CILLA BLACK
Cilla Black (born 27 May 1943) is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality. Championed by The Beatles, she began her career as a singer in 1963, and her singles “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (1964) and “You’re My World” (1964) both reached number one. Black had eleven Top Ten hits on the British charts between 1964 and 1971. Black hosted her own eponymous variety show, Cilla, for the BBC between 1968 and 1976 and also hosted hit entertainment shows such as Blind Date (1985–2003) and Surprise Surprise (1984–2001). In 2013, Black celebrated her 50 years in show business. British television network ITV honoured this milestone with a show, called The One & Only Cilla Black, featured Black herself and was hosted by Paul O’Grady. (More from Wikipedia)
The closest that the Poppees ever came to covering a Beatles song is when they recorded “Love of the Loved”, an obscure Lennon/McCartney song that the Beatles never recorded. Instead, they passed it along to Cilla Black, a protegé of their manager Brian Epstein who had been a coat-check girl at the legendary Cavern Club, where the Beatles were honing their skills in 1961. Though virtually unknown on these shores, Cilla Black was the only important female artist to emerge from the British Invasion – and the second-biggest-selling recording artist out of Liverpool (after you know who) – and has been a beloved entertainer in England for decades. While “Love of the Loved” wasn’t a big hit, her version of “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, which came out in January 1964, eclipsed the original by Dionne Warwick and became the biggest selling record in Britain by any female artist in history: Cilla Black sold 800,000 copies of the single in England and another 1,000,000 worldwide.
(December 2010)
* * *
The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me was released in England on EMI/Parlophone Records in March 1963, under the direction of Sir George Martin, who turned 87 earlier this month. Martin had joined EMI in 1950 and oversaw the Parlophone label, which released the early Beatles albums in the UK. The label also featured several other major acts, including the Hollies, Cilla Black, and Billy J. Kramer.
(January 2013)
