Singer’s ‘Prayer’ Makes a Plea for Childhelp

With his flowing blond hair and cowboy boots, Mark Williamson looks like a typical L.A. rocker. But to the child-abuse prevention group he is helping, Williamson is far from ordinary.

Williamson, an English singer-songwriter, is donating net proceeds of one of his songs, which features a 70-member celebrity chorus, to Childhelp USA, a Woodland Hills-based international charity.

Chorus members on “Prayer for the Children,” include actor Suzanne Somers, Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin and the Doobie Brothers’ Jeff (Skunk) Baxter.

Ebullient, witty and down-to-earth, the Woodland Hills transplant is no newcomer to working with children. Twelve years ago in England, Williamson sang and read stories to youngsters on a children’s television show.

“That would definitely end my career if anyone were to see tapes of that show,” he joked.

David H. Watson Jr., a fund-raising consultant for Childhelp, said the organization appreciates the money and publicity that Williamson and his record company, Peak Records, is generating for the charity.

“His sincerity is genuine,” Watson said. “Mark is one of those rare gems.”

Childhelp is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Watson said that as far as he knows, Williamson’s fund-raising song is the biggest effort a musician has made to help the organization.

The project evolved from a series of chance occurrences. In July of last year, Williamson was trying to write a song about a girlfriend who had just left him, when he got a major case of writer’s block. Turning on the TV, the 33-year-old artist became engrossed in two talk shows, one dealing with child kidnaping and the other, child abuse.

“When you see another family going through something so horrible, as a parent, that touches a spot,” said Williamson, the father of a 12-year-old daughter he calls “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

So, the stymied song about love lost became “Prayer for the Children.” Soon after, the singer signed a long-hoped-for record deal, with Peak Records, a subsidiary of GRP / MCA Records Inc. Williamson told Andi Howard, Peak’s president, that he wanted the song to help a charity and Howard thought of Childhelp.

The song was co-written by Michael Thompson, who helped write four other singles on Williams’ debut album, “Time Slipping By.” “Prayer for the Children” received a favorable mention in Billboard, and is climbing the adult contemporary charts.

Howard said she doesn’t know how much money the single has made, but hopes that it will eventually pull in $500,000.

Williamson said he would like the song to focus the public’s attention on the problem of child abuse, particularly now, as National Children’s Day, on Sunday approaches.