īassey made her Carnegie Hall debut on 15 February 1964. Bassey appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1963, and sang at a Washington gala celebrating President Kennedy's second year in office. King hit " I (Who Have Nothing)" in 1963.
Other UK top 10 singles of the period included her second number-one, 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. Her collaboration with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, the album Let's Face the Music (1962), reached number 12 in the UK album chart and the single, " What Now My Love" made it to number five. Bassey made her American television début on 13 November 1960, when she performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Her 1960 recording of " As Long As He Needs Me" from Lionel Bart's Oliver! reached number two, and had a chart run of 30 weeks. In the early and mid-1960s, Bassey had numerous hits in the UK, and five albums in the top 15. A few months later, Bassey signed to EMI's Columbia label, and the second phase in her recording career had begun. While "As I Love You" climbed the charts, so did Bassey's recording of " Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me" and both records would end up occupying the top 3 at the same time. In January 1959, "As I Love You" reached number one and stayed there for four weeks it was the first number-one single by a Welsh artist. "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 an appearance at the London Palladium sales began to pick up. In mid-1958, she recorded two singles that would become classics in the Bassey catalogue. She then made her American stage début in Las Vegas at El Rancho Vegas. In 1957 she also recorded under the direction of American producer Mitch Miller in New York City for the Columbia Records label (which at the time had a distribution deal with Philips), producing the single "If I Had a Needle and Thread" b/w "Tonight My Heart She Is Crying". More singles followed, and in February 1957, Bassey had her first hit with " The Banana Boat Song", which reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart. Owing to the suggestive lyrics, the BBC banned it. Bassey recorded her first single, " Burn My Candle", released in February 1956, when she was 19. He invited her to feature in Al Read's Such Is Life at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.ĭuring the show's run, Philips record producer Johnny Franz spotted her on television, was impressed, and offered her a recording deal. In 1955, Bassey toured various theatres until she was noticed by the impresario Jack Hylton.
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She next took up a professional engagement in Hot from Harlem, which ran until 1954. Also in 1953, Bassey signed a contract to sing in the touring variety show Memories of Jolson, a musical based on the life of Al Jolson. However, upon closer inspection, this document, dated 17 December 1953 (three weeks before her 17th birthday), appears to promise £10 for two performances. In a 1999 interview with Nigel Havers in her Monte Carlo apartment, Bassey pointed to a piece of paper framed on the wall and referred to it as her first contract, at a salary of £14 a week (a considerable sum for a sixteen-year-old in 1953). She left Splott secondary modern school aged 14 to work at Curran Steels and, in the evenings and weekends, to sing in local pubs and clubs. Even in the school choir the teacher kept telling me to back off till I was singing in the corridor!" A classmate recalled her singing the refrain " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from Show Boat with such feeling that she made their teacher uncomfortable. Teachers and students alike at Moorland Road School noticed Bassey's strong voice, but gave the pre-teen little encouragement: ".everyone told me to shut up.
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. Bassey's mother listed her first husband, Alfred Metcalfe, as her own father in the registry of her marriage to Henry Bassey, giving rise to speculation that this marriage was bigamous in the absence of a prior divorce. Two of her mother's four children from previous relationships lived in the Bassey household. Her father was Nigerian, and her mother came from Teesside. She grew up in the adjacent community of Splott. Shirley Veronica Bassey, the sixth and youngest child of Henry Bassey and Eliza Jane Start, was born on Bute Street, Tiger Bay, Cardiff. 2.4 2000–present: High profile performances and final album.