned "There's Nothing More To Say" about their split. Clark recorded both songs as album tracks.

As a composer Joe wrote the incidental music and several songs for three British films that featured Petula including Made In Heaven (1952), The Gay Dog (1954) and The Happiness of Three Women (1954).  In 1955, Clark suggested Henderson be allowed to record his own music, and he enjoyed two chart hits on Polygon, "Sing It With Joe" and "Sing It Again With Joe", both medleys of popular songs. The distinguished company of friends singing along with Joe included Petula. This marked the start of a remarkable solo recording career that continued until the late 1970s.

                             

Henderson's biggest hit was "Trudie", which made number 14 in the UK Singles Chart and number 1 in the sheet music chart, where it was the biggest hit of 1958. The song also won an Ivor Novello Award. In 1960, the theme from the Anthony Newley film Jazzboat gained him a further Ivor Novello Award.

Throughout the 1950s, Petula and Joe toured together extensively around the UK and presented their own 26 week radio series in 1959 for the BBC Light Programme entitled Pet and Mr. Piano where Petula and Joe wandered through a precarious musical alphabet. Pet and Mr. Piano was transmitted from Brighton.  Joe remained Petula's musical director, arranger and accompanist until 1960. Joe married Janet Brunell in December 1961.

Throughout the 60s and 70s Joe concentrated on a career as a solo pianist in variety and summer shows. He recorded numerous albums and appeared in Summer Season at top venues in Blackpool and Bournemouth and presented his own daily BBC Radio 2 show Melody Time.

Shortly before his death his car was broken into and all his music and contact books were stolen. It is thought that the worry over this contributed to his suffering a fatal heart attack at his London Hyde Park home on 4^th May 1980, two days after his sixtieth birthday.

In 1994, a previously unreleased 14-minute medley of Clark singing while accompanied by Henderson, recorded around 1958, was found in the Pye Records vaults and released on her CD, The Nixa Years: Volume 2.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Petula Clark’s web site)(* one source gave Kirckaldy as birth town)