Laurie London

Parlophone label "He's Got The Whole World In His Hand"

Laurie London (born January 19, 1944 in London ) is a former British pop singer. He was a child star in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with successes in the United States and Germany.

Life

London began to learn to play the guitar at an early age. At one of the public BBC music shows “6. Special “he appeared spontaneously as a singer for the first time and caught the attention of a representative of the British record company Parlophone with the performed pieces The Balad Of Jessie James , a country song and the skiffle track Don't Rock Me, Daddy-O . He invited the 13-year-old to test recordings in the Abbey Road Studios , which later became known through the Beatles . There he came under the care of producer Norman Newell , who later worked with pop greats like Shirley Bassey and Russ Conway . After London had made a positive impression with the test recordings, Parlophone brought out the first London record in September 1957 with the titles He's Got The Whole World In His Hand and The Cradle Rock , arranged by Geoff Love . Surprisingly for those involved, who initially intended The Cradle Rock as the A-side, the gospel song He's Got The Whole World… developed into a world hit. Although he only came in 12th place on New Musical Express in Great Britain , he landed in second place on the American Billboard in April 1958. In the USA the title was released by the Capitol record company (No. 3891), in Germany the British EMI subsidiary Odeon published the title under catalog number 29184 in July 1958. It entered the German charts at the beginning of August 1958 and made it up to rank five.

The record company and family did everything they could to expand the surprising success. Laurie left school, his father took over the management and Parlophone produced more records with his young star. The American market with radio and television appearances also remained. B. on the Ed Sullivan Show , still in sight. One tried it further with the gospel scam, but all recorded titles were no longer successful. The Danish EMI branch tried in March 1959 to promote London's career with a collaboration with the Danish child star Gitte and produced the duet recording Pretty Eyed Baby . Although the title was published along with the London solo Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom on the B-side in Great Britain (Parlophone 4557) and the USA (Roulette 4176), it did not bring the hoped-for return to the road to success.

The London / Gitte plate was also brought onto the market in Germany by Odeon (no. 21239). There, too, she received little attention, but helped London to make a career leap in other ways. With the help of the text author Fred Seltzer, who had written a German text on Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom, the German EMI managers came up with the idea of bringing out a German-language record with London. The single produced by Nils Nobach was released in November 1959 with the Germanized title Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum and the B-side Schöne Weiße Rose (adaptation of the title melody of the film God's Little Acre ) under Electrola 21349. On December 12, 1959 noted the music market Bum-Ladda ... for the first time in the top 50, after that the title was in tenth place for four weeks. In the hits of 1960, the foxtrot landed at number 28, ahead of Bert Kämpfert's Wunderland bei Nacht . But also the German singing London failed to have any further record successes. By the end of 1960, Odeon brought out three more German-language records with the young Englishman, without these being able to place in the hit lists. Just as unsuccessful were two singles, also produced by Nobach, which were released by the German record company Ariola in 1962.

As on the German record market, Laurie London left its mark on German-language films. First he was in 1959 in the German version Into the pleasure of the Danish original Soldater kammerater to see 1960 he sang in the strip Schlagerparade 1960 alongside Ted Herold , Bill Ramsey u. a. In 1961 London sang in the Austrian film ... and you my darling stay here the title Hey, hey - music is being made, which was not released on record .

After his record deal with the British Parlophone expired in 1961 and the German market had nothing to offer after the last production at Ariola in April 1962, London withdrew from show business. He started working for a real estate company and ran a hotel in Sussex until 2000 . He married in 1987 and settled in the London borough of Palmer's Green.

Discography (45 rpm)

Great Britain (Parlophone)
title	Catalog no.	Prod.Date
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands / The Cradle Rock	4359	10/57
Handed Down / She Sells Sea-Shells	4388	12/57
The Gospel Train / Boomerang	4408	2/58
Gotta A Robe / Casey Jones	4426	4/58
Joshua / Basin Street Blues	4450	6/58
My Mother / Darktown Strutters Ball	4474	9/58
Three O'Clock / Up Above My Head	4499	11/58
Pretty-Eyed Baby (with Gitte) / Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom	4557	1959
Old Time Religion / God's Little Acre	4601	1959
Roll On Spring / I'm Afraid	4635	3/60
Banjo Boy / Hear Them Bells	4662	6/60
Today's Teardrops / Darling Sue	4747	2/61
I'll Make Her Forget Him / Down by the Riverside	4801	7/61
Germany
title	Catalog no.	Prod.Date
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands / The Gospel Train	Odeon 20627	1958
Joshua / Boomerang	Odeon 20996	1959
Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom / Pretty-Eyed Baby	Odeon 21239	1959
Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum / Beautiful white rose	Electrola 21349	9/59
God's Little Acre / Old Time Religion	Odeon 21360	11/59
Roll On Spring / I'm Afraid	Odeon 21461	3/60
Mamatschi / step by step	Odeon 21497	4/60
Itsy bitsy teenie weenie Honolulu beach bikini / mandolino	Odeon 21591	8/60
Give me a dream / Wild and hot Odeon	21696	12/60
I am not poor, I am not rich / Hopalong Cassidy	Ariola 45254	12/61
Goodbye Marlen / Nix Miss, Nix Mademoiselle	Ariola 45333	4/62
United States
title	Catalog no.	Prod.Date
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands / Handed Down	Capitol 3891	1958
Joshua / I Gotta Robe	Capitol 3973	5/58
My Mother / Three O'Clock	Capitol 4133	1958
Pretty Eyed Baby / Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom	Roulette 4176	1959

literature

Booklet from Bear Family Records, LAURIE LONDON Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum , CD 16345AH, ISBN 978-3-89795-746-6
Angelika & Lothar Binding: The large binding single catalog , 3rd edition, Heidelberg 1994

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	London, Laurie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British singer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 19, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	London