Kathy Kirby
Encyclopedia
Kathy Kirby was an English
singer who was reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day
's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest
, where she came in second place. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe
. She peaked in popularity in the 1960s.
, Essex
. She was the eldest of three children of Irish
parents. Her mother Eileen brought them up alone after their father left early in their childhood. Kirby grew up in Tomswood Hill, Barkingside
, near Ilford and attended the Ursuline Convent School in Ilford where she sang in the choir.
at the Ilford Palais in 1956. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager, mentor and lover until his death on stage in Leeds in 1971.
She adopted the look of a "blonde bombshell", and was compared to Marilyn Monroe
. She had five Top 40 hits between 1963 and 1965, the best known of which is her cover version of "Secret Love". In 1963 she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express
poll.
Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the early to mid 1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance
and three television series for BBC TV. She represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
in 1965, and came second with the song "I Belong". Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor
describes Kirby's "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest, but she was beaten by France Gall
from Luxembourg
, singing an even more contemporary song written by Serge Gainsbourg
. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!
.
After the chart success of "I Belong", Kirby recorded more than a dozen more singles between 1965 and 1967, but they all failed to chart. She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club
TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.
During the 1970s Kirby's singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live concerts on the "nostalgia circuit". On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Secret Love" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music
, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee
.
In December 1983 she gave one last concert in Blackpool, then retired from show business altogether.
", made in about 2005, is available online.
Interest in Kirby and her work continued long after she stopped performing particularly among gay men, for whom she was something of an icon. In her last decade, she recorded short greetings for her official website. A biography was published in 2005, and there was a 2008 stage show about her life, written and produced by Graham Smith, called Secret Love.
The Daily Express
reported in 2008 that plans for a new filmed interview had been abandoned, but later reports confirmed that the interview had been filmed, and it was subsequently included on a DVD compilation released the following year. She also gave an interview to the Express in 2009, which included recent photographs, and which was billed as her first in 26 years, although a previous one had been published in 2006.
Following the 2009 interview, the Sunday Express reported that some previously unreleased recordings would be made available on CD in 2010, and that Kirby had been approached to appear on Desert Island Discs
., although neither the programme nor the CD has appeared.
during this time.
Kirby was married briefly to writer and former London policeman Frederick Pye in the 1970s. Following her bankruptcy in 1975, and a court case following an arrest over an unpaid hotel bill, she was referred to St Luke's psychiatric hospital in London in 1979. Following her discharge, she had a live-in lesbian
relationship with a fan, Laraine McKay, and said that they intended to marry. McKay was imprisoned for fraud and forgery. In the early 1980s, Kirby had relationships with musician David Cross and lawyer Alan Porter.
Kirby was diagnosed with schizophrenia
and was in poor physical and mental health for much of her life. Following her retirement, she lived in a series of apartments and hotels in West London, settling in an apartment in Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, surviving on state benefits and some royalties, and maintaining what has been called a "Garbo-esque
" seclusion. Very shortly before her death, Kirby moved to Brinsworth House
in Twickenham, at the insistence of her niece, Lady Sarah Thatcher, who is married to Mark Thatcher
. Another niece, Claudia, became Lady Rothermere after marrying Viscount Rothermere
.
. According to a message from a relative posted on a fan website, Kirby suffered a heart attack, but this has not been officially confirmed.
She is survived by her sister, Pat, and her brother, Douglas.
Note: Kirby had one charted single on the US Billboard Hot 100
. "The Way Of Love" peaked at #88 in 1965; Cher
also recorded the track.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
singer who was reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
, where she came in second place. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. She peaked in popularity in the 1960s.
Early life
Kirby was born in IlfordIlford
Ilford is a large cosmopolitan town in East London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It forms a significant commercial and retail...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. She was the eldest of three children of Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
parents. Her mother Eileen brought them up alone after their father left early in their childhood. Kirby grew up in Tomswood Hill, Barkingside
Barkingside
Barkingside is a district of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge, northeast London. It is a suburban development.It is also the place in which Barkingside FC play their home games at Oakside stadium in Station Road....
, near Ilford and attended the Ursuline Convent School in Ilford where she sang in the choir.
Career
Kirby's voice became apparent early in life, and she took singing lessons with a view to becoming an opera singer. She became a professional singer after meeting bandleader Bert AmbroseAmbrose (bandleader)
Benjamin Baruch Ambrose , known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an English bandleader and violinist. Ambrose become the leader of a highly acclaimed English dance band, the Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.-Early life:Ambrose was born in the East End of London; his father...
at the Ilford Palais in 1956. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager, mentor and lover until his death on stage in Leeds in 1971.
She adopted the look of a "blonde bombshell", and was compared to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. She had five Top 40 hits between 1963 and 1965, the best known of which is her cover version of "Secret Love". In 1963 she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
poll.
Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the early to mid 1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
and three television series for BBC TV. She represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
in 1965, and came second with the song "I Belong". Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor
John Kennedy O'Connor
John Kennedy O'Connor is an author, entertainment and political commentator, based in the United States. Born in North London, United Kingdom, he has written, reported and broadcast for numerous media organizations, as well as writing, creating and producing media events for a number of...
describes Kirby's "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest, but she was beaten by France Gall
France Gall
France Gall is a popular French yé-yé singer.Gall was married to, and had a successful singing career in partnership with, French singer-songwriter Michel Berger....
from Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, singing an even more contemporary song written by Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
.
After the chart success of "I Belong", Kirby recorded more than a dozen more singles between 1965 and 1967, but they all failed to chart. She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club
The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club
The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club was a British television variety show produced by Granada Television from 1974 to 1977. It was set in a fictional working men's club in the North of England and was hosted by comedian Colin Crompton. Also regularly featured was comedian Bernard Manning...
TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.
During the 1970s Kirby's singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live concerts on the "nostalgia circuit". On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Secret Love" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music
A Jubilee of Music
A Jubilee of Music is a one off BBC Television entertainment show of 75 minutes duration, broadcast on 31 December 1976 on BBC1. The show was produced to celebrate the British music successes of the first twenty-five years of Elizabeth II's reign, ahead of the commencement of 1977, the year of her...
, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth realms...
.
In December 1983 she gave one last concert in Blackpool, then retired from show business altogether.
Post-retirement
She did not perform in public after her retirement, but an amateur recording of Kirby singing the song "HeShe (Charles Aznavour song)
"She" is the title of a song written, recorded and released by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer.It reached number 1 in the UK single charts in 1974, but was not successful in the USA or France...
", made in about 2005, is available online.
Interest in Kirby and her work continued long after she stopped performing particularly among gay men, for whom she was something of an icon. In her last decade, she recorded short greetings for her official website. A biography was published in 2005, and there was a 2008 stage show about her life, written and produced by Graham Smith, called Secret Love.
The Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
reported in 2008 that plans for a new filmed interview had been abandoned, but later reports confirmed that the interview had been filmed, and it was subsequently included on a DVD compilation released the following year. She also gave an interview to the Express in 2009, which included recent photographs, and which was billed as her first in 26 years, although a previous one had been published in 2006.
Following the 2009 interview, the Sunday Express reported that some previously unreleased recordings would be made available on CD in 2010, and that Kirby had been approached to appear on Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
., although neither the programme nor the CD has appeared.
Personal life
Kirby met Ambrose in her teens and, despite the 42-year age gap and his having an estranged wife at the time, began a relationship with him which lasted until his death in 1971. In the 2009 interview, she said she had had an affair with Bruce ForsythBruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...
during this time.
Kirby was married briefly to writer and former London policeman Frederick Pye in the 1970s. Following her bankruptcy in 1975, and a court case following an arrest over an unpaid hotel bill, she was referred to St Luke's psychiatric hospital in London in 1979. Following her discharge, she had a live-in lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
relationship with a fan, Laraine McKay, and said that they intended to marry. McKay was imprisoned for fraud and forgery. In the early 1980s, Kirby had relationships with musician David Cross and lawyer Alan Porter.
Kirby was diagnosed with schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
and was in poor physical and mental health for much of her life. Following her retirement, she lived in a series of apartments and hotels in West London, settling in an apartment in Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, surviving on state benefits and some royalties, and maintaining what has been called a "Garbo-esque
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
" seclusion. Very shortly before her death, Kirby moved to Brinsworth House
Brinsworth House
Brinsworth House is a retirement home especially for members of the acting and entertainment professions, in Twickenham, Greater London, England. The house, opened in 1911, is provided and maintained by the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, founded in 1908 to care for members of what was at...
in Twickenham, at the insistence of her niece, Lady Sarah Thatcher, who is married to Mark Thatcher
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet is the son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Baroness Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher...
. Another niece, Claudia, became Lady Rothermere after marrying Viscount Rothermere
Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere
Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere succeeded his father as the 4th Viscount Rothermere in 1998...
.
Death
Kirby died on 19 May 2011, a few days after moving to Brinsworth HouseBrinsworth House
Brinsworth House is a retirement home especially for members of the acting and entertainment professions, in Twickenham, Greater London, England. The house, opened in 1911, is provided and maintained by the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, founded in 1908 to care for members of what was at...
. According to a message from a relative posted on a fan website, Kirby suffered a heart attack, but this has not been officially confirmed.
She is survived by her sister, Pat, and her brother, Douglas.
Hits
| Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||||||||||
| 1963 | "Dance On Dance On Dance On! is an instrumental by the British guitar group, The Shadows. It went to number 1 in the UK. It was also recorded in a vocal version by British female soloist Kathy Kirby, whose version reached number 11 in the UK chart in September 1963.... " |
11 | ||||||||
| "Secret Love" | 4 | |||||||||
| 1964 | "Let Me Go, Lover! Let Me Go, Lover! "Let Me Go, Lover!", a popular song, was written by Jenny Lou Carson and Al Hill, a pseudonym used by Fred Wise, Kathleen Twomey, and Ben Weisman. It is based on an earlier song called "Let Me Go, Devil," about alcoholism. It was featured on the television program Studio One on November 15, 1954,... " |
10 | ||||||||
| "You're The One" | 17 | |||||||||
| 1965 | "I Belong I Belong (Kathy Kirby song) "I Belong" was the United Kingdom' entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 held in Naples at March 21, 1965.Performed in English by Kathy Kirby, the song is sung from the perspective of a woman who express your love by someone, she has loved for the fist time in her life:"But now my heart has... " |
36 | ||||||||
Note: Kirby had one charted single on the US Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. "The Way Of Love" peaked at #88 in 1965; Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
also recorded the track.
See also
- List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1960s
- List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
- List of artists under the Decca Records label
- Royal Variety PerformanceRoyal Variety PerformanceThe Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
- United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. It was held on January 29, 1965 and presented by David Jacobs.-Results: Artist Song Place Points Kathy Kirby...
- United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
- Eurovision Song Contest 1965Eurovision Song Contest 1965The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the 10th in the series. Luxembourg's win was their second. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain each scored "null points" for the second time. The 1965 contest marked the debut of Ireland, a country which later went on to dominate the competition. This was also...