Sandra Ann Goodrich was born and brought up in Dagenham, then in Essex, England.[2] She attended Robert Clack Technical School in Becontree Heath, Dagenham.[citation needed] On leaving school, she worked at the nearby Ford Dagenham factory and did some part-time modelling before coming second as a singer in a local talent contest. As a prize, she appeared at a charity concert in London, where her potential was spotted by singer Adam Faith. He introduced her to his manager, Eve Taylor, who won her a contract with Pye Records in 1964 and gave her the stage name of "Sandie Shaw".[citation needed]
"I'd Be Far Better Off Without You" was issued as the follow-up, but DJs preferred its B-side, "Girl Don't Come", also written by Andrews, and the sides were switched. "Girl Don't Come" reached No. 3 in the UK and became her biggest US hit, reaching No. 42.[7]:387 It was followed by further hits in the UK including "I'll Stop at Nothing", "Long Live Love", her second UK No. 1 in 1965, and "Message Understood".[6][5]:92–93 The singles were produced by Taylor, Andrews and Shaw herself (though she was never credited), with help from Pye Records arranger Ken Woodman.[citation needed] Another potential follow-up, Les Reed and Gordon Mills's "It's Not Unusual," was originally written for Shaw but never recorded after the singer on the demo, a then-unknown Tom Jones, impressed Shaw so much with his powerful interpretation of the song that she encouraged Jones to release the song himself; it became Jones's breakout hit.[8][5]:85
Shaw was a regular on popular British TV programmes of the time such as Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. She was seen as epitomising the "swinging Sixties", and her trademark of performing barefoot endeared her to the public at large.[9][10] She also recorded most of her hit singles in Italian, French, German and Spanish boosting her popularity in Europe.[11] Shaw also released several original albums in the 1960s: Sandie (1965); Me (1965); Puppet on a String (1967); Love Me, Please Love Me (1967); The Sandie Shaw Supplement (1968) and Reviewing the Situation (1969). These albums generally consisted of Andrews-penned songs mixed with cover versions of songs made popular by other musicians.
Sandie Shaw arrives in Finland with her manager Eve Taylor in 1967.
By 1967 Shaw's record sales were declining and her manager decided she should move more towards cabaret.[12] She was invited by the BBC to represent the UK in that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She had reservations as she felt it would destroy her credibility, but performed five songs on The Rolf Harris Show, with the public voting that the one that should represent the country was the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter composition "Puppet on a String". Although she disliked the song and thought it was unrepresentative of her material, the song won the contest by a near-record margin of votes,[13] and made Shaw the first person to win the contest for the UK.[6] It gave her a third UK No. 1 single, a record for a female at the time.[5]:85
"Puppet on a String" also became an international hit (though not in the US) and the largest-selling single of the year in Germany, qualifying for a gold disc for one million plus sales in the UK and Europe.[3] Globally, the single achieved sales in excess of 4 million, making it the biggest selling winning Eurovision track to date.[14] Some estimates suggest this makes the track the biggest selling single by a British female artist of all time.[15] Her Eurovision success almost did not happen; the BBC wanted to drop her because she had been the "other woman" in a divorce case.[16]
Fashion had become another of Shaw's trademarks, and in 1968 she began the Sandie Shaw fashion label, selling her own brand of clothing and shoes and jewellery. In the same year she hosted her own TV show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement, and issued an LP of the same title. Shaw was to have made her film debut in Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter, but she walked out of the production before filming began.[17]:63 Her last UK Top 10 hit (her eighth in total) came in the form of 1969's "Monsieur Dupont," originally sung by German artist Manuela with German lyrics.[6]
At the end of 1969, the single "Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now" was released, which would become the inspiration for a hit by the Smiths 15 years later. Shaw also produced her own album, Reviewing the Situation, which contained versions of songs by artists such as Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and made Shaw the first known artist to cover a Led Zeppelin song. Shaw ended 1969 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the '60s music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing "There's Always Something There To Remind Me" and the German version of "Puppet on a String", "Wiedehopf Im Mai", live on the show broadcast on BBC1, 31 December 1969.[citation needed]
1970 to present
Although she began writing songs, her contract with Pye expired in 1972. She retired from life as a pop singer and began working on other ventures, including co-writing a full-length rock musical, songwriting, acting in stage productions (she played Ophelia in Hamlet and Joan of Arc in Saint Joan) and writing children's books. In 1972 she further demonstrated her versatility as an artist appearing on BBC Television's long-running music hall programme, The Good Old Days. In 1973, Shaw was one of eight artists each given their own TV special in the BBC1 series Music My Way, where her guests included Blue Mink.[18] By her own choice, Shaw left the music business and took work in a central London restaurant as a waitress,[17]:103 but in 1977, she released two singles on the CBS label and the following year began a lifelong commitment to Sōka GakkaiBuddhism.
Her second husband, Nik Powell, introduced her to BEF. She recorded a version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for their Music of Quality And Distinction album on the Virgin label,[7]:387 which brought her back into the public eye. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders invited Shaw to perform a duet rendition of "Girl Don't Come" at a Pretenders performance, and the two women began a long-term friendship. The following year Shaw wrote and recorded an album, Choose Life, to publicise the World Peace Exposition in London in March 1983. Later in the year, a new phase in her career began after she received a letter from "two incurable Sandie Shaw fans" – singer Morrissey and lead guitarist Johnny Marr of the Smiths – telling her that "The Sandie Shaw legend cannot be over yet – there is more to be done." Shaw's husband was a friend of Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, the label to which the Smiths were signed, and she agreed to record some of their songs.[7]:387
In April 1984, her version of "Hand in Glove" (the Smiths' first single) was released and peaked just inside the UK Top 30.[6] She recorded a new version of her first hit "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" for the film Letter to Brezhnev and then released two singles on the Polydor label.[7]:91 1986 saw her embark on her first university tour in almost 20 years with a band made up largely of members of the JoBoxers,[17]:73 followed in 1988 by the album Hello Angel, the name inspired by a postcard from Morrissey. Shaw embarked on two more successful university tours and made appearances at Gay pride and Peace festivals.[citation needed]
Sandie Shaw appeared at the Sanremo Music Festival 1990, singing "Deep Joy", the English version to Milva's song "Sono Felice". The 1990s saw the release of many compilation albums of Shaw's material on various minor labels, as well as reissues of some of her original albums. Shaw's autobiography, The World at My Feet, was published in 1991, and the following year she began studying at Oxford and the University of London and qualified as a psychotherapist in 1994. During that time, she recorded new versions of some of her 1960s songs for the album Nothing Less Than Brilliant, released in 1994. It was also around this time that Shaw divorced Powell and met her third husband, Tony Bedford. Concentrating on a new career as a psychotherapist, Shaw opened the Arts Clinic in 1997 with her husband, to provide psychological healthcare and creative development to those in the creative industries.[7]:387 The clinic is now styled Barefoot Therapy: The Arts Clinic and continues to provide psychological support for those in the fields of entertainment, media and sports.[19] In 1998 she was invited to join the Royal Society of Musicians as an Honorary Professor of Music.
Shaw also embarked on a successful legal battle to establish ownership of her entire recording catalogue and began working with contemporary acts and producers, reworking much of her 1960s and 1980s material. In 2003, Shaw licensed her recording catalogue worldwide to EMI, continued to develop her Arts Clinic and began executive coaching and mentoring. Meanwhile, EMI released compilations of her French and Italian recordings, and the following year released similar compilations in Spanish and German. Newly remastered versions of Reviewing the Situation and Hello Angel also were issued with bonus tracks, and toward the end of the year a 4-CD box set entitled Nothing Comes Easy was released. Also in 2003, actress Ashley Williams portrayed Shaw on an episode of the American television series American Dreams, performing "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" on American Bandstand.
During this decade, she reneged on previous declarations of hatred for the Eurovision Song Contest and announced that she was proud of her Eurovision past on the BBC show Making Your Mind Up. She also briefly sat in for Brian Matthew on his long-running BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show Sounds of the 60s in December 2006. On 26 February 2007, in honour of her 60th birthday, Shaw released a new version of "Puppet on a String" on her website. The re-tooled version, called "Puppet's Got a Brand New String," had a complete overhaul in sound and vocals under the supervision of her friend Howard Jones and mixer Andy Gray. The schlager style of the song was replaced with a calmer melody.[citation needed]
In April 2010, Shaw appeared on the UK ITV television programme Loose Women and revealed that she was returning to recording and would be singing the theme song to the British film, Made in Dagenham. She also took the opportunity to criticise the Eurovision Song Contest, saying that it was bad when she did it, but had now got even worse.[20]
In August 2010, she appeared at Vintage, an upmarket festival on the Goodwood estate in West Sussex, as a special guest of Wayne Hemingway (Red or Dead) who organised the event. As well as hosting her own main stage set, with numerous female guest singers, she also performed cameos on other stages, including singing "Downtown" with composer Tony Hatch and an orchestra in the cabaret tent.[21][22]
On 6 March 1968, Shaw married fashion designer Jeff Banks at the GreenwichRegister Office in London.[28]:182 Their daughter Gracie was born in February 1971.[28]:223 The marriage to Banks ended in 1978. In 1982, she married Nik Powell, co-founder of the Virgin Group and chairman of the European Film Academy. They had two children together before divorcing in 1995. She then married her third husband, the psychologist Tony Bedford.[29]
In August 2007, Shaw revealed that she had had corrective surgery on her feet, which she described as "ugly"; the surgery meant she was unable to walk until October of that year.[10]
Political views
In April 2012, Shaw joined an Amnesty International campaign to end human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, host country of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, after the journalist Khadija Ismayilova was blackmailed and sex taped. Shaw stated: "That anyone would stoop so low in an attempt to silence an independent journalist is sickening. The people behind this appalling blackmail and smear campaign must be brought to justice. And the persecution of independent journalists in Azerbaijan must stop."[30]
In August 2014, in the lead-up to the Scottish independence referendum that was to take place in September that year, Shaw was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom.[31]
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns is a Scottish singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Her career has spanned six decades. Her debut single, a cover version of The Isley Brothers song "Shout", reached the top ten of the UK singles chart in 1964. In 1967, she rose to international prominence after appearing in the film To Sir, with Love, singing the theme song, which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks.
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.
Sonia Evans, known mononymously as Sonia, is an English pop singer from Liverpool. She had a 1989 UK number one hit with "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" and became the first female UK artist to achieve five top 20 hit singles from one album. She represented the United Kingdom in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished second with the song "Better the Devil You Know".
The United Kingdom was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String", written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and performed by Sandie Shaw. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final titled A Song for Europe 1967, after having previously selected the performer internally. The entry eventually won the Eurovision Song Contest.
The United Kingdom was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "Congratulations", written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and performed by Cliff Richard. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final, after having previously selected the performer internally. In addition, the BBC was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the Royal Albert Hall in London, after winning the previous edition with the song "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw.
Jessica Julie Anne Garlick is a Welsh pop singer. Garlick made her first steps into show business when she was 16. At that age, she won the Welsh final of BBC One's talent show Star for a Night. The same year she also featured in Michael Barrymore's My Kind of Music. She is the second-highest placed British entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest in the 21st century, coming joint third in the 2002 contest.
Philip Coulter is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009.
"All Kinds of Everything" is a song recorded by Irish singer Dana written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. It represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 held in Amsterdam, resulting in the country's first ever win at the contest. The recording became an international hit.
"Puppet on a String" is a song recorded by British singer Sandie Shaw, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. It represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, held in Vienna, winning the contest, becoming the first of the United Kingdom's five Eurovision wins.
Christopher Frederick Andrews is an English-German singer-songwriter and producer, whose musical career started in the late 1950s. His biggest hits as a solo artist include "To Whom It Concerns", "Yesterday Man", and "Pretty Belinda". He had thirteen number one songs between five countries between 1965 and 1970.
"Merci, Chérie" is a song composed and recorded by Austrian singer Udo Jürgens with lyrics by himself and Thomas Hörbiger. It represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966, held in Luxembourg, resulting in the country's first ever win at the contest.
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Wiedehopf im Mai – Sandie Shaw singt auf Deutsch is a compilation album by the British pop singer Sandie Shaw featuring all her German language recordings, many of which are versions of her hits. The album was released in 2004 by EMI.
The Collection is a compilation album by the British singer Sandie Shaw, which was released in 2007 shortly after her 60th birthday. Released as a budget-priced album by EMI, it contained mostly recordings from the 1960s including A-sides, B-sides, album tracks plus two exclusive foreign language songs.
Puppet on a String is Sandie Shaw's third full-priced album, released on the Pye label in May 1967 on the back of her Eurovision success.
"Long Live Love" is a song by Australian singer, songwriter, and actress Olivia Newton-John composed and written by Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro. It represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 held in Brighton.
Kim Goody is an English actress, composer, singer and songwriter. One of her earliest stints as a singer was providing backing vocals on Dave Davies' 1983 album Chosen People. She has appeared in television shows such as Play Away and No. 73, and featured in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2 and starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones. It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977. She was a regular guest in Jonathan Cohen's 1978 BBC music series Hit the Note. She also appeared as a pop singer named "Michelle" in an episode broadcast on 3 December 1978 called "The Roman Touch" of the television series, "Return of the Saint" starring Ian Ogilvy.
Eve Taylor was a British talent manager, notable as one of the early female music managers. She managed singers Adam Faith, Sandie Shaw and Val Doonican, and composer John Barry, among others.
Songs of Europe is a concert television programme commemorating the Eurovision Song Contest's twenty-fifth anniversary. The event was held in Mysen, Norway in 1981, featuring all but eight of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest from its first edition in 1956 to 1981, and broadcast to more than 100 million viewers all over Europe.
"Angel of My Dreams" is the debut solo single by English singer and songwriter Jade. It was released on 19 July 2024, through RCA Records. and marks her first solo endeavour after Little Mix began their hiatus in May 2022. Jade co-wrote the song with Steph Jones, Pablo Bowman and its producer Mike Sabath. Because of the sample of the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest winning song "Puppet on a String" by English singer Sandie Shaw which is played at the beginning and end of the track, Bill Martin and Phil Coulter received writing credits.
↑ O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. Carlton Books. p.208. ISBN978-1-84442-994-3.
↑ O'Connor, John Kennedy (2015). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official Celebration. Carlton Books. ISBN978-1780976389.
↑ Kelly, Mike. Wot Pop: 50 Years of Hits 1952-2002 - A-Z of Hitmakers Plus the UK's Top 5000 Singles. Southgate Publishers 30 September 2002. ISBN978-1857411409
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