Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A singer known for the hits Release Me, The Last Waltz and There Goes My Everything; he has the largest fan club in the world.
On the island
Eight records
The Beatles with Penny Lane, because that was a song that released me st it stopped them from going to number one.
Nat King Cole and the George Shearing Quintet
Nat King Koh was my favorite, favorite singer of all time when I was a very young person. If you listen to this man's voice, the way he portrays a ballad, it's just amazing.
Now this is a very special song for me because um at one particular time uh when I was seventeen years old I went into a club... I sang it and I got standing oh I really didn't think I had a great voice.
Return to MeFavourite
Dean, later on, he really liked my my work, he liked me uh, somehow he took a shine to me. He was the one that put his name up for me, you know, he uh had a piece in the hotel in at the Ribiera Hotel in Las Vegas, and he wanted me to be there.
Elvis Presley with the Blue Christmas Christmas is coming up. Elvis was of course a dear friend of mine. I love his version of it, and so I also later on I put it on my Christmas album.
Jimmy was breaking through in this country. His agents were looking for an established name so that he could make a name for himself in this country by being on the same bill as. And they chose me, and Jimmy opened the show.
All the World and the Seven Seas
It takes me back to 1967 when I first got the success at the London Palladium. And of course, I went back at the end of the year and did a pantomime where I played Robinson Crusoe.
Ray Charles and a s a song called Making Whoopee, which I had the pleasure of doing a a duet with Ray Charles on on one of my shows. I learned from him, everyone learned from him, Elvis learned from him, everybody did.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:33How did [your appearance at the London Palladium] come about?
Dickie Valentine dropped out because he wasn't feeling too good, and I took his place and I had six minutes to establish myself on the London Palladium. I went for rehearsal and I was shaking all over. This is the biggest thing I've ever done in my life. And anyway, I did the show. That particular night, I had calls from Frankie Vaughan, from Dickie Valentine, backstage calls, saying how well I did on the show. And to me, that was the greatest feeling I ever experienced in my life.
Presenter asks
7:09How does [your success] make you feel? Does it make you feel defiant or grateful or proud?
I feel proud that I was able to accomplish uh uh what I've accomplished in my life so far, yes. It took a lot of hard work and uh a lot of struggling and uh a lot of jukebox juries that went that sort of stuff.
Presenter asks
11:16What did you think of Leicester when you got there?
I was uh I was excited. It's in a different country and uh the snow was on the ground and it was just it was wonderful, something I'd never seen before. I loved it. I loved the experience of it. I mean I'd we d we didn't have the servants, etcetera, but one has to cope with those things.
The keepsakes
The book
Engelbert Humperdinck
I would like to take my book to remind me of what I've done.
The luxury
Then I think I would take my saxophone and I'd really learn how to play it 'cause I'd have the time to learn.
Presenter asks
13:55Where did you live [when you had no money]?
Well, when I worked at the working men's clubs I never had places to stay so I would sleep in the park or in the in a public convenience or in a telephone box or things like that. But when I went to London I met the agent an agent who took a shine to me. He and his wife uh invited me to the to stay at their apartment in uh Maidevale. And so it got me a place where I could I could go here and go there without wondering where I'm going to sleep tonight.
Presenter asks
27:53Who and what have you healed?
I really, really this is a difficult uh subject to talk on really, but uh I have to tell you that Many years ago I got very ill and there wasn't any doctors that knew what it was and it lasted for four and a half months and the only person that cured me was a holistic medicine doctor in Germany... He said, use it on your family and friends and then maybe you can do it to the general public. Anyway, I've been using it for many and many years now. And it's not me. I'm not the healer. I'm just the instrument. The medication comes from above.
“I think you appreciate the good once it comes along and um well, the truth comes out and sincerity Prevails, you know, and and I think it was it was good for me to go through those times.”
“I never tried to analyze the the success and what caused it because I thought it might disappear, you know. I'm very superstitious. So I just didn't try to analyze that success at all.”
“I started the sideburns. I started it in 1965, actually. Everyone asked me to shave them off. My manager said shave it off. The agents were saying you don't need that. I said, No, this is part of my image.”