Swinging Sixties Songbirds [1] Quiz

Answer: Petula Clark

Petula has had an amazing career only very little of which I have room to recall here. She was a child star who followed her 1942 debut with about 500 programmes during WW11 to entertain the troops. She toured the UK with another child pergormer - Julie Andrews - during this period. She had many film roles from 1944 onwards, including a part in "Finian's Rainbow" in 1968 when she was Fred Astaire's final on-screen dancing partner. "The Little Shoemaker" was her first chart entry in 1954. She married Claude Wolff, a Frenchman,in 1958 and used this to develop her career on the continent as a multi-lingual performer. I have mentioned her first number one in 1960 and in 1964 she began a real run of hits with "Downtown" which was number one in many places internationally (but only No 2 in Britain} and which entered The Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003. Also among these hits was Charlie Chaplin's "Love, This is my Song" in 1967 which was an international number one too. She has had tours and TV shows in Europe and the USA as well as appearing on The West End for over a year as Maria in "The Sound of Music" from 1981 - followed by starring roles in "Blood Brothers" and "Sunset Boulevard". She received a silver disc in 2008 for her album "Then and Now" which included her hits plus some of her own compositions. In 1998 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Answer: The Luvvers

Since "Shout" Lulu has had top ten chart hits in every decade since but despite this had not had a UK number one until she combined with "Take That" in 1993 with "Relight my Fire". She appeared in the 1967 film "To Sir, With Love" alongside Sydney Poitier, from which came the epoymous theme tune.

It was only issued as a B side in the UK but went to number one in the USA and was awarded a gold disc. In 1969 she sang "Boom Bang-a-Bang" in the Eurovision Song Contest and came equal first with Spain, The Netherlands and France. I guess they hadn't heard of penalty shoot-outs then! She has remained busy throughout her career with TV, Tours, recordings, musicals and is currently on a tour called "Here Come the Girls" with two other divas. If Cliff Richard is the "Peter Pan" of pop, she must be "Wendy"!

Answer: Tell Him

Billie had a chart entry in 1962 with Mike Sarne on his follow-up to his number one "Come Outside". She took the Wendy Richard part on "Will I What?" which got to No 18. She didn't perhaps have the success that her talent deserved perhaps due to circumstances.

In 1963 she had bad publicity after a newspaper linked her with Jet Harris of The Shadows, who was married, which didn't help her career. Later on, in 1968, her final chart entry reached No 33 but its success was hampered by an industrial dispute at the manufacturing plant.

A retrospective of her work for Decca was issued in 2005 and in 2006 she re-united with Jet Harris for a series of concerts.

Answer: The Seekers

If you were asked to name a group who got four gold discs in the 60s you probably wouldn't come up with The Seekers but nevertheless "Georgy Girl", "I'll Never Find Another You", "World Of Our Own" and "The Carnival is Over" all achieved this. Altogether they have sold over 50 million records. With "I'll Never Find Another You" they were the first Australian pop group to have a top five hit simultaneously in Australia, UK and USA, in 1965.

The group came to England as entertainment on a cruise liner in 1964 and were offered work when they got here which led to their amazing success.

They have formed and reformed over the years and are still active.

Answer: She performed in bare feet

For coming second in a talent contest Sandie's prize was to sing at a charity concert in London where she was spotted by Adam Faith who recommended her to his manager, Eve Taylor. Her second release was the Bacharach/David song "Always Something There to Remind Me" which got to number one in 1964 and was the first of 15 top 40 chart entries in the 60s.

Her Eurovision winner "Puppet on a String" reached the top in 1967 and was her third number one after she had topped the charts again in 1965 with "Long Live Love".

Despite her reservations about her Euro winner it did earn her a gold disc and more recently she has spoken more fondly of it. After the 60s she has fitted her music career around other things in her life which include family considerations and practising as a psychotherapist.

In 2010 she has been more high profile again and active in the entertainment sphere.

Answer: Apple

Mary Hopkin was another who was discovered due to a talent show. She won "Opportunity Knocks" on TV and was seen by Twiggy who recommended her to Paul McCartney. Following this she became one of the first performers to record on the Apple label with "Those Were The Days" and then had three other top ten hits in 1969/70 . One of these was "Knock, Knock Who's There" which finished runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest.

After her marriage in 1971 she fitted her career around her family life and is still performing and recording.

She combined with Peter Skellern and Julian Lloyd Webber to form a group called Oasis in the 80s but this was disbanded after releasing an album and two singles. She has often collaborated with other artists on projects of her choice over the past 20 years.

Answer: Come Back and Shake Me

Although Clodagh had made TV appearances and recordings from the early 60s it wasn't until 1969 that she had chart success with a number 3, a number 4 and a number 22 all in the same year. She represented Britain in Eurovision 1971 with "Jack in the Box" which climbed to number 4 - followed in the same year with her last chart entry, "Lady Love Bug".

She may have missed the boat on this by having "Stand by Your Man", a massive hit for Tammy Wynette in 1975, on the B-side. She carried on recording but had no further chart success depite being in demand for TV shows.

She has been in Pantomime at the London Palladium and in musicals on the West End as well as latterly branching off into acting for TV.

Answer: White Horses

Jacky is Jackie Lee who began her career with showbands in Ireland before coming to England in the mid 50s and joining The Squadronaires who were a popular dance band. From 1959-64 she was a member of the Raindrops who were a successful quartet much in demand on TV, radio, records and variety shows.

The group included Vince Hill, who had a string of hits in the 60s, and songwriter Les Vandyke (aka Johnny Worth), who wrote two number ones for Adam Faith. She was also busy as a session singer and was on number ones by Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck, respectively, as well as on "Hey Joe" with Jimi Hendrix - quite a range.

She recorded with James Last and at one point employed Elton John as a member of her session singers. In 2003 "White Horses" was voted the best TV theme of all time by "The Penguin Television Companion.

In addition, her recording of "Rupert the Bear", a hit in 1971, was at number seven in the same poll. Sadly, Jackie had to stop singing prematurely, on medical grounds, in 1973.

Answer: Drums

Yes, Honey Lantree beat Karen Carpenter to it! She was part of the group which also included her brother John on bass. "Have I the Right?" was a massive international hit recorded at the home-made studio of Joe Meek and included some members of the band stamping on wooden stairs up to the studio to enhance the beat.

They had four chart entries between 1964 and 1965, the other most successful being "That's the Way" which reached number 12. They had disbanded by 1967 but there have been different line-ups put together for touring through the 90s and again from 2004 onwards.

Answer: Dionne Warwick

Those who weren't about in the 60s might not realise that Cilla was a very successful singer before her television career. She had twenty top 40 hits between 1963 and the early 70s. She was the top selling female recording artist in the UK during the 60s but branched out into TV as the hits began to dry up.

She had a popular comedy series before changing tack again and becoming a game show host. "Blind Date", "Surprise, Surprise" and "The Moment of Truth" turned her into the highest paid female performer on UK TV.

She has done cabaret, pantomime and currently still pops up regularly on TV in a guest capacity. When I saw Dionne Warwick about two years ago she was still complaining about British artists stealing her songs with their covers in the 60s! Apparently, Cilla is to play The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at Aylesbury in Bucks Dec 2010 to Jan 2011.