The British pop revolution of the 1960s involved not only male guitar bands, but also several young female singing stars, including Cilla Black, who has died aged 72. Of these, Dusty Springfield was the most technically proficient and the most temperamental; Lulu had the most powerful vocal cords but weaker songs; Sandie Shaw had a trendy, kooky image and songs to match; and Black benefited hugely from her association with the Beatles – John Lennon and Paul McCartney composed several of her hits – and their manager Brian Epstein.
Additionally, Black was the most telegenic. What one critic called her “gauche, unsophisticated girl-next-door image” propelled her from pop-star beginnings to become in later years the most highly paid woman in British television, with her shows Surprise, Surprise and Blind Date.
She was born Priscilla White, the third child of a Liverpool docker, John White, and his wife Priscilla (nee Blythen), who sold vintage clothes from a market stall. It was an Irish-Catholic family and Cilla grew up in the Roman Catholic stronghold of Scotland Road. She began to perform as a small child at family gatherings, and was soon winning talent shows at school events and at the dockers’ annual Christmas party.
When rock’n’roll hit Britain in the mid-50s, the 13-year-old Cilla modelled her voice on that of Frankie Lymon, the New York, black boy-soprano whose hits included I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent. She also changed her hair colour from brown to orange, to the disapproval of the nuns at St Anthony’s secondary modern.
Nevertheless, in 1958 she left school with a favourable report: “Priscilla is suitable for office work.” She duly took a one-year secretarial and shorthand course at Anfield Commercial College, following which she landed a typing job at the offices of a construction company, BICC (British Insulated Callender’s Cables).
This was the era of the boom in beat music on Merseyside, and Cilla regularly attended clubs such as the Cavern and the Iron Door. For a while, she worked as a cloakroom attendant over the lunchtime sessions at the Cavern. Encouraged by her friends, she occasionally sang with the groups. She was sometimes billed as “Swinging Cilla”, although Lennon found it amusing to announce her as Cyril when she joined the Beatles on stage to sing Summertime, or A Shot of Rhythm and Blues.
After Epstein took over the management of the Beatles, the group pressed him to sign up Cilla. An audition was arranged where she sang at a local Beatles concert, but Epstein was unimpressed. It was not until a year later, when he heard her singing at the Iron Door with a jazz group, that he saw her potential. Because Cilla was under 21, her father was required to sign the management contract. He was favourably disposed to Epstein, since the Whites had bought their piano from the Epstein family’s music store, but he balked when he saw that his daughter’s professional name had been changed from White to Black.
She now moved to London, chaperoned by her boyfriend (and later husband), Bobby Willis. Always nervous about public knowledge of his charges’ personal relationships, Epstein decreed that Willis should be known as Cilla’s road manager. Following Epstein’s death in 1967, Willis became her personal manager.
Her recording manager was to be George Martin, who had already produc ed hits by the Beatles and other Epstein clients. The first single was Lennon and McCartney’s Love of the Loved. It was only a minor hit, but Black’s loud, infectious laugh when she appeared as the mystery guest on Juke Box Jury impressed reviewers, a sign of things to come.
She embarked on a whirl of recording sessions, tours, Christmas shows and TV appearances. In 1964 she had No 1 hits with Anyone Who Had a Heart and You’re My World, followed by the top 10 singles It’s for You and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. Epstein had heard Anyone Who Had a Heart (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) in New York and recommended it to Martin, who later admitted: “I wanted it for Shirley Bassey, but Brian insisted that Cilla could do it.”
Black’s singing sometimes caused controversy. Partisans of the original version of Anyone Who Had a Heart (by Dionne Warwick) proclaimed Black’s rendition to be inferior, and Andrew Loog Oldham, then manager of the Rolling Stones, took out advertisements in the music press in favour of the Righteous Brothers’ recording of You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, which eventually outsold Black’s version.
In late 1965 she made what was to be her final concert tour, but the hits kept coming. In 1966, Love’s Just a Broken Heart, Alfie (especially composed by Bacharach for Black to promote the film of the same name, starring Michael Caine) and Don’t Answer Me all reached the top 10.
In 1968, Black was given her own BBC TV series, which ran for eight years. McCartney provided the signature tune, Step Inside Love. Black’s frequent television appearances generated even more chart success. Step Inside Love reached No 8, and it was followed in 1969 by Surround Yourself With Sorrow (No 3) and Conversations (No 7), and two years later by her No 3 hit, Something Tells Me (Something’s Gonna Happen Tonight), which was revived for a Ferrero Rocher chocolate commercial in 2006. The B-side of Conversations was Liverpool Lullaby, composed by the Merseyside folk singer Stan Kelly, which had become a mainstay of Black’s live performances.
In 1977, she moved to ATV, where she made an ill-judged foray into comedy acting. It was several years before London Weekend Television found a regular vehicle for her that she and Willis found acceptable. This was Surprise, Surprise, a magazine format that combined aspects of That’s Life! and Game for a Laugh. Surprise, Surprise ran from 1984 until 1997, and, after its first series, Black was offered another primetime show.
Blind Date had been piloted with a comedian, Duncan Norvelle, as the host, but the LWT hierarchy led by John Birt (with one eye on Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association) had vetoed it as too risque. Now, Birt, a fellow Catholic Liverpudlian, was persuaded that Black would “keep it clean”. His judgment was proved correct, as the show ran for 18 years, weathering occasional criticisms for alleged sexual innuendoes.
The remnants of her Liverpool accent, which Martin had tried to eliminate from her singing, acted as a guarantor to viewers of her down-to-earth decency and sincerity. Black overtook Esther Rantzen to become the highest paid female entertainer on British TV. She also won numerous industry awards, as well as being appointed OBE in 1997.
By 2003, viewing figures for Blind Date had fallen below 5m, compared to a peak of almost 15m, and Black decided it was time to leave, announcing her departure on the final show of the series. Thereafter, she appeared only occasionally on television as a guest, and sometimes acted in pantomime, as in Cinderella at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 2010.
ITV celebrated her half century in show business with The One and Only Cilla Black (2013), with Bacharach and presented by her friend the comedian and TV host Paul O’Grady. In ITV’s three-part mini-series Cilla (2014), she was portrayed by Sheridan Smith.
Bobby died in 1999. Black is survived by three sons, Robert, Ben, and Jack.
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