Glenda Collins (born 16 December 1943) is an English pop music singer, primarily active in the 1960s. [1] She recorded a string of singles which were produced by Joe Meek, and was the only female singer he regularly worked with.
Collins was discovered by Carroll Levis, whose promotion landed her a contract with Decca Records. [2] She released three singles through Decca, which failed to chart, and she was dropped by the label.
Her manager father then recorded some demos with Collins, and introduced her to independent record producer Joe Meek, [3] who took her on. Meek featured house bands The Tornados and The Outlaws, including guitarist Ritchie Blackmore on some tracks. [2]
She released a total of eight singles with Meek, issued through the HMV Pop and Pye labels, none of which appeared in the UK Singles Chart. [2] After Meek's suicide in 1967, she recorded sporadically, but his death effectively ended her recording career, and she retired at the end of the 1960s after a few years on the cabaret circuit. [2]
Collins briefly came out of retirement in 1999 to record a cover version of "Avenues and Alleyways" (the theme from The Protectors ) with record producer Russell C. Brennan (aka Russell C. Writer), which featured on the compilation album, Cult Themes from the 70's, Vol. 2, issued by Future Legend Records. Her agents were keen to organise a concert tour, which did not materialise.
A 2006 compilation titled This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' compiled what was then thought to be her complete surviving recorded output.
In 2019, Collins made a second comeback, and teamed up again with Brennan once more - as she liked working with him, and considered him Meek's successor - to do a new cover of another theme for the last album in the Future Legend cult themes series, Cult Themes Forever. This time, she recorded "Nobody's Fool" (the theme from Budgie ) written by Ray Davies. [4]
In 2020, Collins made a special recording with Brennan again. He had written a female slant on the song, "The Long Drop", originally meant for Tony Kaye (aka Tony Grinham). It was released to coincide with the anniversary of Meek's death on 3 February 2020. The response to the releases were so positive that Future Legend signed her to a permanent deal, and Brennan began producing an album with Collins for a 2022 release. The first single from the album, "Too Sad To Cry", was released in March 2022. Prior to this, Future Legend re-issued her Decca singles, with one of the tracks, "Find Another Fool", having been remixed by Brennan.
Collins' first ever solo album of new tracks, Second Chance, came out on Future Legend Records in December 2022.
The Action were an English band of the 1960s, formed as the Boys in August 1963, in Kentish Town, North West London. They were part of the mod subculture, and played soul music-influenced pop music.
Anthony Newley was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leading men", from 1959 to 1962 he scored a dozen entries on the UK Top 40 chart, including two number one hits. Newley won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "What Kind of Fool Am I?", sung by Sammy Davis Jr., and wrote "Feeling Good", which became a signature hit for Nina Simone. His songs have been sung by a wide variety of singers including Fiona Apple, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.
Stateside Records, styled as $tateside Records, is a British record label, owned by Warner Music Group and operates through its Parlophone and Warner Records imprints. Upon creation, it initially released licensed American recordings and is now a reissue label.
Mike Berry is a British singer and actor. He is known for his top ten hits "Don't You Think It's Time" (1963) and "The Sunshine of Your Smile" (1980) in a singing career spanning nearly 60 years. He became an actor in the 1970s, and was best known for his appearances as Mr. Spooner in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? in the early 1980s.
Sheldon Talmy was an American record producer, songwriter, and arranger, best known for his work in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks, and many other artists.
Charles Nicholas Hodges was an English musician and singer who was the lead vocalist of musical duo Chas & Dave.
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.
Joan Regan was an English traditional pop singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Geoffrey Goddard was an English songwriter, singer and instrumentalist. Working for Joe Meek in the early 1960s, he wrote songs for Heinz, Mike Berry, Gerry Temple, the Tornados, Kenny Hollywood, the Outlaws, Freddie Starr, Screaming Lord Sutch, the Ramblers and John Leyton. His song for Leyton, "Johnny Remember Me", reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.
Carol Hedges, 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).
Alan Charles Klein is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He wrote the soundtrack for the stage play and film, What a Crazy World (1963). In 1964, he released his only solo album, Well at Least It's British, that was re-released in 2008 by RPM Records.
John Stanley Livingstone Harris was a Scottish composer, producer, arranger, conductor, and musical director. He lived in the United States from 1972 until his death.
James Radcliffe was an American soul singer, composer, arranger, conductor and record producer.
The English conductor Sir Adrian Boult was a prolific recording artist. Unlike many musicians, he felt at home in the recording studio and actually preferred working without an audience. His recording career ran from November 1920, when working with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes he recorded the ballet music, The Good-Humoured Ladies, to December 1978, when he made his final recording of music by Hubert Parry.
Jimmy Powell was a British soul and rhythm and blues singer who recorded and performed throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, and is best remembered as the lead singer of Jimmy Powell and the 5 Dimensions, a group that briefly included Rod Stewart.
Michael James Cox is a British-born former pop singer and actor. As Michael Cox, he had a top-ten hit on the UK singles chart in 1960 with "Angela Jones", produced by Joe Meek. He later worked as an actor, and in TV in New Zealand, using both his full name and the name Michael James.
Jan Howard Sings Evil on Your Mind is a studio album by American country artist Jan Howard. It was released in July 1966 by Decca Records and was her second studio album. The project consisted of 12 tracks featuring both uptempo and ballad material. Its title track was a top five US country song in 1966 and was one of four singles on the album. Another was the charting 1964 song "What Makes a Man Wander?". The album itself made the US country survey following its release and received critical reception from Cash Box magazine.
The singles discography of Wanda Jackson, an American recording artist, consists of 81 singles, nine international singles, one other charted song, and three music videos. In 1954 at age 16, she signed as a country artist with Decca Records. Her debut single was a duet recording with Billy Gray which reached the eighth spot on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, also in 1954. Refusing to tour until completing high school, Jackson's further singles for Decca failed gaining success. She signed with Capitol Records in 1956 and began incorporating rock and roll into her musical style. Jackson's first Capitol single exemplified this format and became a national top-20 country hit. Follow-up rock singles between 1957 and 1959 failed gaining enough attention to become hits including, "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad", "Fujiyama Mama", and "Honey Bop". In 1960 however, the rock and roll-themed, "Let's Have a Party", became Jackson's first Billboard top-40 pop hit after it was picked up by an Iowa disc jockey.
Virginia Mazarro, known professionally as Ginny Arnell, is an American former pop and country music singer and songwriter who recorded in the late 1950s and early 1960s.