This week’s open threads are dedicated to popular Black British musicians.
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE (born on January 8, 1937), is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was “one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century”.In the US, in particular, she is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979), and is a UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Shirley Veronica Bassey was the sixth and last child of Eliza Jane Start(English) and Henry Bassey(Nigerian) in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales (now called Cardiff Bay). Bassey’s mother also had four children from previous relationships, two of whom lived in the Bassey household. Eliza had married previously, to Alfred Metcalfe, and upon her marriage to Bassey, Eliza Jane Metcalfe listed Alfred Metcalfe as her father on the marriage registry. It has thus been theorized that she never divorced Alfred, and that her marriage to Bassey was bigamous. Eliza and Henry’s second child died in infancy, so Shirley was born into a household of three sisters, two half-sisters, and one brother. A year later her father was arrested and charged with having sex with a minor, was tried, imprisoned for five years, and then deported. After Henry’s arrest, Eliza and the children moved to the nearby steelworking district of Splott.
As a preteen attending Moorland Road School, Bassey’s strong voice was noticed by teachers and students In 1955, a chance recommendation of her to Michael Sullivan, a booking agent, put her firmly on course for her destined career. He saw talent in Bassey, and decided he would make her a star. She toured various theatres until she was seen by Jack Hylton whose interest in her put her firmly on the road to stardom. He invited her to star in Al Read’s Such Is Lifeat the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End. During the show’s run, Philips A&R and record producer Johnny Franz spotted her on television, was impressed, and offered her a recording deal. Bassey recorded her first single, entitled “Burn My Candle”, and Philips released it in February 1956, when Bassey was 19. Owing to the suggestive lyrics, the BBC banned it, but it sold well nonetheless, backed with her powerful rendition of “Stormy Weather”. Further singles followed, and in February 1957, Bassey had her first hit with “The Banana Boat Song”, which reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart.
During that year, she also recorded under the direction of American producer Mitch Miller in New York for the Columbia label, producing the single “If I Had a Needle and Thread” b/w “Tonight My Heart She Is Crying”. She then travelled to Las Vegas to make her American stage début at the El Rancho Vegas. In mid-1958, she recorded two singles that would become classics in the Bassey catalogue. “As I Love You” was released as the B-side of another ballad, “Hands Across the Sea”; it did not sell well at first, but after a chance appearance at the London Palladium things began to pick up. In January 1959, it reached No. 1 and stayed there for four weeks. It thus became the first number one single by a Welsh artist. Bassey also recorded “Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me” at this point, and while “As I Love You” raced up the charts, so too did this record, with both songs being in the top three at the same time. A few months later, Bassey signed to EMI’s Columbia label, and the second phase in her recording career had begun.
Goldfinger
In the early and mid-1960s, Bassey had numerous hits on the UK charts, and five albums in the Top 15. Her 1960 recording of “As Long As He Needs Me” from Lionel Bart’s Oliver reached No. 2, and had a chart run of 30 weeks. On November 13, 1960, Bassey made her début performance on American television, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Other Top Ten hits of the period included her second No. 1, the double A-side “Reach for the Stars”/”Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (1961), “I’ll Get By” (also 1961), and a cover version of the Ben E. King hit “I (Who Have Nothing)” in 1963. During this period, Bassey appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine, and sang at a Washington gala celebrating the end of President Kennedy’s second year in office.
In 1965, Bassey enjoyed her only U.S. Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit with the title song of the James Bond film, Goldfinger. The single peaked at No. 8, while the original soundtrack of Goldfinger hit No. 1 in the U.S. that same year. From 1964 onwards the “Goldfinger” single had a lasting impact on her career.
Bassey’s UK comeback came in 1970, leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. In this year, she returned to the UK with a record breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also in that year, she released the album Something, which showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the single of the same name was more successful in the UK charts than the original Beatles recording – the only artist to have achieved this), though Bassey would never completely abandon what had been her forte, standards, show tunes, and torch songs.
Throughout most of the 1980s, Bassey focused on charitable work and performing occasional concert tours throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States, having ended her contract with EMI-United Artists and taking what she referred to as ‘semi-retirement’. In 1982 Bassey recorded an album entitled All by Myself and made a TV special for Thames Television called A Special Lady with guest Robert Goulet. In 1983 she recorded a duet with Alain Delon, “Thought I’d Ring You”, which became a hit single in Europe. Also in 1987, Bassey provided vocals for Swiss artists Yello on “The Rhythm Divine”, a song co-written by Scottish singer Billy Mackenzie.
She was rushed to hospital in Monaco on May 23, 2008 to have an emergency operation on her stomach after complaining of abdominal pains. She was forced to pull out of the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute concert because of her illness. A biography, Diamond Diva, was published in 2008. In 2009 her granddaughter appeared on The X Factor.
Bassey has been married twice, her husbands being:
Kenneth Hume (died 1967), a gay film producer, whom she married in 1961. The couple separated in 1964 and divorced in 1965, in the wake of the singer’s affair with actor Peter Finch. Bassey then announced to the press that she and Finch would not be marrying. A year later, Hume sued the actor and another man, John McAuliffe, for being “indiscreet” with the singer.Both Finch and McAuliffe were cited as co-respondents in the Hume-Bassey divorce. For her part, Bassey was named as co-respondent in 1965 when Finch’s wife, South African actress Yolande Turner, divorced the actor.
Sergio Novak, the assistant manager of the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, Italy. Bassey and Novak were married from 1968 until they divorced in 1979. Novak served as Bassey’s manager throughout this time. With Novak she adopted her grand-nephew, Mark.
The fathers of Bassey’s two daughters, Sharon Bassey (aka Sharon Novak, born 1956) and Samantha Bassey (aka Samantha Novak, born 1963) are unknown. However, Bassey’s first husband suggested that Samantha, born during the couple’s marriage, was the result of an affair between Bassey and Peter Finch. In 1965, according to an article in Jet, “There is a big dispute in London over who is the father of tempestuous singer Shirley Bassey’s baby. Although one-time boy friend English actor Peter Finch agreed that the child may not belong to Shirley’s divorced husband, Kenneth Hume, Finch insists it does not belong to him …
In 1985, Samantha Novak, age 21, was found dead in the River Avon in Bristol, England. Bassey has always maintained that the death of her daughter was not a suicide. On March 24, 2010, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they were undertaking fresh inquiries into the death of Novak, and specifically claims that the convicted killer Michael Moffat was involved in her death. However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end and concluded that there “is no evidence of any criminal act involved” in Novak’s death.
Bassey’s granddaughter Tatjana Novak-Kimsey, daughter of the singer’s one-time estranged son, Mark Novak, was a contestant on The X Factor. (In a 2009 interview, Bassey stated that she and her son had reconciled).
Bassey currently resides in Monte Carlo.
***Information courtesy of Wikipedia.org***