Lulu

Our pick of the pops

Scottish singer Lulu’s debut single Shout is one of the most instantly recognisable songs of the 1960s. She has scored hits in every subsequent decade and enjoyed success as songwriter, fashion model, actress and TV personality.

She was born Marie Lawrie on 3 November 1948 in Glasgow, Scotland’s second city. She began singing at a young age and – together with backing group the Gleneagles – was offered a recording contract with the Decca label, after being spotted singing in a local nightclub. She was given the stage name of Lulu and the group became the Luvvers.

Her first single, a cover of the Isley Brothers’ Shout, was released in May 1964. Despite being a small 15 year old, she belted out the song with a surprising maturity. On stage, she had a certain gaucheness, which she was soon to lose, but which only added to her charm. The song reached number seven in the UK charts.

American producer Bert Berns was drafted in to oversee her subsequent releases, but her next single, Can’t hear you no more, another American cover, missed the charts altogether. Even the original composition Here comes the night could only make number 50 in the UK charts, though it went on to become a big hit for the group Them.

Her fourth single, the Shout-alike Satisfied, also failed to chart. But just when it looked like she might

In an effort to revive her career, she switched labels, to Columbia. Mickie Most – the man behind groups such as the Animals and Herman’s Hermits – took over production duties. He took her away from her R ‘n’ B roots to a more middle-of-the-road sound. However, the move proved commercially successful.

Lulu’s first single with him in charge was The boat that I row, written by Neil Diamond. The song swept into the British top ten in April 1967, peaking at number six, and made the charts in France too.

1969 proved quite a year for the singer. In February, she married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees. By this time, she had starred in two series of her own television show for the BBC and was asked to represent the UK at the Eurovision song contest in Madrid. Despite reservations, she agreed. Boom bang-a-bang was chosen by the British public to be her entry (she preferred the Elton John and Bernie Taupin composition I can’t go on living without you, though it came last).

She won the contest (tying for first place with three other girl singers, Spain’s Salomé, France’s Frida Boccara and the Netherlands’ Lenny Kuhr) and enjoyed a number two hit in the UK, her biggest UK hit to date. The song was also a huge success across the rest of Europe, including in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway Sweden and Switzerland, to name but a few countries, and she recorded versions of it in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Shortly afterwards, her contract with Columbia came up for renewal and, tired of the direction her career had taken, she opted to join American label Atco. However, her first single, the more soulful Oh me oh my (I’m a fool for you baby), missed the UK top 40 on its release in November 1969. She also recorded a version of the song in Italian.

Her first album with Atco, the appropriately titled New routes, was a critical success but a commercial failure in the UK.

She has since turned her hand to songwriting, acting and modelling – she became synonymous with the Freeman’s catalogue in the 1980s – and enjoyed a UK number one with Take That in 1993, with Relight my fire, and the best-selling album of her career, Together, in 2002.

Love loves to love love

1968

Leave a little love

1965

Try to understand

1965

become a one-hit wonder she made the top ten in the summer of 1965 with the very fine Leave a little love, which she’d performed at the Brighton song festival.

But the follow up, the excellent Try to understand, stalled at number 25 and subsequent singles Tell me like it is and Call me disappeared without trace.

At this point it was announced that the singer was parting company with the Luvvers, though this didn't help her next outing, What a wonderful feeling, issued in September 1965, to make any impact on the charts either.

The following year, Lulu toured Poland with the Hollies, becoming the first British girl singer to

go behind the Iron Curtain, and recorded her first single in German.

Lulu on YouTube

Stop fooling around

1965

To sir with love

1967

Let's pretend

1967

Here comes the night

1964

Follow the links to hear other singers’ versions of Lulu songs

Are you ready for love

Mary Roos: Ich bin glücklich

Best of both worlds

Samantha Jones: Perché adesso ti amo

Can’t hear you no more

Jocelyne: J’ai oublié

Come September

Elkie Brooks: Come September

He don’t want your love anymore

Annie Philippe: Vous pouvez me dire

Sonia e le Sorelle: Un colpo di sole

Here comes the night

Iva Zanicchi: Non tornar mai

Nothing left to do but cry

Elkie Brooks: Nothing left to do but cry

Satisfied

Annie Markan: Cette fois

Lulu was then offered a role in the film To sir with love alongside Sidney Poitier, and the theme tune to sing. In an act of perverseness, Most refused to release the track as an A-side in the UK, relegating it instead to the B-side of Let’s pretend. Whilst the single made number 11 in the UK in June 1967, it is arguable that the move denied the singer a chart topper. Indeed, in the United States, the song made number one three months later and sold nearly four million copies worldwide.

Her success in the film led to an offer of a part in the film version of Up the junction, but the role – of a young woman who has a backstreet abortion – was somewhat at odds with her image and she turned it down. (Adrienne Posta took her place.)

The UK follow up single, Love loves to love love, came complete with rock guitar riffs and is considered one of her best of the period, though it made only number 32 in the charts.

She fared better with her next three singles. Me, the peaceful heart made number nine in March 1968, Boy (styled after The boat that I row) made number 15 and the dreadful I’m a tiger (penned by singer Marty Wilde, who also wrote – better – songs for Sandie Shaw, the Breakaways and, in the 1980s, his daughter Kim) made number nine in the UK. The latter also reached number four in the German charts.