Shirley Bassey

Genres:	Action & Adventure • Easy Listening • Music & Radio • Pop / Rock • Television • Vocals
Descriptive "tags":	jazz • female vocalists • soul • oldies • pop
Decades Active:	1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • Blog • IMDb • MySpace • Official Homepage • Wikipedia • YouTube

Biography

8 January 1937, Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales. A thrilling, highly emotional singer, whose career has spanned some 40 years. Her early jobs included work in a factory’s wrapping and packing department, while playing working men’s clubs at weekends. After touring the UK in revues and variety shows, Lancashire comedian Al Read included her in his 1955 Christmas Show at London’s Adelphi Theatre, and his revue, Such Is Life, which ran for a year. Her first hit, in 1957, was the calypso-styled ‘Banana Boat Song’, followed by ‘Kiss Me Honey Honey, Kiss Me’ nearly two years later. With her powerful voice (she was sometimes called ‘Bassey the Belter’), the unique Bassey style and phrasing started to emerge in 1959 with ‘As I Love You’ which topped the UK chart, and continued through to the mid-70s via such heart-rending ballads as Lionel Bart’s ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ (Nancy’s big song from Oliver!),...

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