Sir Cliff Richard is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Rolf Harris was an Australian musician, television personality, painter, and actor. He often used unusual instruments like the didgeridoo and the Stylophone in his performances, and is credited with the invention of the wobble board. He was convicted in England in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls, which effectively ended his career.
Mary Hopkin, credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles' Apple label.
The Music of Wales, particularly singing, is a significant part of Welsh national identity, and the country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song".
Barbara Ruth Dickson is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include "I Know Him So Well", "Answer Me" and "January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK Albums Chart from 1977 to date, and had a number of hit singles, including four which reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. The Scotsman newspaper has described her as Scotland's best-selling female singer in terms of the numbers of hit chart singles and albums she has achieved in the UK since 1976.
The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals. The band were regulars on the folk scenes in both Dublin and London in the early 1960s. They were signed to the Major Minor label in 1965 after backing from Dominic Behan who was paid by the label to work with the group and help them to build a better act fit for larger concert hall venues. The Dubliners worked with Behan regularly between 1965 and 1966; Behan wrote numerous songs for this act including the song McAlpine's Fusiliers created specifically to showcase Ronnie Drew's gravel voice. They went on to receive extensive airplay on Radio Caroline, which was part-owned by Phil Solomon CEO of Major Minor, and eventually appeared on Top of the Pops in 1967 with hits "Seven Drunken Nights" and "The Black Velvet Band". Often performing political songs considered controversial at the time, they drew criticism from some folk purists. Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ placed an unofficial ban on their music from 1967 to 1971. During this time the band's popularity began to spread across mainland Europe and they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States. The group's success remained steady right through the 1970s and a number of collaborations with The Pogues in 1987 saw them enter the UK Singles Chart on another two occasions.
"Music Box Dancer" is an instrumental piece by Canadian musician Frank Mills that was an international hit in the late 1970s. It features an arpeggiated piano theme in C-sharp major designed to resemble a music box, accompanied by other instruments playing a counterpoint melody as well as a wordless chorus. Most modern piano music sheets have the song in the key of C major.
Roger Henry Brough Whittaker was a Kenyan-born British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills.
Graham McPherson, known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor.
"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.
John Valmore Pearson was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.
Owen Paul is a Scottish singer best known in the UK for his 1986 No. 3 hit single, "My Favourite Waste of Time", a cover version of a song that was originally written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw. After releasing a couple of singles and the album As It Is, he had a falling out with his record label, resulting in him leaving the music industry for 15 years.
Julie Ann Felix was an American-British folk singer and recording artist who achieved success, particularly on British television, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She later performed and released albums on her own record label.
Noel Sullivan is a Welsh singer and actor. He was a member of the British pop group Hear'Say. Like the other members of the group, he won his part through the talent show Popstars.
David Spencer, known professionally as Ricky Valance, was a Welsh pop singer. He was best known for the UK number one single "Tell Laura I Love Her", which sold over a million copies in 1960. He was the first male Welsh singer to have a UK number one single hit.
"Two Little Boys" is a sentimental song about two friends who grow up to be soldiers. Recorded as early as 1903 in the United States, it became an international hit for Australian Rolf Harris 66 years later. It was published in 1903 by American composer Theodore F. Morse and lyricist Edward Madden.
Charles James McDevitt is a Scottish musician who was one of the leading lights of the skiffle genre which was highly influential and popular in the United Kingdom in the mid-to-late 1950s.
The discography of Australian musician, singer-songwriter, painter and television personality Rolf Harris consists of 30 studio albums, 2 live albums, 4 compilation albums, and 48 singles. He often used unusual instruments in his performances: he played the didgeridoo and the stylophone and is credited with the invention of the wobble board. Harris also collaborated with other artists, including Kate Bush, Rick Parfitt, and The Wiggles.
Gregory Gray, born Paul Lerwill, was a Northern Irish singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of Rosetta Stone, a 1970s boy band, and became an influential cult musician who made indie music and videos under the pseudonym Mary Cigarettes. He published his work on online platforms such as YouTube and SoundCloud. During the course of his career his musical style ranged over an eclectic spectrum of pop, post-punk, indie rock, electronic dance music, jazz and folk.
