Harris was born in Somerset; her family moved from Midsomer Norton to Bournemouth when she was seven.[4][5] She won a talent contest at the age of three. However, it was her penchant for figure skating which led to her performing career, she began skating at the neighbourhood rink, eventually becoming a regular at the Queens Ice Rink in London. Seen by a talent scout shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she was offered a chance to skate in Paris or to travel to Las Vegas where she would be a dancer in a chorus line. She accepted the latter, danced at the El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas.[4][6] "We did three shows a night and on the 12th night, we had the night off", she said years later.[5]
On returning to the UK in June 1959,[7] she performed in a vocal group known as the Granadiers and then spent three years with the Cliff Adams Singers.[6] She was still in her teens when John Barry's manager, Tony Lewis, offered her a recording contract by EMI in 1961 and she made her first recordings with the John Barry Seven—a group which was a successful chart act.[8] This first single, a double A-side of "I Haven't Got You", written by Lionel Bart and "Mr One and Only", was issued in October 1961 but did not reach the charts.[8]
Subsequent to their meeting, when they both auditioned for a musical revue, Mike Margolis and Harris formed a personal and professional relationship marrying in 1973.[9] He became her manager and wrote the songs which served as her second and third singles: "Lies"/"Don't Think About Love" (Vocalion, September 1964) and "Willingly"/"At Last Love" (Decca, February 1965).
In January 1965 she performed at the San Remo Music Festival. Her duet with Beppe Cardile, "L'amore è partito", failed to reach the finals but even to participate in such a star-studded event augured well for her stardom. She made her label debut for Pye Records with the May 1965 release "Trains and Boats and Planes", although rival versions by both the song's composer Burt Bacharach (with vocals by the Breakaways) and Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas eclipsed her recording. She had four subsequent releases on Pye, including the only evident recording of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "London Life".[10]
Recording artist
In 1966, she moved to CBS Records where her debut release was also her debut album: Somebody's in My Orchard. Her chart breakthrough came in the summer of 1967 with the single "Just Loving You",[11] a Tom Springfield composition which singer Dusty Springfield had suggested her brother give to Harris after the two women had performed on the same episode of Top of the Pops.
Recorded at Olympic Studios in a session produced by Margolis and featuring harmonica virtuoso Harry Pitch,[12] "Just Loving You" had been released in January 1967 but did not reach the UK Top 50 until 29 June 1967.[13] Even after peaking at No. 6 on 26 August 1967 "Just Loving You" remained in the UK Top 40 until the end of the year, and was reported to have accumulated UK sales of 625,000 in six months[citation needed]. Besides charting at No. 18 in Ireland, "Just Loving You" was a Top Ten hit in South Africa where sales reached 200,000 copies[citation needed]. The disc was released in September 1967 in the United States where it rose to No. 20 on the "Easy Listening" chart in Billboard and approached the mainstream Pop "Hot 100" chart. It rose no higher than No. 120 on the "Bubbling Under" chart. In January 1968 Harris made her only appearance on the UK album chart when her Just Loving You album reached No. 29.
The sustained interest[citation needed] in "Just Loving You" predicated a mild chart impact for her follow-up single "The Playground", released in September 1967. This reached its chart peak of No. 46 by 28 October 1967,[13] the same week "Just Loving You" (which had dropped out of the Top 20 at No. 21) returned to the Top 20 for three more weeks. However she did score a substantial hit with her 5 January 1968 release, a remake of the standard "Anniversary Waltz", which spent eight weeks in the UK Top 40, peaking at No. 21.[13]
After just missing the UK Top 50 with the single "We're Going on a Tuppenny Bus Ride" (released 17 May 1968), she made her final chart appearance with her rendition of "Dream a Little Dream of Me". Released on 26 July 1968, her single version peaked in the UK Top 50 at No. 33,[13] whilst the Mama Cass Elliot version peaked at No. 11.
A third album, Cuddly Toy, was released in 1969.
In 2012 she recorded a jazz swing version as a streaming-only single of "Fairytale of New York" with Ray Dorset, the duet being credited to Mungo Jerry and Anita Harris.
Television, stage and film career
Since 1961, Harris has made numerous television appearances, mostly as a performer, occasionally as an actress, and her few film roles included a cameo as a casino singer in Death Is a Woman (1966) and co-starring roles in the comedy films Follow That Camel (1967) and Carry On Doctor (1967). Harris gained her role in the latter film while working in a revueWay Out in Piccadilly with Frankie Howerd. Backstage, he introduced her to the producer and director of the series resulting in the decision to cast Harris as well as Howerd.[4][6] In December 1970, Thames Television debuted the children's television series Jumbleland which she co-produced and in which she starred as Witch Witt Witty.
In 2014, Harris appeared in a guest role in the BBC drama, Casualty.[16] She continues to perform with her band around the country, including at the Royal Albert Hall, London. She performed in pantomime over Christmas 2014–15 by appearing as the wicked Baroness in a production of Cinderella at the Grand Opera House in York. "I've played Aladdin, Jack and Dick Whittington and Robinson Crusoe. I've loved playing principal boy and I'm sorry that boys are now playing that role", she told a York press meeting at the time.[5]
During 2016, Harris toured with her show across the UK, An Evening with Anita Harris. With musical accompaniment, she revealed anecdotes from her life in showbusiness, the people she has met and the places she has been. She appeared in ITV's Last Laugh in Vegas, and was a contestant in the BBC's Celebrity MasterChef 2018.[17][18]
In 2019, Harris guest starred in the first episode of Series 20 of Midsomer Murders’ entitled "The Ghost of Causton Abbey" as Irene Taylor, an accomplice to the killer. She guest starred as a medium called Shyanna in an episode of EastEnders which aired in August 2019.
Petula Clark CBE is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 81 years.
Clodagh Rodgers is a retired singer from Northern Ireland, best known for her hit singles including "Come Back and Shake Me", "Goodnight Midnight", and "Jack in the Box".
Geno Washington is an American R&B singer who released five albums with the Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976.
The Foundations were a British soul band who were primarily active between 1967 and 1970. The group's background was: West Indian, White British and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single "Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number eleven in the US. Their 1968 single "Build Me Up Buttercup" reached number two in the UK and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number one hit in the UK in the 1960s.
Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan was a founder member of the British group the Drifters, with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which would evolve into the Shadows. He played drums on early Cliff Richard and the Shadows hits and on early Shadows instrumentals.
Jackie Lee is an Irish popular music singer, who has recorded under various stage names.
The Honeycombs were an English beat group, founded in 1963 in North London, best known for their chart-topping, million-selling 1964 hit, "Have I the Right?" The band featured Honey Lantree on drums, one of the few high-profile female drummers at that time. They were unable to replicate the success of their first single and disbanded by 1967.
The Sandpipers were an American easy listening trio who carved a niche in 1960s folk rock with their vocals and innovative arrangements of international ballads and pop standards. They are best remembered for their cover version of "Guantanamera", which became a transatlantic top 10 hit in 1966, and their top 20 hit "Come Saturday Morning" from the soundtrack of the film The Sterile Cuckoo in 1970.
"Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to promote the 1966 film Alfie. The song was a major hit for Cilla Black (UK) and Dionne Warwick (US).
Carol Hedges who was known professionally as Billie Davis, is an English singer who had hits in the 1960s, and is best remembered for the UK hit version of the song, "Tell Him" (1963) and "I Want You to Be My Baby" (1968).
The Rockin' Berries are a beat group from Birmingham, England, who had several hit records in the UK in the 1960s. A version of the group, emphasising comedy routines as well as music, continues to perform to the present day.
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band are an England-based soul band.
The Brook Brothers were an English pop duo composed of Geoff Brook and Ricky Brook.
Sharon Tandy was a South African singer who achieved some success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s as part of the blue-eyed soul and psychedelic movements. In 1966, she recorded some songs at Stax studios, a rarity for a white singer. She also had several chart hits in South Africa in the 1970s. Sharon has one daughter, Wendy Crabb (Maas). She has three grandchildren - Leigh Marti (1990), Kelly Van Der Linde (1994), Kaila-Lee Crabb (2009). Sharon is a great grandmother to Kade Van Der Linde (2017) and Kenzie Van Der Linde (2021)
The Montanas were an English 1960s and 1970s pop rock band from Wolverhampton, England. Though they never found significant success in their home country, they had one moderate hit in the United States.
Sandie Shaw is a retired English pop singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (1964), "Long Live Love" (1965) and "Puppet on a String" (1967). With the latter, she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She returned to the UK Top 40, for the first time in 15 years, with her 1984 cover of the Smiths song "Hand in Glove". Shaw retired from the music industry in 2013.
The Alan Bown Set later known as The Alan Bown! or just Alan Bown, were a British band of the 1960s and 1970s whose music evolved from jazz and blues through soul and rhythm and blues and ended up as psychedelia and progressive rock. The band achieved limited chart success and is best known for the role it played in developing the careers of numerous musicians including Mel Collins, John Helliwell, Robert Palmer, Jess Roden and Dougie Thomson.
"Loving You" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and performed by Elvis Presley with backup vocals provided by The Jordanaires. It reached No. 15 on the U.S. country chart, #20 on the U.S. pop chart, and #24 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957. It was featured on his 1957 album Loving You. It was featured in Presley's 1957 movie Loving You. The single's A-side, "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" reached No. 1 on the U.S. pop, country, and R&B charts and #3 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957.
Just Loving You is a 1967 song by Anita Harris. Prior to Chasing Cars, it was the highest selling UK #6 and Ireland #18. It charted very minorly in the U.S., reaching #120 and #20 Adult Contemporary.
Just Loving You is the second album by actress and singer Anita Harris, released in 1967 on the Columbia label. It charted at #29 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned the singles Just Loving You, The Playground and Anniversary Waltz.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
