Remembering Alan Merrill

Age 69, New York City
Passed away on March 29, 2020

Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951 – March 29, 2020) was an American vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model. In the early 1970s, Merrill was the first Westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan.1 He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song " I Love Rock 'n' Roll",2 which was recorded by the Arrows in 1975.3 The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982.

Merrill was primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but also played the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, and keyboards.4 He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.

Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 19, 1951,5 the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill6 and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs.7 He went to Aiglon College8 in Switzerland from age 9 to 13, a British boarding school.9 On returning to the United States he attended various schools in New York and Los Angeles, and at Sophia University (a private Jesuit research university in Tokyo, Japan).10 He started his semi-pro career in New York City aged 14 when he began playing in Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, and Watertower West. The groups played the club during the 1966–1968 period.

In 1968, Merrill auditioned for the New York City band, the Left Banke. The audition was successful, but the band dissolved. Shortly thereafter, he left to reside in Japan and started his professional career there with the band The Lead, on RCA Victor Records. The band was a foreign Tokyo-based act. The Lead had one hit single, "Akuma ga kureta Aoi Bara" (Blue Rose), but the project soon fell apart when two of the American members of the group were deported.

In 1969, Merrill signed a solo management deal with Watanabe Productions, who contracted him to Atlantic Records, and changed his professional surname from Sachs (pronounced sax) to Merrill because "Merrill" sounded less lascivious and was more commercially viable when spoken by young Japanese pop music fans.

He recorded one album with Atlantic Records, Alone in Tokyo13 which yielded one hit single, "Namida" (Teardrops) and he became the first foreign domestic market pop star in the Japanese Group Sounds.

Merrill acted on the popular TV soap opera Jikan Desu Yo and had his own corner as a regular on the TBS's Young 720, a morning show for teens. He was the featured principal as a model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, AnnAnn, Non-no, and GT Jeans. In 1971 he released an LP of his own compositions titled Merrill 1 in Japan for Denon/ Columbia record label produced by Mickey Curtis. At the peak of his fame Tiny Tim covered an Alan Merrill composition from the Merrill 1 album, a song titled "Movies", in 1972 on Scepter Records. He then formed the band Vodka Collins, which became Japan's top glam rock act. The band included Japanese superstars Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu and Hiroshi Oguchi. Vodka Collins recorded one LP in 1973 titled Tokyo – New York, on the EMI Toshiba label, which is still available in CD re-issues.17 The band are best known for recording and releasing the first popular glam rock songs in Japanese, including the double A-sided single "Sands Of Time" and "Automatic Pilot", released June 1973.

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