Michael Holliday
Michael Holliday (born November 26, 1924 in Liverpool , England , † October 29, 1963 in Croydon , Surrey , England; actually Norman Miller , later Norman Alexander Milne ) was a British pop singer who enjoyed great success in the late 1950s / early 1960s would have. With the singles The Story of My Life ( 1958 ) and Starry Eyed ( 1960 ) he had two number one hits in his home country. His voice was similar to that of Bing Crosby , but his songs (especially the hits) were more Perry Como- style .
Life
From the merchant navy to the hit parade
Holliday was born Norman Miller into a Liverpool sailor family from the Everton borough (later he officially changed his name to Norman Milne ). After school he served in the British Merchant Navy . In Plymouth he met the pianist Trevor Stanford, with whom he performed together during the Second World War - Stanford later also became a record star under the name Russ Conway . While in New York , Holliday entered a talent competition at Radio City Music Hall and won. He decided to become a professional singer and got jobs in various bands, singing with them in holiday centers and on the radio.
In 1955, Norrie Paramor gave him a recording deal with EMI's Columbia label. The first recordings - cover versions of US hits like The Yellow Rose of Texas or Sixteen Tons - were flops, but in the spring of 1956, the breakthrough with the Top Twenty hit came Nothin 'to Do . Holliday now appeared regularly on television, even got his own show. In late 1957, the single The Story of My Life was released.
The number one hits
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Story of My Life was the first British hit for the songwriting team Burt Bacharach / Hal David . Marty Robbins , already a star in his native USA , put the song on the Billboard charts. Several artists recorded his hit in the UK, including Alma Cogan , Dave King and Gary Miller . These three were able to get their versions - in contrast to Robbins, who only had his first hit ( El Paso ) on the island in 1960 - in the British top 30 .
But the big hit with the song was Michael Holliday. His single hit the charts on January 17, 1958, and on February 14, it took Holliday to number one for two weeks for the first time. Three more singles followed the big hit in the charts by July of that year, including a number three with Stairway of Love . After that, however, it looked like Holliday's career should have passed its zenith. His name was no longer in the hit lists for 18 months.
At the end of 1959, its producer Norrie Paramor heard a song by the Americans Earl Shuman and Mort Garson called Starry Eyes . Although the US recording (sung by the largely unknown Gary Stites ) only climbed to number 77 on the Billboard charts, Paramor was of the opinion that the song was an ideal match for his protégé's style. British record buyers seemed to share this opinion - on New Year's Day 1960, Starry Eyed was listed for the first time on the British charts. On January 29th, the single took the top position, but had to give it back to Anthony Newley's Why the following week .
Descent and death
Holliday couldn't cope with the success - and even less the lack of chart success after his last hit in mid-1960, which, however, only reached number 50. The song was called Little Boy Lost , an indicative title for Holliday, who is less than 1.70 meters tall and suffered from pathological stage fright and a lack of self-esteem . He surrounded himself with expensive cars and beautiful women. In 1961 he had a nervous breakdown . When there were no hits in 1962/1963 either - meanwhile other music from his hometown was popular - the debts increased. He had been married to Margie, his great love, since 1947, but she had left him because of his numerous affairs. Shortly before his death he wrote to her: “Even my accountants are tired of me and have left me alone. Income tax has to be paid by Wednesday, otherwise ... I think I'm not man enough to do it alone. "
On the evening of October 28, 1963, Holliday was with friends at a club in Soho owned by his friend Freddie Mills, a former boxer with ties to the "underworld". Although he appeared to be in a depressed mood , he left the club with a woman. During the night he swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills at his property . He died in Croydon Hospital early in the morning.
Michael Hollidays grave is in Anfield Cemetery in Liverpool.
literature
- Ken Crossland: The Man Who Would Be Bing . The Book Guild, Sussex 2004, ISBN 1-85776-841-8 .
- Donald Clarke (ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music . London 1989/1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 , pp. 312f.
- David Roberts (ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles . 14 th edition. London 2001, ISBN 0-85112-156-X .
- Tim Rice , Jo Rice, Paul Gambaccini , Mike Read: The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits . Enfield 1982, ISBN 0-85112-250-7 .
- Rice, Rice, Gambaccini: The Guinness Book of Number One Hits . 2 nd edition. Enfield 1988, ISBN 0-85112-893-9 .
- Frank Laufenberg , Ingrid Laufenberg: Frank Laufenberg's Rock and Pop Lexicon , Volume 1, 5th edition. Düsseldorf / Munich 2000, ISBN 3-612-26206-8 .
Web links
- Michael Holliday at 45-rpm.org
- David Charters: The Man Who Had Everything . Book review
- The Man Who Would Be Bing . (Book content)
- Michael Holliday in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charts UK
- ↑ "Holliday was a bundle of nerves so full of neuroses that he could have occupied a whole Viennese psychiatry school with it." ("Holliday was a bag of nerves filled with enough neuroses to entertain a Viennese school of psychiatry.") David Charters, ibid .
- ^ "Even my accountants have grown tired of me and deserted me. The income tax want their money by Wednesday or else. I guess I ain't man enough to tackle it alone. " Quoted from: David Charters, ibid.
- ↑ This version of his death and the night before is described by David Chambers; Ken Crossland describes it in a similar way in his book (see below), it is also provided by an information on Crossland's website ( memento of the original from February 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) : The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Pictured newspaper headline Drugs kill TV's Michael Holliday underpins. In other sources (Guinness Books, Laufenberg), however, the version can be read that Holliday shot himself.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Holliday, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Miller, Norman (maiden name); Milne, Norman Alexander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liverpool , Merseyside, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 29, 1963 |
| Place of death | Croydon , Surrey, England |