Famous rock musician Manfred Mann turns 84 >
He was born Michael Lubovitz on 21 October 1940 in South Africa and has lived in the UK since 1961. He is best known as a founding member of the bands Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
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The musician was raised in a family of Lithuanian Jews in Johannesburg, the son of David Lubowitz and Alma Cohen. He studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand and worked as a jazz pianist in a number of clubs in Johannesburg.
An outspoken opponent of the apartheid system in his native South Africa, Lubovitz moved to the UK in 1961 and began writing for Jazz News under the pseudonym Manfred Mann.
In 1962 he met drummer and keyboardist Mike Hugg at Clacton Butlins Holiday Camp; together they formed a big blues-jazz band called the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. This eventually became a five-piece band named after him and they signed a recording contract with EMI in 1963 under the HMV label.
The band regularly appear in the UK Singles Chart. Three of their most successful singles, "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Pretty Flamingo" and "Mighty Quinn", topped the UK charts The group's 1964 hit "5-4-3-2-1" is the theme tune for the ITV pop music show Ready Steady Go!. They are also the first South of England-based group to top the US Billboard Hot 100.
The band broke up in 1969, but soon after Mann and Mike Hugg formed Manfred Mann Chapter Three.
They recorded two albums: Manfred Mann Chapter Three in 1969 and Manfred Mann Chapter Three Volume Two in 1970. The band broke up in late 1970.
In 1971, Mann formed Manfred Mann's Earth Band. In 1976, the band topped the charts with a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 1973 song “Blinded by the Light”, and their cover went to number one in Canada and the US.
Although the band never achieved the success of "Blinded by the Light" with any of their other songs, Manfred Mann's Earth Band is still active and Mann still tours with his band, along with founder Mick Rogers.