Werner Theunissen (Heerlen, May 12, 1942 – United Kingdom, January 18, 2010) was a Dutch (bass) guitarist, guitar teacher, songwriter and composer. In the sixties and seventies he played in a few bands, but he was best known as a songwriter for Pussycat. He wrote at least 55 Pussycat songs, including the number-1 hits Mississippi and My broken souvenirs, and the top-10 hits Georgie and Smile.
Theunissen played in The Rocking Apaches around 1964. He then played for The Entertainers, a solid Indo rock band that released several singles in 1965 and 1966. In the meantime, he became the guitar teacher of, among others, Tonny Kowalczyk, the later singer of Pussycat. Theunissen also played in its predecessor, Sweet Reaction, around 1973.
However, he was mainly involved as a songwriter for the three sisters. For Sweet Reaction he wrote two songs that ended up on the A-side of a single, Tell Alain (1971) and Daddy (1975). As Sally Lane, Tonny Willé released the solo single For you (1973), for which he provided the lyrics.
He wrote at least 55 songs for Pussycat alone. Of their LP First of all (1976), eleven of the twelve were by him. This included Mississippi, which caught on worldwide and achieved a number 1 ranking in 14 countries. The song has also been covered many times, such as by Lucille Starr, Barbara Fairchild, Claw Boys Claw, Jonathan King, Matchbox, Jo Vally, Raymond Lefèvre, Roy Etzel and Pepel in Kri, and by artists in other languages such as Swedish, Danish and Hebrew. Unlike Pussycat, Fairchild did achieve a hit in the US with a number 31 ranking in 1976 in the Hot Country Songs.
Other hits he wrote for Pussycat included My broken souvenirs, Georgie, Smile and Wet day in September. Some of these songs have also been covered several times. For example, Koos Alberts & Yvon had another hit in 1996 with De Summerzon (cover of Smile), but there were also many covers abroad. Even when Tonny Willé continued with a solo career after the band’s breakup, Theunissen continued to write songs for her. In November 2012 she posthumously dedicated his song Impressions to him.
Theunissen died in 2010 in a restaurant in the United Kingdom. He was 67 years old.
