He did, however, pursue a kind of shadow career, recording cover versions of hit records under a variety of pseudonyms for budget-price labels, including a version of The Long And Winding Road in the name of “Day Costello” (Costello being his mother’s maiden name).
In 1973 he wrote and recorded the theme song of The Secret Lemonade Drinker, an award-winning series of television commercials for R White’s lemonade. His son, Declan, then a teenager, played drums and sang backing vocals on the recording. The series ran for a remarkable 10 years, with guest appearances by Frankie Howerd, Ronnie Corbett and others. MacManus also wrote and recorded songs for the soundtrack of the 1975 film Secrets of a Superstud.
For its weekly radio show, the Joe Loss band performed the latest hits live. The work entailed developing enormous flexibility of style and a constantly changing repertoire. MacManus would learn and practise the songs at home, with Declan taking it all in, even before he could talk. When Declan metamorphosed into Elvis Costello, his approach to being a performer was, he said, far from starry-eyed: “I saw that it wasn’t actually glamorous, that it was sort of a job. So that by the time I was a teenager, I wasn’t all that convinced I would do music for a living, much as I loved it.”
His father, on the other hand, came to regard his son’s achievements with undisguised awe: “I often say to people, 'The fairies stole my little boy, Declan, and brought me this genius, Elvis, in his place’.”
Ross MacManus is survived by five sons. His wife predeceased him.
Source:
