If, one day, they build a Merseybeat Hall of Fame, plenty of stars will expect to see themselves on lofty pedestals. Tony Hazzard should be there with them, looking down on many of those long-fringed hair-styles, crowning the lads of another age in tight suits with slim lapels, their cellar-club faces as pale as evaporated milk.

But if you mentioned his name to people in the cafe, they would shrug their shoulders and frown in the effort of memory.

"Who?" they would ask. But this son of nurses was once one of the country's most highlyrated songwriters, who scored hits for Manfred Mann, Herman's Hermits, the Hollies, the Tremeloes, Lulu, Gene Pitney and Andy Williams.

His songs have also been recorded by Cliff Richard, Nana Mouskouri, Simon Dupree, Dave Berry and the Swinging Blue Jeans.

At one time, Hazzard, born and raised in Rainhill, was tipped to have a successful solo career and some of the biggest names in the industry were behind him. He appeared on TV's Ready, Steady, Go and the final show of Thank Your Lucky Stars (1966).

But he was somehow lost in the welter of singer/songwriters, though his albums of the early 70s, Loudwater House and Was That Alright Then?, found their way into thousands of student bedsits.

Now they have been reissued, as Hazzard, 61, hopes for the recognition that his back-catalogue merits.

After all, he claims that Paul McCartney is the only Liverpool composer to have had more of his songs recorded by other people.

Such are the twists of fate for the boy who attended Prescot Grammar School a couple of years after the late Stu Sutcliffe, the artist who was John Lennon's friend and, briefly, the Beatles' bass guitarist.

Perhaps recognising that his songs, such as Ha Ha Said the Clown, Fox on the Run and Maria Elena, are better known than him, Hazzard emphasises that there are two Zs in his name.

But when one of his tunes trembles through a radio or juke-box, or he hears it being hummed at the bus stop, he can smile, knowing he has secured his own slice of immortality.

Hazzard was born to Reg and his wife Lily. From an early age, he played the ukulele and guitar.

If things had run the usual course he would have ended up in a skiffle group, copying the big hits like all the rest.

In fact, for a short time he did have a group, which played socials and on one occasion "chickened out" of a chance to play at The Cavern. The drum-mer was the late Graham Nown, who became a writer and had a column in the Daily Post in the 1990s.

But Hazzard was a bright boy and A level passes in Latin, English, Art and General Studies took him to Durham University.

So he spent the high days of Merseybeat (1962-65) in the groves of academe, instead of the cellar clubs, where the Beatles, the Searchers and the others made their names.

"I was going to do psychology, but I was persuaded to do a general degree, which did include psychology, as well as Latin, English and philosophy," he recalls..

"Strangely enough in the February after I had started at university, there was a Rag Ball and the Swinging Blue Jeans came up to play.

"I was looking after them and they became mates. We have been mates ever since."

He wrote "Hey, Mrs Housewife" for them, but it wasn't a hit.

At Durham, Hazzard met Sid Waddle, who had gone there as a researcher, following his first-class history degree from Cambridge. Later he became the TV darts commentator.

Waddle knew Tony Garnett, then story editor on BBC TV's The Wednesday Play (famed for Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home), and introduced him to Hazzard.

Garnett listened to some of Hazzard's songs which he judged to be "very commercial". But if he wanted to make it, he would have to move to London.

Hazzard was signed to Gerry Bron, music publisher, manager of Manfred Mann and sister of the actress Eleanor. Bron put him on a retainer and the hits began.

"At the time I had a single out myself called 'You'll Never Put Shackles on Me', which nobody bought, but we did TV," he says..

During this golden period, Hazzard was also writing album material. "I suppose it is the English literature thing, but I like good lyrics, " he says.

Obviously, he feels that, at their best, the Beatles came into that category, quoting McCartney's, "love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight," ((I'm Looking Through You) as a great line.

But everyone has a point when their talent is exhausted.

"There are an awful lot of big stars who should have stopped for a while, taken some time out," Hazzard says..

His own Loudwater House LP was written in a wing of a Regency mansion of the same name near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

It became a cult record and the title of the sequel (Was That Alright Then?) reflected his anxieties about commercial success.

Now they have been collected into a CD called Go North: The Bronze Anthology, released by Castle Record (part of Sanctuary, the reissue specialist).

He is also planning an album of new songs.

Hazzard has been living in south east Cornwall since 1974, where he still writes and occasionally performs.

In the lean spells he has worked as a session musician and singer, writing numerous jingles for radio, TV, cinema. These include advertisements for products, including J-Cloth, Vim, Benson and Hedges and Texaco. But he took a break from music for seven years in the 80s to run a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation clinic in Plymouth.

His private life has been rather complicated, but it has produced a son and two daughters.

Now the songwriter to the stars must hope there's still a Hazzard ahead.

Tony's Hit Parade

AMONG Tony Hazzard's most successful songs are: You Won't Be Leaving (a number 20 for Herman's Hermits in 1966), Ha Ha Said the Clown (four for Manfred Mann, 1967), Fox on the Run (five, Manfred Mann, 1968), Listen to Me (11, Hollies, 1967), Hello World (14, Tremeloes, 1969), Me the Peaceful Heart (nine, Lulu, 1968), Maria Elena (25, Gene Pitney, 1969), Getting Over You (35, Andy Williams, 1974).

Most of these records had considerable overseas success as well. Ha Ha Said the Clown was a number one twice in Germany.

The song was also given a bluegrass treatment by Tom T Hall, winning a citation in the US Country Music Awards. The Yardbirds took it into the US Top 40, with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, later of Led Zeppelin, playing on it.