Van Dyke

Les Vandyke is one of those rare talents in English pop music whose songwriting success crossed several genres and eras, from the end of the 1950s right into the 1970s. Indeed, he saw more success than many onlookers realized, working also under the name Johnny Worth and John Worsley -- and none of these was the name he came into the world with. He was born Yani Panakos Paraskeva Skoradalides, on June 21, 1931, in Battersea, South London. As a boy he used the name John Skoradalides and trained as a draughtsman, interrupted by mandatory military service. He resumed civilian lif...