Ross Hannaman

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Rosalind Judith Hannaman was a British singer, mostly active in the 1960s.

Contents

Career

Hannaman was born and raised in London. She signed to EMI in 1967 to pursue a career in pop music. She was initially managed by Tim Rice, and he and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote both of her singles and their subsequent B-sides. Her debut single, "Down Thru' Summer" (b/w "I’ll Give All My Love to Southend"), was released in 1967. It received airplay on the offshore pirate radio station Radio London, made the station's Fab 40 chart, [1] but did not feature in the official UK Singles Chart. Shortly afterward her second single, "1969", was released. Its B-side was a lush ballad titled "Probably on Thursday". Like its predecessor, "1969" went nowhere on the UK chart and Hannaman's solo career ended. Both of the singles are very rare and highly sought after by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice collectors.

Ross was named "face of the year" in 1968 by the Evening Standard , [2] and she then married EMI producer Mark Wirtz. [3] They wrote songs using the aliases "Philwit and Bigsby". Together and under the name The Sweetshop, Wirtz and Hannaman recorded the song "Barefoot and Tiptoe", as part of his unfinished recording A Teenage Opera . [4] Wirtz and Hannaman subsequently divorced. [3]

Singles

The Sweetshop

Re-releases

Sheet music

Song cover

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References

  1. "Radio London - Field's Fab Forty - 25th June 1967". Radiolondon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. "Tim Rice: a hard graft to success". The Spectator . 23 July 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Mark Wirtz, musician and producer who had a global hit with Excerpt from a Teenage Opera – obituary". The Daily Telegraph . 12 August 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  4. Barefoot and Tiptoe (Media notes). Parlophone. 1968. R5707.