British singer-songwriter Jackie Trent, who wrote for Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark, has died at the age of 74, it has been reported.
Trent, who also composed the theme song to Neighbours, died in hospital in Menorca on Saturday after a long illness, according to her spokesman, the BBC reported on Sunday.
She hit the top of the charts as a singer in 1965 with Where Are You Now (My Love).
Born Yvonne Burgess in 1940 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, Trent began her career as a child, singing in British Legion and working men’s clubs.
On her website, she said: “In 1955 I abandoned school, packed a single suitcase and, clutching my precious music case, I caught the train to London: alone, no agent, no contacts and no work.
“I soon found work; my new employers even took me into their home, treating me as a daughter. Some of the London underworld became my fans and watched over my safety; the Krays would sometimes escort me to the clubs and theatres where I worked, showering me with teddybears (when I was so desperate for cash, but too polite to say).”Trent won her first recording contract in the early 1960s in London, where she met future husband Tony Hatch at an audition.
They wrote more than 400 songs, with Jack Jones, Nancy Wilson, Des O’Connor, Val Doonican, Vikki Carr, and Dean Martin among other stars using their work.
The couple married in 1967, and wrote the theme to Neighbours while based in Australia in the early 1980s, but separated in 1995 and divorced in 2002.
Trent married Colin Gregory in November 2005, and the couple lived in Spain.