Showing posts with label UK Pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK Pop. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Cilla Black. Pt 1.

  Cilla Black. Pt 1.

Priscilla Maria Veronica White,
                                                   Born on the 27 of may 1943 was known by her performance name
Cilla Black,  firstly an english pop singer, then actress and entertainer.
Championed by her good friends The Beatles, and signed to NEMS Enterprises under the wing of
the Beatles manager  Brian Epstein.
Her professional singing career started in 1963. Brian Epstein introduced Cilla Black to  George Martin who signed her to  Parlophone Records and produced her first single, a track written by
Lennon and McCartney "Love of the Loved" which was released only three weeks after she joined
Brian Epstein. Reaching a modest No. 35 in the UK.



Cilla Black's second single, released at the beginning of 1964, was a cover of the Burt BacharachHal David composition "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which had been written for Dionne Warwick. The single beat Warwick's recording into the UK charts and rose to No. 1 in Britain in February 1964 (spending three weeks there), selling 800,000 UK copies in the process. Her second UK No. 1 success, "You're My World", was an English-language rendition of the Italian popular song "Il Mio Mondo" by composer Umberto Bindi. She also enjoyed chart success with the song in AustraliaNew ZealandEuropeSouth Africa and Canada. Both songs sold over one million copies worldwide, and were awarded gold discs.
Cilla Black's two No. 1 successes were followed by the release of another Lennon–McCartney composition, "It's for You", as her fourth UK single. Paul McCartney played piano at the recording session and the song proved to be another success for Black, peaking at No. 7 on the UK charts.
Cilla Black belonged to a generation of British female singers which included Dusty SpringfieldHelen ShapiroPetula ClarkSandie Shaw and Lulu. These artists (other than Petula Clark) were not singer-songwriters but interpreters of 1960s contemporary popular music by song writers and producers.Cilla Black recorded much material during this time, including songs written by Phil SpectorRandy NewmanTim Hardin and Burt Bacharach. All were produced by George Martin at Abbey Road Studios.
              Brian Epstein and Cilla Black.

              The Single Alfie by Cilla Black.

                                            Cilla Black

                                 Cilla Black.

                                                  Cilla Black.

      Paul McCartney and John Lennon.                            Cilla Black.

                                               






Thursday, 6 March 2014

Squeeze.

                                                                       Squeeze.

Squeeze are a British band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the New Wave period of the late 1970s and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s. They are known in the UK for their hit songs "Cool for Cats", "Up the Junction", "Tempted", "Labelled With Love", "Black Coffee In Bed", "Another Nail in My Heart","Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" and "Hourglass". Though not as commercially successful in the United States, Squeeze had American chart hits with "Tempted", "Hourglass" and "853-5937", and they have a dedicated following there and continue to attract new fans. All of Squeeze's hits were written by band members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, with the former penning the lyrics and the latter handling the composition. The duo were hailed as "the heirs to Lennon and McCartney's throne" during their peak of popularity in the early 1980s. 

The group formed in Deptford, London, in 1974,  and first broke up in 1982. Squeeze then reformed in 1985, and disbanded again in 1999. The band reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007, and this touring version of Squeeze has continued. 

Difford and Tilbrook confirmed during interviews at the V Festival in both 2008 and 2011 (and in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone) that they plan to produce a record of new Squeeze material. In 2010, they issued Spot the Difference, an album of newly recorded versions of older material. Then, during their 2012 tour of the US, Squeeze made available for sale a 4-song CD of new demo recordings; later in 2012, the band's first new official studio recordings in 14 years were issued as the EP Packet Of Four. Currently, this 4-song CD EP is only available as a bonus disc to purchasers of various live concert recordings of Squeeze's 2012 UK tour.