Cilla Black

A cloakroom attendant at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club when The Beatles were regulars in the early 1960s, Cilla Black would occasionally sing a couple of songs with other Mersey bands like The Big Three and Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. John Lennon introduced her to Beatles manager Brian Epstein and she subsequently signed to Parlophone, releasing her dramatic debut single 'Love of the Loved' in 1963. It was only a minor hit, but she struck it big the following year when her cover of the Bacharach-David song 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' went to number one, becoming the biggest-selling single by a female artist in the UK. Other major hits followed including 'You're My World', 'It's for You', 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling', 'Alfie' and 'Step Inside Love'. With an irrepressible personality and rampant sense of humour, Black became a much-loved TV personality after getting her own BBC series in 1968, but as her TV fame blossomed so her recording career faded. She went on to front long-running populist TV hits like 'Blind Date', 'Surprise Surprise' and 'The Moment of Truth'. In 2013 ITV honoured Cilla Black with 'The One and Only Cilla Black', a tribute to her 50 years in show business. The following year, actress Sheridan Smith portrayed Black in a miniseries depicting her life, career and marriage to Bobby Willis. In August 2015, after suffering a stroke at her home in Spain, Cilla Black passed away. A few weeks after her death, 'The Very Best of Cilla Black' was released, topping the UK Albums Chart giving Black her first ever number one.

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