Gay Icons - The Divas: Shirley Bassey

We have now entered the seventh decade into Shirley Bassey's career and the Welsh artist has led royal concerts, sold over 135 million records and released 105 singles and 42 albums (36 studio, six live). The name Bassey is inextricably linked with a particular type of glamour; the diamonds, flowing gowns, champagne and glitz that inhabit her songs and lifestyle.

Yet her journey from being the skinny, youngest daughter of seven children born to a Yorkshire mother and Nigerian father in 1937 has been far from dreamy. Today, we will take this journey together...

Shirley was born in Tiger Bay, the rough, docklands area of Cardiff to Eliza Metcalfe, a Yorkshire woman who was on the run from an unhappy marriage, and Henry Bassey, a Nigerian seaman. She was barely two when Bassey was arrested for having sex with an underage girl. He served five years in jail and was then deported back to Nigeria. Shirley never saw him again.

The scandal prompted Bassey's mother to relocate her family to Splott, a working-class neighborhood in Cardiff. Bassey's mixed-race heritage (her mother was English, while her father was Nigerian) made her stand out there. However, the family's poverty was an even bigger problem. As Bassey, herself had said: "Being coloured was never my problem, never has been. In Cardiff, our problem was more basic. A four-letter word: food."

Eliza was a strong influence on her talented daughter, not least in making her fiercely determined and independently minded. Born in the North-East of England but then decamping in disgrace to Cardiff as a single mum, Eliza was a remarkable woman who defied the conventions of her day by having babies across what was then an almost unbridgeable racial divide.

It was a time when being the white mother of a mixed-race child was highly unusual and regarded in many respectable quarters - not least, by her own parents - as scandalous. But Eliza went her own way, and from 1919 onwards had ten children in all - a number out of wedlock, and eight of them with black fathers. Shirley, her last, was born in January 1937 in a street full of brothels in the rundown docklands area of Tiger Bay.

Not that Henry Bassey's enforced absence left Shirley completely without a father. In 1948, the electoral roll gives Eliza's surname as Mendi, confirming that at some stage Shirley's mother had found a new partner and he had moved in.

His name was Joseph 'Bobo' Mendi and he was a West African sailor from Sierra Leone. He was a so-called 'donkeyman' in the ship's engine room, looking after the boilers and machinery - a step up from the simple stoker Bassey had been. While Shirley was growing up, he was still making regular trips to sea and bringing in money.

He was a quiet man by all accounts, who liked to sit in the corner of the living room reading the paper. Just when he came on the scene remains unclear, and he may have married Eliza as early as 1941. However, Shirley's own reminiscences suggest the date is more likely to have been around 1947 when she was ten years old.

Either way, he was clearly an important presence in the young Shirley's life, and it was often Mendi that she seemed to be referring to when replying to questions about her father. "He was just a big stranger who would occasionally appear out of nowhere and pick me up and try to kiss me," she told an interviewer.

In 1952, Bassey left school to work in a factory. Meanwhile, she began singing in pubs and clubs around Tiger Bay. Bassey struggled to get attention in the large family, who were baffled by her powerful voice and often told her to stop singing.

At 16, she became pregnant with a daughter, Sharon, who was raised by her sister as Shirley’s career took off. Shirley never revealed the name of the child's father. Booking agent Michael Sullivan spotted her talent and put her forward for her first major shows, leading to the release of a first single, Burn My Candle (At Both Ends), recorded when Shirley was just 19. When it came out in 1956 the radio stations in the UK wouldn't play it because the words were considered too sexy/risque. The song is one of her classics. This is the original version:

This is a version from British TV, in 1967:

Her next single was The Wayward Wind backed with Born To Sing The Blues. The single was well received, but not a hit. Here are both songs:

She followed this up with After the Lights Go Down Low. It, too, wasn't a hit:

In February 1957, however, Bassey had her first hit with The Banana Boat Song, which reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart:

In 1957 she also recorded under the direction of American producer Mitch Miller in New York for the Columbia label, producing the single If I Had a Needle and Thread. She then made her American stage début in Las Vegas at El Rancho Vegas. This is If I Had a Needle and Thread:

Shirley was well on her way to becoming a star. Not that Shirley, from the vantage point of later years, thinks any of this was a good thing.

"Leaving Tiger Bay was the worst thing I ever did," she has said. "I've found happiness in my work, but not in my private life. I had to take from my private life to make my public life successful. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I was happy in Cardiff. I had a great time. Every Thursday there was a factory club; darts, dancing. I was happy until success entered my life, and then it was all downhill. Success spoilt me. It took away my happiness. My success became a barrier with my family. They couldn't relate to me, and I couldn't relate to them."

She struggled to form relationships. Not just with men, but with anybody. Her first husband, Kenneth Hume, who she married in 1961, turned out to be gay. They separated in 1964 and divorced in 1965, but she still maintains she adored him and was devastated when he died of a drugs overdose in 1967. Her second marriage, to the assistant manager of the Excelsior Hotel in Venice, Lido, Italy, Sergio Novak, who also served as her manager during their marriage, ended in acrimonious divorce after 13 years. With Novak, she adopted her grand-nephew, Mark.

Tales of her temper and contrariness abound. She says she can count her friends on the fingers of one hand. Some of the star's notoriously difficult behavior certainly can't have helped the two marriages in which her other half was always known as Mr. Bassey. She once stamped her foot at Hume and declared: "How dare you speak to me like that, I'm a STAR!" ("Twinkle f***ing twinkle," was his reply.) She also famously told Novak, who once asked her to cook a bowl of pasta: "Listen, baby, I sing for my supper, I bloody well don't have to cook it as well."

In the late 1970s, Bassey appeared in court charged with drunk and disorderly behavior, and she was back in the docks in the 1990s, sued by her personal assistant for violence and abuse (a case which Bassey ultimately won).

There was one time that Dame Shirley Bassey's dynamite voice failed her. The year was 1985 and it was the first time she had performed since the lifeless body of her second daughter, the 21-year-old Samantha - supposedly fathered by actor Peter Finch - had been found face down in the River Avon near Bristol. Dame Shirley, ever the professional, took to the stage on the other side of the world bedecked in her customary sequins and feathers.

"I walked out in front of 10,000 people in Sydney, opened my mouth to sing Goldfinger and nothing came out. I tried again and nothing. It was like a nightmare. I wanted the stage to open up," Dame Shirley revealed in the aftermath. The problem was more psycho­logical than physical. She was "grieving", "guilt-ridden" and in a state of catastrophic "shock". "I never wanted to sing again," she revealed in a soul-baring interview. 

In all the subsequent years, she has refused to accept the coroner’s verdict on her daughter's death: that it was either accidental or suicide. In 2010 the case had been re­opened after Samantha's death was linked to convicted murderer Michael Moffat who was then serving 11 years for killing his lover Penny Beale in 2001. Penny's mother had told the police that Moffat had hinted to her daughter that he was involved in Samantha's death and was in a relationship with her at the time. However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end and concluded that there "is no evidence of any criminal act involved" in Samantha's death.

Back to 1957: Shirley's next single was a double-A-sided UK top 30 hit. One side was Fire Down Below:

The other side featured the song You, You Romeo:

Shirley then had two huge hits in a row. Kiss Me, Honey, Honey, Kiss Me made the UK top 3 and has a special meaning for me since it was a favorite of my parents:

Her next hit went all the way to the top of the UK charts - the first ever #1 single by a Welsh artist in the UK. It was called As I Love You:

Her next three singles, her versions of the standards Love for Sale, My Funny Valentine, and Night and Day, failed to crack the charts. She then had two minor hits, one at the end of 1959, called If You Love Me (Really Love Me) (the English version of the French classic Hymne à L'amour):

Then, in early 1960, she hit the top 40 with With These Hands:

A few months later, she had another huge UK hit (at #2) with the power ballad from the musical, Oliver!, As Long as He Needs Me:

The act she had fashioned was perfect for a fast-changing Britain. It was sexy without being salacious, materialistic without being vulgar, and with later hits like Big Spender and Diamonds Are Forever (one of her three James Bond themes), tapped into the new taste for wealth and style. Nor was Shirley averse to displays of leg, lip-pout, and cleavage.

The period 1957-1964 was Bassey's most successful as far as chart singles in the UK were concerned. One of them was the 1943 Oscar-winning song You'll Never Know (#6,1961):

Her next single was a double A-Side and it was her second (and last) #1 hit in the UK. Reach for the Stars featured on one side. This video includes photos from Tiger Bay, the place where Shirley grew up:

The other side came from The Sound Of Music and was called Climb Ev'ry Mountain:

This was followed by a #10 hit, called I'll Get By:

Tonight (from West Side Story) peaked at #21:

Ave Maria b/w You'll Never Walk Alone only just missed the top 30. Here's the latter:

Far Away, in 1962, peaked at #24:

What Now My Love?, the English version of Gilbert Becaud's French smash hit, Et Maintenant, was a top 5 hit for Shirley. It's yet another hit (the Platters' Smoke Gets In Your Eyes also comes to mind) that uses the beat of Ravel's Bolero:

Anthony Newley's What Kind of Fool am I? was a minor hit for Bassey:

Ben E. King's I (Who Have Nothing) returned her to the UK top 10 (#6):

Bassey appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1963 and sang at a Washington gala celebrating President Kennedy's second year in office.

My Special Dream was a minor top 40 hit in 1964:

... and so was Gone:

Then came a defining moment for Bassey; she was chosen to sing the theme song to the third James Bond movie, called Goldfinger. The song surprisingly reached only #21 in the UK. It was, however, her only US big hit, peaking at #8. It also made the top 10 in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. It remains her most popular song to this day. Here it is:

Bassey recorded a song for the next Bond film, Thunderball (1965). Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was not used in the movie, although the film's score follows its melodic theme. Written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, after Bassey's version it was re-recorded by Dionne Warwick, and then rejected in favour of a new song, Thunderball, hastily written by Barry and given to Tom Jones (who, like Bassey, is Welsh) after the film's producers decided the song over the opening credits must feature the film's title. This is Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:

... And since we've mentioned it - and I like it - here's Tom Jones and Thunderball:

In 1965 she released No Regrets (Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien) and made the UK top 40, This is live at Carnegie Hall:

An album track from 1965, her rendition of the classic The Lady Is a Tramp was electrifying:

Also in 1965, she sang the title song for the James Bond spoof, The Liquidator:

In 1966, Bassey had left EMI's Columbia Label, and I've Got a Song for You was her first album for United Artists, a label she would remain with for approximately 14 years (until it was sold, ironically enough, to EMI). The album included a re-recording of her early hit Kiss Me, Honey, Honey, Kiss Me, as well as a number of fabulous covers. This is the Oscar-winning The Shadow of Your Smile, from the Taylor-Burton film, Sandpiper:

This is You're Gonna Hear from Me, from the Robert Redford-Natalie Wood film, Inside Daisy Clover:

... And this is Strangers in the Night:

In 1967 Shirley released another great album, And We Were Lovers, which included three singles, the third of which was a minor hit. The first two were If You Go Away (a cover of Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas) and The Impossible Dream, from the musical The Man Of La Mancha. Here they are, the one after the other:

The third one, Big Spender, from the musical Sweet Charity, only just missed the British top 20 (#21):

Bassey began to live as a tax exile in 1968 and was unable to work in Britain for almost two years. Also in 1968, at the Sanremo Festival in Italy, she performed La Vita, an Italian song. Later, Norman Newell would write English lyrics for the song, and the result was This Is My Life:

Bassey's UK comeback came in 1970, leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. Starting the year with a BBC Television 'Special' The Young Generation Meet Shirley Bassey, recorded in Sweden and shown on BBC1 on 18 March. She returned to the UK with a record-breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also that year, her album Something was released, and showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the eponymous single was more successful in the UK charts than the original recording by The Beatles) – although Bassey would never completely abandon what that had been her forte: standards, show tunes, and torch songs. This is Something:

From the same album; Bassey's cover of The Doors' Light My Fire:

... A cover of Mikis Theodorakis' Life Goes On:

... And a cover of Charles Aznavour's Yesterday, When I Was Young:

In 1971 she had a top 40 UK hit with (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story (the theme from Love Story, one of the most successful movies of the era):

Returning to the James Bond franchise, the only artist ever to do so more than once, she recorded the theme song for Diamonds Are Forever (1971). The song was a mid-table hit, both in the US and in the UK. Its chart position, however, fails to reflect the song's importance. It has since become one of the most-loved Bond songs. It has even been heavily sampled in a Kanye West hit. This is the original:

This is Diamonds From Sierra Leone by Kanye West:

In 1972, For All We Know (an Oscar-winning song and a #3 hit for The Carpenters in the US) was a #6 UK hit for Shirley:

In 1973, Never, Never, Never, a cover of Mina's #1 hit in Italy, Grande, Grande, Grande, was Shirley's last UK top 10 hit and it almost made the top 40 in the US:

Bassey was now an album's act: All but two of her albums in the 1970s made the UK top 40, most of them making the top 20. Yet, after Never, Never, Never, she would have no more hit singles in the 1970s. Not that she stopped making good songs - it's just that the singles' market is mostly driven by the young - and in the time of glam rock, punk, and disco, Shirley just didn't fit in... We will, however, listen to some of these singles. From 1974, this is Davy:

From 1975, this is Good, Bad, but Beautiful:

From 1976, this is Natali:

From 1977, this is I Let You Let Me Down Again:

In 1979, she sang her third Bond theme, this time for Moonraker:

Throughout most of the 1980s, Bassey focused on charitable work and performing occasional concert tours throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. She had ended her contract with United Artists, whose former record division was now part of EMI, and began what she referred to as "semi-retirement". Bassey recorded an album entitled All by Myself (1982) and made a TV special with guest Robert Goulet. This is the title track from All by Myself:

Around this time she recorded a duet with the French film actor Alain Delon, Thought I'd Ring You (1983), which became a hit single in Continental Europe:

Bassey was now recording far less often but an album of her most famous songs, I Am What I Am (1984), was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) conducted by Carl Davis. This is this album's title track, which was originally featured on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles (1983-1987):

Bassey enjoyed working with younger artists. In 1987, she provided vocals for Swiss artists Yello on The Rhythm Divine, a song co-written by Scottish singer Billy Mackenzie:

An album sung entirely in Spanish, La Mujer was released in 1989. From this album, here's Sin Ti:

In the latter mid-1980s, Bassey had started working with a vocal coach, a former opera singer, and her album Keep the Music Playing (1991) displayed a grand, operatic pop style on several songs. This is How Do You Keep the Music Playing, an Oscar-nominated song originally from the film Best Friends:

Bassey also collaborated with Chris Rea in the film La Passione (1996), appearing in the film as herself and releasing the single Disco La Passione. The remix of this single charted just outside the UK top 40:

Bassey's History Repeating (1997), written for her by the Propellerheads, reached #1 on the UK Dance Chart, and #10 on the US Dance Chart. It was also a Top 10 hit in Italy. The liner notes of the Propellerheads' album Decksandrumsandrockandroll included the lines: "We would like to extend our maximum respect to Shirley Bassey for honoring us with her performance. We are still in shock....":

In 1999, she performed the official song for the rugby World Cup, World in Union, with Bryn Terfel at the opening ceremony at The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, wearing a gown whose design was based on the Welsh flag. Their single made the Top 40:

In 2001, Bassey was the principal artist at the Duke of Edinburgh's 80th birthday celebration. On 3 June 2002, she was one of a prestigious line-up of artists including Elton John, Paul McCartney and Tom Jones who performed at the Queen's 50th Jubilee Party at Buckingham Palace. Bassey celebrated 50 years in show business in 2003 with the release of the CD Thank You for the Years, which was another Top 20 album. A gala charity auction of her stage costumes at Christie's, "Dame Shirley Bassey: 50 Years of Glittering Gowns", raised £250,000 (US$500,000) for the Dame Shirley Bassey Scholarship at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Noah's Ark Children's Hospital Appeal. Bassey topped the bill at the 2005 Royal Variety Performance, introducing her new song The Living Tree.

The Living Tree, written, produced and originally recorded by the group Never the Bride, was released as a single on 23 April 2007, marking Bassey's 50th anniversary in the UK Singles Chart – and the record for the longest span of Top 40 hits in UK chart history. The record has since been broken by both Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. This is The Living Tree:

Shirley's final hit of any kind was her cover of Pink's Get The Party Started, also in 2007 (UK, #47):

Shirley's personal life wasn't as successful as her professional life. "Maybe," Dame Shirley mused a few years ago, "I'm not meant to find love. Maybe I'm meant to be tormented."

Her relations with the rest of her family would hardly be called close either. Of these relations, she has admitted: "There was no contact of any kind in my family. There was not a lot of love. We were not tactile."

"I would follow my sisters around. They would say, 'Oh please, Mum, tell Shirley to get out of the way.' I suppose singing was a way of getting noticed. In the middle of the night, if I was unhappy, I wouldn't cry, I would sing, and my sisters would shout down to my mother, 'Please make her stop.'" These early relationships did not improve with age. "My success became a barrier with my family," she has revealed. "They couldn't relate to me and I couldn't relate to them. But then I never could. I was just in the way."

She says she has not been a "good mother" to any of her children - Sharon, Samantha or Mark, the son she adopted with Novak. She blames this partly on being "in the business" and partly on her background. "I never disciplined my children and I suppose that made me a bad mother. I was never disciplined by my mother. I never knew what discipline was."

She believes she has also passed down the lack of affection she herself experienced. "I probably cuddled [my children] more but not much more. If you've had that as a child, you will have it as a grown-up. I'm not ­demonstrative. I have to pretend on stage. Pretend to be the tactile ­person I would like to be."

She became estranged from Mark after he sold stories to the press of her drunken rows and string of lovers but now says the pair have "long conversations on the phone". ("I won't say it was always good, but we are now settled.") She says her relationship with Sharon is now "fantastic".

Today, she lives alone, between Monaco and London, still in magnificent voice and little understood. On stage, Shirley shows what she needs to show but keeps the important stuff to herself.

Shirley Bassey was made a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. It was another mark of distinction in a career that has seen her sell over 135 million records. Although she has a reputation as a diva, Bassey continues to be lauded for her unforgettable voice, and for her sex appeal. She even received a standing ovation at the 2013 Academy Awards for her performance of Goldfinger. Bassey has truly come a long way from her humble beginnings.

I intended to close this story with this performance, but I've only found a tiny part of it on Youtube. Here it is:

... Instead, I will close with this performance of Goldfinger, on the Classic Brit Awards Show, in 2011: