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Cilla Black was born in Liverpool to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. Determined to become an entertainer, she got a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant at Liverpool's Cavern Club, best known for its association with The Beatles. Impromptu performances impressed The Beatles and others. She became a guest singer with the Merseybeat bands Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and, later, with The Big Three. She was also, meantime, a waitress at the Zodiac coffee lounge, where she was to meet her future husband Bobby Willis. Brian Epstein had a portfolio of local artists. At first he showed little interest in Cilla, billed as Cilla White or Swinging Cilla. She was introduced to Epstein by John Lennon, who persuaded him to audition her. Her first audition was a failure, partly because of nerves, and partly because The Beatles (who supported her) played the songs in their vocal key rather than re-pitching them for Cilla's voice. Epstein introduced Cilla to George Martin who signed her to Parlophone Records and produced her debut single, “Love of the Loved“ (written by Lennon and McCartney), which was released only three weeks after she contracted with Epstein. The single peaked at a modest number 35, a failure compared to debut releases of Epstein's other artists. Her second single, released at the beginning of 1964, was the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition “Anyone Who Had a Heart“. The single scored #1 in Britain and became, for that time, the best selling single by a female artist in the history of popular music in England.[1] Her second UK #1 success, “You're My World“, was an English-language rendition of the Italian popular song Il Mio Mondo. She also enjoyed chart success with the song in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South Africa and Canada. This was followed by another Lennon/McCartney composition, It's For You. Paul McCartney played piano at the recording session and the song proved to be another major international success for Black. Black's version of “You've Lost That Loving Feeling“ scored no. 2 in the UK charts and was stopped from going to no. 1 by the original version of the same song, performed by The Righteous Brothers. This was the first of only three occasions in the history of the British Top 40 where the same song, recorded by two different artists, held the top 2 positions in the chart in the same week. Being so closely associated with The Beatles, Cilla became the first artist to cover many Lennon/McCartney compositions. Her recordings of “Yesterday“, “For No One“ and “Across The Universe“ were acclaimed critically and became radio favourites. McCartney said Cilla's 1972 interpretation of “The Long And Winding Road“ represented for him how he always intended the song to be sung. Black's career in the United States, although begun enthusiastically by Epstein and his PR team - was limited to a few television appearances (the Ed Sullivan Show among them), a 1965 cabaret season at the Plaza Hotel in New York, and a success with You're My World which scored #26 on the Billboard charts. The song was to be her only Stateside chart success, and Elvis Presley had a copy on his personal jukebox at his Graceland home. Cilla herself recognised that to achieve popular status in the USA she would need to devote much time to touring there. But she was plagued by homesickness and a sense of loneliness and returned to the UK just as she was starting to become popular in the USA. During 1966, Black recorded the Bacharach-David song “Alfie“, inspired by the film, Alfie. While the song was not included on the UK film version, Cher sang “Alfie“ on the closing credits of the US version. Alfie went on to become a success for Dionne Warwick in the States and it was a major success for Black in the UK, scoring #9 on the British charts. Cilla's version of “Alfie“ was arranged and conducted by Bacharach himself at the recording session at Abbey Road. Bacharach insisted on several takes, and Black cited the Alfie recording session as one of the most demanding of her recording career. For Bacharach's part, he said “...there weren't too many white singers around, who could convey the emotion that I felt in many of the songs I wrote but that changed with people like Cilla Black...“ SOURCE: Wikipedia PLEASE NOTE: I divided my uploads among multiple channels, Bookmark this link in your browser for instant access to an index with links to all of John1948's oldies classics. LINK: 's Youtube Index
