Big Maceo born 31 March 1905

Big Maceo Merriweather (March 31, 1905 - February 23, 1953) was an American blues pianist and singer, active in Chicago in the 1940s.

Born Major Merriweather on the outskirts of Atlanta, March 31, 1905 on his family's farm, one of 11 children. As he grew older he would eventually stand well over six-feet and weigh more than 250 pounds, which garnered his nickname “Big.” In 1920, the family moved to the College Park section of town and the young Major developed an affinity for the piano. He began working the cafes and honky tonks located on Harvard Street, as well as playing at house rent parties and fish fries throughout the city.

In 1924, at the age of 19, his family relocated to Detroit where he began playing parties and clubs. In 1941, a desire to record led him to Chicago where he met and befriended Tampa Red. Red introduced him to Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records, who signed him to a recording contract.

                            

Within just a few weeks Maceo was recording for the famed Bluebird label. The first session would prove to be extremely fruitful for Big Maceo, as his friends called him. He recorded a total of 14 sides, with the first single becoming the most important of his career: “Worried Life Blues”, which promptly became a blues hit and remained his signature piece.

Other classic piano blues recordings such as "Chicago Breakdown", "Texas Stomp", and "Detroit Jump" followed. His piano
style developed from players like Leroy Carr and Roosevelt Sykes, as well as from the Boogie-woogie style of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. He in turn influenced other musicians like Henry Gray, who credits Merriweather to helping him launch his career as a blues pianist.

Unfortunately, Big Maceo's career was cut short after he suffered a stroke in 1946 that left him almost completely paralyzed on his right side. Over the next few years, he would attempt to record several more times despite his handicap. Occasionally other pianists would play while he sang, and other pursuits found him sharing the keyboards with a second performer working the right side of the piano for him. Among the artists who filled this role would be Eddie Boyd in 1947 for sides done for Victor and Johnny Jones in 1949 for Specialty.

Another pianist to occupy this spot would be Otis Spann, who idolized Big Maceo. He would also sometimes fill in for the elder musician for gigs whenever Maceo was unable to perform. All three of these musicians went on to become headliners on the Chicago Blues scene, incorporating their lessons learned at the side of Big Maceo. Spann would become the most prominent of all the Chicago Blues pianists identified with his tenure in the Muddy Waters Band.

Big Maceo retired from playing in 1949 following yet another stroke. Poor health and a lifetime of heavy drinking eventually led to a fatal heart attack. He died on February 23, 1953 in Chicago.

He was an influential blues piano players of the 1940s and his style had an impact on practically every post World War II blues pianist of note. His most famous song, "Worried Life Blues" is a staple of the blues repertoire, with artists such as Eric Clapton featuring it regularly in concert. "Worried Life Blues" was in the first batch of songs inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame "Classic Blues Recordings - Singles or Albums Tracks" alongside "Stormy Monday," 'Sweet Home Chicago," "Dust My Broom," and "Hellhound On My Trail."

Left to right: Big Maceo Merriweather, Rose Allen Broonzy, Big Bill Broonzy, Lil Green, "Jimmy", Lucille Merriweather, Tyrell Dixon c. late 1940s.source: Harrison 1995, p. 25 ("courtesy Mike Rowe"/Lucy Kate Merriweather); damages cleared up by Stefan Wirz. Photo first published in Blues Unlimited 146 (autumn/winter 1984).

His sparse recordings for Bluebird were released in a double album set as Chicago Breakdown, in 1975. They have since been reissued on a variety of labels.

In 2002 he was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.(Info edited from Wikipedia & All about Jazz)

Pearl Bailey born 29 March 1918

Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. An uninhibited vocalist who gave more to her performances than any other singers around, Pearl Bailey gained fame for her work in Broadway, cabaret, and Hollywood. Bailey's sultry, slurred delivery livened up many a stale standard, including "Baby It's Cold Outside" and her only hit, "Takes Two to Tango."

The daughter of a preacher, Bailey began singing at the age of three. She made her stage-singing debut when she was 15 years old. Her brother Bill Bailey was beginning his own career as a tap dancer, and suggested she enter an amateur contest at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia. She entered the amateur
song and dance contest and won and was offered $35 a week to perform there for two weeks but the theatre closed during her engagement and she wasn't paid. She later won a similar contest at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater, and decided to pursue a career in entertainment.

She was performing professionally by her early teenage years and after touring as a dancer for several years, she featured both as a singer and dancer with jazz bands led by Noble Sissle, Cootie Williams, and Edgar Hayes. She began performing as a solo act in 1944, and wooed night
club audiences with her relaxed stage presence and humorous asides. After briefly replacing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Cab Calloway's Orchestra during the mid-'40s, she debuted on Broadway during 1946 in the musical St. Louis Woman. Bailey earned an award for most promising newcomer, and made her first film, Variety Girl, in 1947.

Though it wasn't a hit, her version of "Tired" (from Variety Girl) increased her standing in the jazz community. She recorded for several different labels, including Columbia, during the '40s and finally found a hit in 1952 after signing to Coral. Her version of "Takes Two to Tango," backed by Don Redman's Orchestra, hit the Top Ten. That same year, she married drummer Louie Bellson, and he left his position with Duke Ellington to become her musical director.

                               

Bailey recorded several albums for Coral during the early '50s, and starred as a fortune teller in the 1954 film Carmen Jones. Her rendition of "Beat Out That Rhythm on the Drum" is one of the highlights of the film. More starring roles followed, in the W.C. Handy biopic St. Louis Blues as well as the first filmed version of Gershwin's classic operetta Porgy and Bess.

In 1959, a new recording contract (with Roulette) resulted in a change of direction. After her double-entendre LP For Adults Only was banned from radio play, it became a big seller and occasioned a string of similar albums during the early '60s.

In 1967, Bailey and Cab Calloway headlined an all-black cast version of Hello, Dolly! The touring version was so successful, producer David Merrick took it to Broadway where it played to sold-out houses and revitalized the long running musical. Bailey was given a special Tony Award for her role and RCA made a second original cast album. That is the only recording of the score to have an overture which was written especially for that recording.

She led her own television variety show in 1971, but retired from active performance several years later. She returned to Broadway in 1975, playing the lead in an all-black production of Hello, Dolly! She earned a B.A. in theology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1985, at age 67.

Pearl Bailey was named to the American delegation to the United Nations in 1976, and awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1988.

She died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia on August 17, 1990 due to arteriosclerotic coronary artery disease. She is buried at Rolling Green Memorial Park in West Chester, Pennsylvania. (Info edited from Wikipedia & All Music)

Sally Carr born 28 March 1945

Sally Carr (born 28 March 1945) is a Scottish singer, best known as the lead singer of the 1970s pop group Middle of the Road.

Singer Sally Carr was born Sarah Cecilia Carr on March 28, 1945. Her father was a miner while her mother Cecilia was an invalid who was bedridden until her death at age 62. Carr has four brothers. Sally used to sing with the rest of her family around a piano when she was a child. 

In the 1960's she worked as a hairdresser and sang at both pubs and clubs in the evenings (she also worked as a waitress at various pubs).  Sally achieved her greatest popularity in the early 1970's as the lead singer of the Scottish pop band Middle of the Road.

Formed by Sally Carr (vocals), Ian McCredie (guitar), Eric McCredie (bass), and drummer Ken Andrew in 1970. The group had been playing together since 1967, but under the monikers of ”Part Four” and as “Los Caracus” who won the UK TV talent show Opportunity Knocks.

Middle of the Road had trouble finding success until they uprooted from the United Kingdom and settled in Italy. There they met the Italian music producer Giacomo Tosti, who gave the band their distinctive sound and gave them their international break.

1971 would see the release of their first single, the mega hit " Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep " as well as an album of the same name. The song would reach the upper echelons of charts all over the continent and propel the once unknown Scots into the pop consciousness almost overnight. The single was their first to reach #1 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1971 and keep it for four more weeks.

In all, Middle of the Road had five hit singles in the UK during 1971-1972. Four of their singles sold over one million copies each, and received a gold disc. The tracks were "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" (which went on to sell over 10 million), "Sacramento", "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" and "Soley Soley". By early 1972 the group had sold over five million records.

                             

The band had especially strong success in Germany, where they achieved eleven Top 40 hits in 1971-1974. As an example of this, Frank Valdor was fast to adapt Sacramento as his "party records". Songs like Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and Sacramento were played a lot on Scandinavian radio.

In 1974 early Bay City Rollers member Neil Henderson joined the band on guitar. He wrote and co-wrote songs for Middle of the Road (including the singles "Rockin' Soul" and "Everybody Loves A Winner" and 1974 albums, You Pays Yer Money And You Takes Yer Chance and Postcard, all released in Germany via Ariola like their first German LP, Music Music), but their commercial success could not keep pace with that of earlier songs.

More singles followed, as well as a handful of albums, but by 1976 the musical landscape had changed and Middle of the Road eventually called it a day. The band would make a return on the retro circuit performing well into the 21st century, albeit under the aegis of Middle of the Road featuring Sally Carr.

In 1978, Carr married journalist Chick Young. They had a son, Keith, in 1980 but they separated in 1984 but didn't divorce and remained friends. On 18 January 2001, Keith was killed in a motorbike accident

In May 2012 Sally collapsed at her Renfrewshire home, due to a brain haemorrhage with doctors giving her little chance of survival. Carr was left with 38 staples in her head after surgery and has flashbacks. She has been left with almost no obvious symptoms from her brain trauma, but has to practise writing and has ongoing problems with her peripheral vision.

(Info edited mainly from All Music & Wikipedia plus numerous sources)

Sally is now able to begin the hard work to retrain her voice and get fit for performing again. This a short message from her to all Middle of the Road fans who have helped her to get to this stage in her recovery.

And here's a great video of Chirpy chirpy Cheap Cheap

Carole Carr born 26 March 1928

Carole Carr (March 26, 1928 – January 8, 1977) was a popular British singer and actress.

She was born in London, England as Carole Anne Carless. Carole took music lessons from the age of 7, and when 14, went to the R.A. for music and dramatic art, but after three months joined Jack Payne’s band. She later sang with Geraldo & His Orchestra from 1945 to 1948.

In 1946 she had a radio programme in the General Overseas Service called “Carole Singing” and appeared in many radio shows.  She was the former 'Forces Sweetheart' of  'Calling All Forces' and then a singer with Jack Payne and mainly Geraldo’s orchestra from 1945 before going solo. Surprisingly she made few recordings as a solo artiste. She is remembered by so many for her lovely richness of tone, and subtle phrasing.

A familiar face on UK Fifties television, glamorous Carole Carr was the first singer to actually appear on-screen when TV transmissions resumed after the Second World War. She was later logically chosen for colour test broadcasts in 1957; with a few minor films also credited to her during the period. She followed in the footsteps of older sister Dorothy Carless who rose to fame as a proficiently popular comedienne, pianist and band singer in earlier times.

In 1959 Carole was asked to record an album for Warner Brothers in Hollywood, “Imported Carr, American Gas” with arrangements by Warren Barker & Pete King. This was her only album and those in the business were quick to recognise her huge talent. 

The legendary US songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen said of her "This is one of the best girl singers I've ever heard - ever".

She was also an actress, known for Down Among the Z Men (1952), Left Right and Centre (1959) and Tin Pan Alice (1963). She was married to Peter Arthur Leuw, an ex RAF Squadron leader from 1949 - 8 January 1997 (her death).

 She died on January 8, 1997 in Devon, England aged 68.. (Surprisingly not much information regarding Carole at all on the web so snippets of info gleaned from numerous sources)

Dorothy Squires born 25 March 1915

Dorothy Squires (March 25, 1915 - April 14, 1998) was a Welsh vocalist who earned a Fortune as one of Britain's highest selling recording stars, but ended up bankrupt and homeless. At the peak of her career in the 1940’s and 50’s she packed theatres all over Britain and America and her records sold in millions. She was a dynamic, dramatic highly emotional singer who retained an army of fans throughout a career spanning half a century.

She was born Edna May Squires in Pontyberem, (about 12 miles from Llanelli), Carmarthenshire, in South Wales. Her parents were Archibald James Squires, a steelworker, and his wife Emily. She began to perform professionally as a singer at the age of 16.

Her stunning career was launched in the 1930s after she moved to London and was to take her to the millionaire peaks of show business. She was discovered by American pianist Charlie Kunz and joined his band at the Casani Club, and then she did most of her work with the orchestra of Billy Reid who was her partner for many years. After she joined his orchestra, he began to write songs for her to perform. During the war they were one of the most successful double acts on the variety circuit, making frequent broadcasts which helped to sell her records in profuse numbers.

In the immediate post-war years she recorded the original version of Reid's composition, "A Tree in the Meadow," best known in the United States in its recording by Margaret Whiting, which reached No.1 on the US charts. Similarly, her version of Reid's composition, "I'm Walking Behind You" was covered by Eddie Fisher which became a No.1 hit in the US and her recording of "The Gypsy" became a No.1 hit there after being waxed by The Ink Spots - their biggest hit. (It was also a major hit for Dinah Shore.)

After her relationship with Reid ended she married British actor Roger Moore in 1953 in New Jersey. Moore was twelve years her junior. The marriage lasted until 1961, when Moore left her and moved in with Luisa Mattioli, whom he was unable to marry legally until Squires granted him a divorce in 1969.

In 1961 Dorothy teamed up with pianist Russ Conway to record one of her own songs, Say It With Flowers, which she launched with a huge party at her Bexley mansion.  The single went into the Top 30 in August of that year and spent a total of ten weeks in the pop charts.  On the strength of this, Dorothy became the first British performer to play London’s Talk Of The Town nightclub – quite an accolade as, until then, it had been mainly a headlining venue for top American stars like Sammy Davis, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Tony Bennett and Sophie Tucker.

In 1974 her Bexley mansion burned down, from which she escaped with her dog and all her love letters from Roger Moore. She then moved into a house in Bray next to the River Thames, which flooded three weeks later.

Squires later became notorious for her involvement in court cases. She even took out a libel action against the actor Kenneth More for mistakenly referring to Luisa as Roger Moore's "wife" (Michael Havers acted for Kenneth More). By 1982 she had been banned from the High Court, and had spent much of her fortune on legal fees. Her litigiousness was so excessive that, on 5 March 1987, the High Court declared her to be a "vexatious litigant", preventing her from commencing any further legal actions without the permission of the Court. In 1988 she lost her home following bankruptcy proceedings.

Dorothy Squires retired to Wales and her obsession with Moore never waned. And as she lay dying, Moore telephoned the hospital. On the phone he told the legend's Emily-Jane Squires: "Take hold of her hand, give it a little squeeze, and tell her Rog is thinking of her.” When she was given Moore's message, Dorothy Squires smiled and spoke just one word. "Magic," she said.   Dorothy died of lung cancer, aged 83, in Llwynypia Hospital, Rhondda.  (info mainly edited from Wikipedia)

Boogie Bill Webb born 24 March 1924

Boogie Bill Webb (March 24, 1924 – August 22, 1990) was an American Louisiana blues and R&B guitarist, singer and songwriter. Webb's own style of music combined Mississippi country blues with New Orleans R&B. His best known recordings were "Bad Dog" and "Drinkin' and Stinkin'". Despite a lengthy, albeit stuttering, career, Webb nevertheless only released one album.

Born 1924 in Jackson, MS, Webb received his first guitar -- a cigar box with strings made of screen wire -- at the age of eight; his style was most profoundly influenced by local bluesman Tommy Johnson, an entertainment fixture at the myriad fish-fry dinners organized by Webb's mother. He acquired a real guitar as a teenager, and in the years to follow split his time between Jackson and New Orleans, their respective musical cultures shaping the mutant blues of Webb's later work.

Circa 1947, he won a Jackson talent show and was awarded a role in the musical short film The Jackson Jive for his efforts; he nevertheless settled in New Orleans in 1952, and via longtime friend Fats Domino he was introduced to R&B great Dave Bartholomew, who helped Webb land a deal with Imperial Records.

The following year, he issued his recorded debut, "Bad Dog," an archetypal slab of country boogie that found few takers in the face of growing listener demand for more urbanized R&B. A frustrated Webb left New Orleans for Chicago, where he spent the next five years toiling in a series of factory jobs. 

He continued playing guitar at house parties and sat in with John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Chuck Berry and thanks to the influence of Windy City bluesmen like Muddy Waters, he was an even more original musician by the time he returned to the Crescent City in 1959.

While working by day as a longshoreman, Webb gigged only infrequently, but in 1968 he recorded several songs for folklorist David Evans later issued on the Arhoolie LP Roosevelt Holts and His Friends. The album proved a major favorite among European blues enthusiasts, several of whom even travelled to New Orleans to meet Webb in person. The 1972 compilation album, The Legacy of Tommy Johnson contained five tracks performed by Webb.

After multiple invitations to tour Europe, he finally accepted an offer to play the 1982 Dutch Utreck Festival. In 1989, thanks to funding from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, he also issued his first full-length LP, the Flying Fish release Drinkin' and Stinkin', but he died on August 22, 1990, at the age of 66. (Info mainly from All Music)

Lale Andersen born 23 March 1905

Lale Andersen (23 March 1905 – 29 August 1972) was a German chanson  singer-songwriter born in Bremerhaven, Germany. She is best known for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen" in 1939, which became tremendously popular on both sides during the Second World War.

She was born in Lehe and baptized Liese-Lotte Helene Berta Bunnenberg.In 1922, at the age of 17, she married Paul Ernst Wilke (1894 – 1971), a local
painter. They had three children together: Björn, Carmen-Litta, and Michael. Shortly after the birth of the third child, the marriage broke up. Leaving the children in the care of her relatives (sister Thekla and brother Helmut), Lale went in October 1929 to Berlin, where she reportedly studied acting at the Schauspielschule at the Deutsches Theater.

 In 1931, her marriage was ended by divorce. About the same year, she began appearing on stage in various cabarets  in Berlin. From 1933 to 1937, she performed at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, where she also met Rolf Liebermann, who would remain a close friend for the rest of her life. In 1938, Lale was in Munich  at the cabaret Simpl, and soon afterwards joined the prestigious Kabarett der Komiker in Berlin.

                            

While at the Kabarett der Komiker, she met Norbert Schultze, who had just written the music for "Lili Marleen". Lale recorded the song in 1939, but it would only become a hit when the Soldatensender Belgrad (Belgrade Soldier's Radio), the radio station of the German armed forces in occupied Yugoslavia began broadcasting it in 1941. "Lili Marleen" quickly became immensely popular with German soldiers at the front. The transmitter of the radio station at Belgrade, was powerful enough to be received all over Europe and the Mediterranean, and the song soon became popular with the Allied troops as well.

Nevertheless, Nazi officials did not like the sad song about parted lovers, and Joseph Goebbels prohibited its being played on the radio. Andersen was not allowed to perform publicly for nine months, not just because of the song but also because of her friendship with Rolf Liebermann, who was Jewish, and other Jewish artists she had met in Zurich. Goebbels had ordered her back to base her career in Germany, putting her under Gestapo surveillance. However Lale planned a later escape back to Switzerland following a 1942 troop concert in Italy but her letters to her new husband were intercepted and she was seized on Milan railway station. Condemned to the concentration camps, she was allowed home to finalise her affairs but attempted suicide.

Fortunately the attempt failed, but Goebbels in setting her punishment had made a terrible blunder for Lale-aka-Lili Marleen had, by then, become an international and much-loved figure and, fearing a propaganda disaster, spared her life. Ordered instead to attend her local police station once a week.When she was allowed to perform again, it was only subject to several conditions, one of which was she would not sing "Lili Marleen". Goebbels did order her to make new "military" version of the song (with a significant drum) which was recorded in June 1942. In the remaining war years, Andersen had one minor appearance in a propaganda movie and was made to sing several propaganda songs in English.

By 1944 the authorities and become tired of her and Goebbels banished her to her grandparents home on the Friesian island of Langeoog,a small island off the North Sea coast of Germany.  from where she quietly saw out the remaing year or so of the war.

After the war, Lale Andersen all but disappeared as a singer. In 1949, she married Swiss composer Artur Beul. In 1952 she made a comeback with the song "Die blaue Nacht am Hafen", which she had written the lyrics for herself. In 1959 she had another hit "Ein Schiff wird kommen...", a cover version of "Never on Sunday", the title song from the movie of the same name, originally sung in English by Melina Mercouri.Both songs won her a gold album each in Germany.

In 1961, she participated as the representative of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder", which only reached 13th place with three points. Throughout the 1960s, she toured extensively through Europe and also performed in the United States and Canada ,until her farewell tour Goodbye memories in 1967. In 1972, shortly before her death, her autobiography Der Himmel hat viele Farben (The Sky has many Colours) appeared and topped the bestselling list of the German magazine Der Spiegel.

(info edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia)

Johnny Ferguson born 22 March 1937

Johnny “Ferg” Ferguson (b. 22 March 1937, Nashville, Tennesseee, USA) was a pop/country singer whose  sole hit in the U.S. charts is "Angela Jones".
Johnny graduated from Hillsboro High School and attended Peabody College for one year. While attending high school he worked part time as a disc jockey in the late 50’s for WNAH, WAGG and WSM-TV in Tennessee and WJAT in Georgia.

 As a writer, he managed to have a couple of his songs recorded by country acts Judy Lynn and Pat Kelly and it was a demo of one of his songs that persuaded Arnold Maxin, the managing director at MGM Records, to sign him.

 

 

His first single, the catchy John D. Loudermilk song ‘Angela Jones’ gave him a transatlantic Top 30 hit in 1960, although in the UK a Joe Meek -produced cover version by Michael Cox fared even better.
He also wrote and recorded two of his own songs for Decca Records in New York, “Sad Sad Day” and Candy Love.”. He also recorded under the name of Johnny Ferg. Later recordings, including a version of ‘I Understand’, failed to enhance his reputation on either side of the Atlantic and he joined the ranks of one-hit-wonders.

SINGLES

 Decca (1958)

 9-30572 What A Sad Sad Day That Will Be / Candy Love – 02-58 (rev. Feb. 17)

 9-30731  Last Date / 'Til School Starts Again – 08-58 (rev. Sept. 1)

 MGM (1959-1960)

 K 12789  Afterglow / Waitin' For The Sandman – 05-59

 K 12855  Angela Jones / Blue Serge And White Lace  - 12-59

 K 12905  Flutter, Flutter / I Understand Just How You Feel – 04-60

 K 12960  The Valley Of Love / No One Can Love You (Like I Do) - 10-60

After 1960 the internet trail goes cold. Any more info would be appreciated. (see comments)
 

(Info edited mainly from All Music Guide & Billboard Magazine & Praguefrank)

Kenny Lynch born 18 March 1938

Kenny Lynch, OBE (born 18 March 1938, Stepney, London, England) is an English singer, songwriter, entertainer and actor from London. Lynch appeared in many variety shows in the 1960s. He was one of the relatively few black singers on the British pop scene in the early 1960s.

Lynch grew up in Stepney, east London as one of 13 children and his sister, Gladys (stage name Maxine Daniels) was a jazz singer of some note. After leaving school at 15 and various jobs, he did National Service in the Royal Army Service Corps and was the regimental featherweight boxing champion. He was also a semi-professional singer.

                              

He had several UK hit singles in the early 1960s, including the two Top Ten hits, "Up on the Roof" in December 1962, and "You Can Never Stop Me Loving You" in June 1963. Lynch is most famous for a flop single he issued the same year. 

That was "Misery", the first cover version of a Beatles song to be released. In early 1963, Lynch had been on the same bill as The Beatles on the group's first British tour; John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote "Misery" in January 1963, in the hopes that the artist on top of the bill, Helen Shapiro, would record it. Shapiro's record producer turned it down, but Lynch took the composition and gave it a much more pop oriented arrangement than The Beatles would use when they recorded "Misery" themselves on their debut album, Please Please Me.

Whilst on a coach with The Beatles (on tour with Helen Shapiro), Lynch reportedly offered to help them write a song, but quickly became frustrated and criticised their ability to compose music - at the time Lennon and McCartney were writing "From Me to You". Years later he appeared on the album cover of Wings' 1973 album, Band on the Run, along with other celebrities.

Lynch wrote a fairly high percentage of his own material, but also did some covers of songs originating from the Brill Building writers. In addition, he has written songs for others — notably the Small Faces' #3 UK hit, "Sha-La-La-La-Lee", with the American songwriter, Mort Shuman. Lynch also wrote a couple of other songs from the Small Faces' 1966 debut album, "You'd Better Believe It" (co-written with Jerry Ragavoy) and "Sorry She's Mine".

Lynch took part in the A Song For Europe contest in 1962 with the song "There's Never Been A Girl", but failed to win through to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. He returned to the contest in 1978, this time as a writer, penning "Don't Bother To Knock" for the group 'Midnight'. This song was placed second.

His numerous TV appearances include the 1970s programme Get This which he co-presented with Harry Fowler, as well as roles in Celebrity Squares, Mooncat & Co., Room at the Bottom and Curry & Chips, as well as minor parts in Z-Cars, The Sweeney, Til Death Us Do Part and Treasure Hunt.

Known for charity work, Lynch has often played in charity football matches and Michael Parkinson's 'Celebrity Cricket' fundraisers. He is a fan of the London football club West Ham United. Nowadays he owns a restaurant in North London and has appeared in the film The Riddle (2007).

In 2011 Kenny & Bobby Davro appeared in “Swinging” a Frank Sinatra Tribute show. This year he has been busy with guest appearances in The Frank Sinatra Centennial Concert and The Rat Pack (Info mainly edited from Wikipedia)