Dickie Valentine
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Dickie Valentine (born November 4, 1929 in London , † May 6, 1971 in Wales ; actually Richard Bryce , according to other sources Richard Brice ) was a popular British singer of the 1950s. He had two number one hits in the UK in 1955 .
Career
Valentine had starred in several films under his birth name as a toddler. He suffered from chronic asthma, but he trained his voice enough to imitate many of the famous singers of his day. In the early 1950s he sang in the Ted Heath Band. In 1953 he celebrated his first chart success under his own name with a version of the Stargazers ' number one hit , Broken Wings . In 1954 he left the Ted Heath Band and devoted himself entirely to his solo career. In his stage show he imitated Mario Lanza and Johnnie Ray, among others .
He married his girlfriend Elizabeth Flynn in late 1954, and many expected his (mostly female) fans to abandon him and his career to deteriorate. But 1955 was the year in which Valentine had his greatest success. In January, The Finger of Suspicion (which he recorded with the Stargazers who had the same producer , Dick Rowe) rose to number one. After two more top ten hits, Valentine's Christmas song Christmas Alphabet managed to beat Bill Haley's rock Around the Clock from the top for three weeks in December . It was - besides White Christmas - one of the first big "Christmas hits" in the British charts.
From 1956 he had his own television series, The Dickie Valentine Show , in which Peter Sellers was his sketch partner. In both 1956 ( Christmas Island ) and 1957 ( Snowbound for Christmas ) Valentine managed again to place a Christmas single in the British charts in December. From 1952 to 1957, he was voted best British singer for six years in a row by the readers of the music magazine New Musical Express . In 1957 he rented the Royal Albert Hall for the annual meeting of his fan club .
His last chart hit was in 1959 with One More Sunrise , an English-language version of the German world hit Morgen by Ivo Robić . In the 1960s things got quieter for Dickie Valentine; he continued to release records, but with only moderate success. However, he remained a popular stage performer until he was killed in a car accident in 1971.
literature
- David Roberts (ed.): Guinness Book of British Hit Singles , 14th edition, page 458, London 2001, ISBN 0-85156-156-X .
- Paul Gambaccini / Tim Rice / Jo Rice: Guinness Book of Number One Hits , 2nd edition, pages 21 / 26f., Enfield 1988, ISBN 0-85112-893-9 .
- Donald Clarke (ed.): Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music , Page 1193, London 1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 .
swell
- ↑ Charts UK
- ↑ according to Rocklist Music
Web links
- Biography and Singles Discography at 45 rpm
- Dickie Valentine in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Valentine, Dickie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Richard Bryce, Richard Brice |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 4, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 6, 1971 |
| Place of death | Wales |