Despite failing to gain the mainstream recognition his huge talent deserved, David Ackles was a singer-songwriter from the early 1970s who created strange, mournful torch songs that, filled with darkness and theatre, went on to influence the likes of Elvis Costello, Elton John and Phil Collins.

Ackles started his career as a child actor at just four-years-old, and featured in six of the 'Rusty' children's films for Columbia Pictures, which told the stories of an heroic German Shepherd dog and were popular B-movies in the mid-to-late 1940s. Growing up, he also sang obscure vaudeville folk songs with his sister before studying English and Film Studies at the University of California and landing a job as an in-house songwriter at Elektra Records on the strength of his track 'Blue Ribbons' (originally written for Cher). It led to him releasing his self-titled debut album in 1968, from which opening track 'The Road to Cairo' became one of his most acclaimed works and was covered by psychedelic pop singer Julie Driscoll.

Merseybeat stars The Hollies also released a version of his dreamy, barbed ballad 'Down River', whilst his sullen, baritone croon and melancholy piano refrains drew comparisons with Bertolt Brecht, Scott Walker and Leonard Cohen. The following album 'Subway to the Country' had a bigger budget and turned Ackles' bleak romanticism into dramatic, orchestral pop productions, but it was his third record 'American Gothic' which came to be regarded as his finest moment. Produced by Bernie Taupin, the album was grand and elegant, like an Americana opera, and received large amounts of critical acclaim, yet, still failed to make a commercial breakthrough and was written into history as a lost classic. After the low key release of fourth album 'Five and Dime' for Columbia Records in 1973, he turned to writing screenplays for theatre and film and taught at his old university before his death in 1999 from lung cancer.

David Ackles

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