Kathy Kirby(1938-2011)

Kathy achieved national prominence in the U.K. as a resident singer, on the British TV series, Stars and Garters (1963). Signed to Decca records, she had several hit singles, scoring her first Top 20 smash hit with Dance On, a chart topper by the British Group, The Shadows from earlier that year. Kathy's version also topped the single charts in Australia. An attempt to create similar waves by adding lyrics to another instrumental, this time the version by The Spotnicks of the traditional "Hava Nagila" was less of a success, despite being given a similar Kirby treatment. Probably, she is most remembered for her dramatic re-working of the Doris Day song, 'Secret Love' which reached the UK Top 5. That year (1963), she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll. Further hit singles were provided in the form of a cover version of Teresa Brewer's "Let me go lover," as well as "You're the One," and 1965's British Eurovision Song Contest entry, "I Belong," which came a creditable second. That year she also scored a hit single in the U.S. with the song "The Way of Love."

Kathy became one of the biggest stars of the mid-sixties, especially after her triumphant billing in 1965's Royal Command Variety Performance and two series of her own BBC TV show Kathy Kirby Sings. Her career started to go off the boil in 1967, and, remarkably, it was not long before sadly she was all but forgotten.