MULTIMILLION-SELLING hit songwriter Albert Hammond will take his tour to Dorset next week, ahead of releasing his new album.

Albert plays the Tivoli in Wimborne on Thursday September 22 and will release In Symphony on October 21.

The 14 track album sees the Albert performing hit songs lavishly adapted with orchestration and choir by award-winning producer Rob Mathes at Abbey Road Studio.

The album was re-recorded over five days at Abbey Road Studio.

With more than 30 chart-topping hits and sales of 360 million records for himself as well as artists such as Leo Sayer, Diana Ross, The Hollies, Whitney Houston and Starship, it would be tempting for Albert to hang up the guitar and take it easy.

But he’s still writing and gigging, and after one especially energetic televised live solo show in Berlin last year, label execs wanted to hear more from the London-born, Gibraltar-raised performer.

“This is a record that’s not supposed to happen,” he laughs, “The BMG people came to see me after the show and said, ‘We want to do something.’ I said ‘Well, I don’t, unless I do my hits symphonically…’”

Albert had his first British hit song, Little Arrows, for Leapy Lee in 1968 at the age of 24. A few years later Albert was celebrating his own Top 5 US hit, It Never Rains In Southern California, in 1972.

From there, the only way was up for the blossoming songwriter who, as a teenager, had lived rough and busked in tattered clothing on the streets of Madrid in order to pursue a dream of making music. Following success in the US, his partnerships with Hal David, Carole Bayer Sager, John Bettis and many more were forged in a spirit of creative spontaneity as Albert’s guiding light took him from one situation (writing the USA theme for the Seoul Olympics) – to another (launching Julio Iglesias’ English language career, and teaming him with Willie Nelson).

After five decades, Albert’s greatest melodies have now been re-scored with ensemble arrangements alongside his signature powerhouse vocal and guitar.

The man responsible: acclaimed US producer/arranger Rob Mathes (Sting, Carly Simon, Bruce Springsteen, The Three Tenors), using key virtuosi from several British orchestras, the Trinity Boys Choir and the much sought-after London Voices.

Albert’s best-known compositions have been redefined alongside two Latin tracks to reflect his bilingual upbringing: Alejete (the Spanish version of Just Walk Away, his hit song for Celine Dion,) and 1912 Mexican light classical tune Estrellita.

“My uncle recorded me singing this aged 8, when I was a choir boy,” Albert says, “We made a 78 record that we sold in Gibraltar. I kept it for I don’t know what reason… now we’re recording it, so I’m singing with myself!”

In Symphony is the suitably grandiose sound of a lifetime of music made by the man who still can’t believe his luck in making a living from it. “I don’t think of money,” he says. “I think, ‘Oh great, I made all of those people happy!’”

Contact the Tivoli box office for tickets.