Cilla Black

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风格: #女子团体
地区: 欧美

艺人介绍

by Bruce EderWho was the second biggest selling music star to come out of Liverpool after the Beatles? It wasnt Gerry & the Pacemakers or Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, nor was it the Searchers. It was Cilla Black, a one-time coat-check girl from the Cavern Club who was still learning to sing with confidence, forget developing a technique, just about the time that the Beatles were cutting their first EMI record. Cilla Black holds a unique position in the history of pop music, and the British invasion. As Brian Epsteins discovery and protégé, she was the first and only important female performer to emerge from Liverpool in the heyday of the British beat boom. In conjunction with Epsteins management and George Martins production skills, she became a formidable ballad singer, her hits lasting longer than any Epstein clients other than the Beatles. And she became one of the most beloved pop-rock performers in England during the late 60s and 70s, and one of the countrys most popular television stars. She was the third Brian Epstein-managed performer to emerge from Liverpool in the wake of the Beatles success. A one-time coat-check girl at the Cavern, her name was Priscilla White when she worked there on lunch-breaks from her job as a typist. She began singing as a nervous amateur on a Liverpool underground scene in which the Beatles, with Pete Best still on drums (and Brian Epstein a long way removed from knowing them), were considered one of the more promising bands. By the summer of 1961, she gotten good enough to appear as a guest singer with such established local talent as the Big Three trio and Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, and was a favorite of Bill Harry, the publisher of the music paper Mersey Beat. Brian Epsteins discovery of the Beatles and the Cavern Club opened him up a whole world of new music and performers. On Priscilla White, still a very gawky semi-professional, he lavished almost as much attention as he did on the Beatles, but for different reasons. The Beatles were a revelation to Epstein, opening up a whole world of youthful exuberance and uninhibited fun. Gerry and the Pacemakers were a talented band that helped prove his golden touch extended beyond Lennon, McCartney et al. Cilla Black, as Epstein rechristened her, was none of these things. Rather, she was a non-distinct female persona—virtually a tabula rasa, with a girl-next-door look—onto whom the sexually ambiguous Epstein could project his ideas of style and beauty. Neither was she a natural singer, or performer. She did try hard, however, and, with the right look and presentation, and the right song and producer, had a chance for success. All of those things Epstein secured for her, either directly or in the guise of George Martin at Parlophone Records. Martin initially had his doubts about Cilla Black, but he did his best and, with Epsteins help and some carefully orchestrated press that broke just at the point when any five milkmen from Liverpool could get a hearing, her career was launched successfully. Ironically, given his initial doubts, Martin became Blacks producer for the next 11 years, and along with the Beatles, she was among the few EMI acts that he continued to produce after he left the company in 1966 to set up AIR Studios. Black was never going to be a rival to Dusty Springfield, lacking the latters power or subtlety. On the other hand, she did have a fairly distinctive and identifiable—and attractive—delivery, and she got better as she gained experience. Her debut single, a Lennon-McCartney leftover called Love of the Loved, was not one of the prime examples of even the second-rate Lennon-McCartney that ended up in the hands of Kramer, Peter & Gordon et al. It peaked at No. 35, the most disappointing debut of any post-Beatles Epstein act in 1963. Black had much greater success with her next song, a ballad that showed her real strengths and potential as a singer, called Anyone Who Had A Heart—the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song had previously been cut by Dionne Warwick, but Black quickly eclipsed Warwicks version. Issued on the final day of January, 1964, it became the biggest selling single by a female artist in the history of popular music in England, bringing her to No. 1 on the British charts three weeks later. It sold over 800,000 copies in England, and another million internationally. Even greater success was in store for Black three months later with the release of Youre My World, an English version of a song originally written in Italian. What I Only Want To Be With You is to Dusty Springfield, Shout is to Lulu, and Always Something There To Remind Me is to Sandy Shaw, Youre My World is to Cilla Black—a signature song that stands astride her whole career. After Youre My World, Blacks career was made. At her worst, as a pop singer of uncertain range and instincts, she was almost a throwback to Helen Shapiro, a major female pop-star of the pre-Beatles era. At her best, as on Youve Lost That Loving Feeling, she had an intense soulful quality, akin to Tom Jones as a ballad singer—indeed, she mightve been Britains answer to Dionne Warwick. She displayed are surprisingly adventurous nature, as with Its For You, a waltz-like number that Paul McCartney personally selected for her from among his best non-Beatle-destined originals. She covered it in a jazz arrangement and the resulting single reached No. 7 in England. McCartney remained close to her for years, although Blacks closest musical confidant was songwriter Bobby Willis, whom she later married. She also made her film debut in late 1964 with the release of Ferry Cross The Mersey, starring Gerry & The Pacemakers, in which Black sang Is It Love. Black maintain a full schedule of concert, radio, and television appearances in 1964-65. Like every other Epstein client, she was also busy in America as well, appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show and such non-rock n roll venues as The Tonight Show. She was also a featured performer on a late 1965 British television special, The Beatles: The Music of Lennon and McCartney. By that time, she was, along with the Beatles, one of only two acts still personally managed by Brian Epstein, who regarded her as one of his two most precious musical discoveries—and, indeed, after the Beatles she was the most successful artist to come out of Liverpool. Black had two additional major hits in 1966, Alfie and Dont Answer Me, both of which made the British top 10. Up to that point, her career had been handled by Brian Epstein, in whose hands shed become a star. She began having doubts about his management in 1966, however, and considered—but initially abandoned—plans to leave him in favor of Robert Stigwood. At the time of Epsteins death in the summer of 1967, she was one of his two remaining clients. Her hits subsided in 1967, partly because of Epsteins death and her involvement in a feature film, Work Is A Four-Letter Word, in which she starred with David Warner. A science-fiction tale set in the future, and involving the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms (all based on a play by Henry Livings), the movie proved a misstep when it finally came out. In 1968, she was back on form, reaching the top 10 twice, with Step Inside Love, a Lennon-McCartney song, and I Couldnt Take My Eyes Off You, and the following year was back up there again with Surround Yourself With Sorrow and Conversations. These successes were assisted by Blacks British television variety series, Cilla, which featured some of the top pop-rock musical talent of the period. After 1969, Blacks days of charting singles were over. That same year, she married songwriter Bobby Willis. Blacks recording career with EMI continued into the mid-1970s, but much of her career activity by that time was centered on television, rather than the recording studio. She still released singles and albums, including a notable collection of songs from her past entitled In My Life. She subsequently worked in two popular and critically successful series, Blind Date and Surprise Surprise —the former also earned her an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 1993, to commemorate her 30 years as a show business professional, she cut an album, released a retrospective video, published a book, and presented an anniversary special, each of which was entitled Through The Years. Cilla Black remains one of the most popular entertainers in England.

Cilla Black

艺人介绍

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