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 Posted By: Jim Liddane on: 05/31/2010 14:46:57 EDTSubject: RE: Ann Margret - Bye Bye Birdie |
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Jim wrote: She should have married Elvis. John replied: 'cause she appeared in his movies? :-) Jim wrote: No, because she would have been a better match for him. John also wrote... I forget his name, Bill Fury? Bigtime artist in UK, and charted more than The Beatles, or something like that??? Jim replied... Well there was a Billy Fury - nice singer in the style of Bobby Vee, although he could rock also. (Come to think of it, so could Bobby Vee. Also both of them had a hit with "Devil Or Angel"). Not too sure about he charting more than the Beatles in the UK though. The Beatles had 52 chart entries - Billy Fury had 30, but for a period, he was huge. Like most of the pre-Beatle UK pop idols, he covered a lot of US hits - such as "Halfway To Paradise" (Tony Orlando), "I Will", (Vic Dana), "A Thousand Stars" (Kathy Young), "Letter Full Of Tears" (Gladys Knight), "Only Make Believe" (Conway Twitty), "Devil Or Angel" (the Clovers) etc. He had a nice voice - sort of Perry Como sings rock and roll, and he was also a good songwriter, and not a bad movie actor. His manager was a guy called Larry Parnes who discovered lots of 50's and 60's acts, and always re-named them to make them sound more glamorous. Amongst the acts he found were Billy Fury (born Ronald Wycherley), Marty Wilde (Reginald Smith), Vince Eager (Roy Taylor), Dickie Pride (Richard Knellar), Lance Fortune (Chris Morris), Duffy Power (Ray Howard), Terry Dene (Terence Williams), Johnny Gentle (John Askew) and Georgie Fame (Clive Powell). Some of them made it, mainly Fury, Wilde, and Fame, and although Lance Fortune had only one hit, it did get to Number 1. The Beatles auditioned to back Billy Fury (who was from Liverpool), but Parnes turned them down, but he did let them back Johnny Gentle instead! |
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