Alma Cogan
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| Alma Cogan | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Alma Angela Cohen |
| Born | 19 May 1932 Stepney, London, England |
| Died | 26 October 1966 (aged 34) |
| Genre(s) | Traditional pop |
| Years active | 1952-1966 |
| Label(s) | HMV, EMI Columbia |
| Website | Alma Cogan International Fan Club |
Alma Cogan (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was an English singer of traditional pop music in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed "The Girl With A Giggle In Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era.
Contents |
[edit] Life and career
She was born Alma Angela Cohen of East European Jewish parentage, in Golders Green, London,[1] getting her first name because her mother liked the motion picture actress Alma Taylor.[2] While she was still a young child, her family moved to Worthing, Sussex. She later went to school at St Joseph's Convent School in Reading, Berkshire.[3]
Her mother encouraged her to enter show business, and she auditioned for Ted Heath as a child. But her real patron was an executive of HMV Records, Walter Ridley, who saw her potential as a teenage art school student.
As a teenager, she had her professional debut singing at the Cumberland Hotel, in the dining room. Her first record was a 78rpm record of "To Be Worthy Of You" / "Would You" on the British HMV record label. When Joy Nichols left the BBC programme "Take It From Here," Cogan replaced her as the resident singer, performing many types of songs but, most successfully, up-beat ballads and novelty songs. In 1953 she was working on the song "If I Had A Golden Umbrella" and broke into a giggle while recording it. The people decided that they liked the sound, and that sound became her trademark style. In 1954 she had her first chart hit, a cover of Teresa Brewer's "Bell Bottom Blues."
Lionel Bart wrote his musical Oliver! with Alma in mind for the part of Nancy, but Alma was unable to commit to the musical and it was childhood friend Georgia Brown who took on the stage role and made it her own.
She had many UK chart hits, some of which were covers of US hits, including some rock and roll flavoured ones as the 1950s progressed. Her recordings for EMI were produced by Walter "Wally" Ridley and then later by Norman Newell, with whom she had some disagreement. In 1965 EMI Records decided that they would not renew her contract with the company and requested that their newly hired young producer, David Gooch, produce an album of material which would bring the association to a conclusion. Cogan had wanted to make an entire album of Beatles' material, but EMI felt that that was unsuitable since there were a number of other similar recordings available at the time. With orchestrations by Stan Foster, the songs comprising the album were recorded in Studio 1 at the Abbey Road Studios of EMI (contrary to written reports, neither John Lennon nor Paul McCartney attended the sessions, although according to her sister, Cogan had carried on a long-term affair with John Lennon in the early 1960s).
One of the songs was initially recorded without the presence of the singer because she was unwell: the Musicians' Union gave permission for the backing tracks to be recorded to which she later added her voice. Although some sources cite Andrew Loog Oldham as the producer of the singles that appear on the subsequent album, Alma, this is incorrect. The producer of the singles and of the album itself was David Gooch who, in the fashion of the time, was uncredited. It is thought that during Cogan's lifetime, Oldham may have remixed one or more tracks, but contrary to popular belief, those were not released.
Cogan died in London several months later in 1966 from ovarian cancer when she was only 34 years of age and was buried at Bushey Jewish Cemetery. She is commemorated by a blue plaque on her former residence in Kensington High Street.
Alma Cogan is also the title of a Whitbread Book Award-winning novel by Gordon Burn published in 1991.
[edit] Recordings
[edit] Singles
- 1952 - "To Be Worthy Of You" /"Would You"
- 1952 - "To Be Loved By You" / "The Homing Waltz" (duet with Les Howard)
- 1952 - "Meet Me on the Corner"
- 1952 - "Waltz of Paree" / "Pretty Bride"
- 1952 - "Half As Much" (cover of Rosemary Clooney)/ "Blue Tango"
- 1952 - "I Went to Your Wedding" (cover of Patti Page)/ "You Belong to Me"(cover of Jo Stafford)
- 1952 - "IF'N" (duet with Denny Dennis)
- 1952 - "Take Me In Your Arms and Hold Me" / "Wyoming Lullaby"
- 1953 - "Till I Waltz Again With You" (cover of Teresa Brewer)/ "Happy Valley Sweetheart"
- 1953 - "If I Had a Penny" / "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" (cover of Karen Chandler)
- 1953 - "On The First Warm Day" / (Les Howard solo)
- 1953 - "Till They've All Gone Home" / "Hug Me A Hug"
- 1953 - "If I Had a Golden Umbrella" / "Mystery Street"
- 1953 - "My Love, My Love" (cover of Joni James)/ "Wasted Tears"
- 1953 - "Over and Over Again" / "Isn't Life Wonderful" (duets with Les Howard)
- 1954 - "Ricochet (Rick-O-Shay)" (cover of Teresa Brewer)/ "The Moon Is Blue"
- 1954 - "Bell Bottom Blues" (cover of Teresa Brewer)/ "Love Me Again"
- 1954 - "Make Love to Me" (cover of Jo Stafford)/ "Said the Little Moment"
- 1954 - "Little Shoemaker" (cover of The Gaylords)/ "Chiqui-Chaqui (Chick-ee Chock-ee)"
- 1954 - "Jilted" (cover of Teresa Brewer)/ "Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do It Again" (duets with Frankie Vaughan)
- 1954 - "Little Things Mean a Lot" (cover of Kitty Kallen)/ "Canoodlin' Rag"
- 1954 - "Skinnie Minnie" (cover of Teresa Brewer)/ "What Am I Going To Do, Ma"
- 1954 - "This Ole House" (cover of Rosemary Clooney)/ "Skokiaan" (one of many versions of the song)
- 1954 - "I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango" (cover of Patti Page)/ "Christmas Cards"
- 1954 - "(Don't Let The) Kiddygeddin'" / "Mrs Santa Claus"
- 1955 - "Paper Kisses"/ "Softly Softly"
- 1955 - "Mambo Italiano" (cover of Rosemary Clooney)/ "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane (cover of the Ames Brothers)"
- 1955 - "Tweedle Dee" (cover of Lavern Baker)/ "More Than Ever Now"
- 1955 - "Tika Tika Tok" / "Chee Chee Oo Chee"
- 1955 - "Dreamboat" / "Irish Mambo"
- 1955 - "Where Will The Dimple Be?" (cover of Rosemary Clooney)/ "Keep Me In Mind"
- 1955 - "Got'n Idea" / "Give A Fool A Chance"
- 1955 - "The Banjo's Back in Town" / "Go On By"
- 1955 - "Hernando's Hideaway" (one of many covers)/ "Blue Again"
- 1955 - "Never Do a Tango with an Eskimo" / "Twenty Tiny Fingers"
- 1956 - "Love and Marriage" (cover of Frank Sinatra)/ "Sycamore Tree"
- 1956 - "Willie Can" / "Lizzie Borden"
- 1956 - "Don't Ring-A Da Bell" / "Bluebell"
- 1956 - "It's All Been Done Before" (duet with Ronnie Hilton) / "No Other Love" (Ronnie Hilton solo)
- 1956 - "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (cover of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers)/ "The Birds and the Bees"
- 1956 - "Mama, Teach Me to Dance" / "I'm In Love Again"
- 1956 - "In the Middle of the House" (cover of Rusty Draper)/ "Two Innocent Hearts"
- 1957 - "You, Me and Us" / "Three Brothers"
- 1957 - "Whatever Lola Wants" / "Lucky Lips"
- 1957 - "Chantez, Chantez" (cover of Dinah Shore)/ "Funny Funny Funny"
- 1957 - "Fabulous" / "Summer Love" (cover of Joni James)
- 1957 - "That's Happiness" / "What You've Done To Me"
- 1957 - "Party Time" / "Please Mister Brown"
- 1958 - "The Story of My Life" (cover of Marty Robbins / Michael Holliday) / "Love Is"
- 1958 - "Sugartime" (cover of The McGuire Sisters)/ "Gettin' Ready for Freddy"
- 1958 - "Stairway of Love" (cover of Michael Holliday) "Comes Love"
- 1958 - "Sorry Sorry Sorry" / "Fly Away Lovers"
- 1958 - "There's Never Been a Night" / "If This Isn't Love"
- 1959 - "Last Night on the Back Porch" / "Mama Says"
- 1959 - "Pink Shoelaces" (cover of Dodie Stevens)/ "The Universe"
- 1959 - "We Got Love" / "I Don't Mind Being All Alone"
- 1960 - "Dream Talk" / "O Dio Mio"
- 1960 - "The Train of Love" / "The 'I Love You' Bit" (duet with Oscar Nebish, aka Lionel Bart)
- 1960 - "Just Couldn't Resist Her With Her Pocket Transistor" / "Must Be Santa"
- 1961 - "Cowboy Jimmy Joe" / "Don't Read The Letter"
- 1961 - "With You In Mind" / "Ja-Da"
- 1961 - "All Alone" / "Keep Me in Your Heart"
- 1961 - "She's Got You" (cover of Patsy Cline) / "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree"
- 1962 - "Goodbye Joe"/ "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby"
- 1963 - "Tell Him" (cover of The Exciters)/ "Fly Me to the Moon"
- 1963 - "Hold Out Your Hand You Naughty Boy" / "Just Once More"
- 1964 - "The Tennessee Waltz" (cover of Patti Page) / "I Love You Too Much"
- 1964 - "It's You" / "I Knew Right Away"
- 1964 - "Snakes And Snails" / "How Many Nights, How Many Days"
- 1965 - "Eight Days a Week" / "Help!" (each a cover of a Beatles song)
- 1965 - "Love Is A Word" / "Now That I've Found You"
- 1966 - "Now That I've Found You" / "More"
- 1966 - "Love Ya Illya" / "I Know You" (as Angela and the fans - Illya being David McCallum's character in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)
[edit] Albums
- 1958 - I Love to Sing
- 1961 - With You In Mind
- 1962 - How About Love?
- 1965 - [[Oliver!] with Stanley Holloway and Violet Carson.
- 1967 - Alma
[edit] References
- ^ Alma Cogan - Biography. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ Alma Cogan. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ Alma Cogan. mp3.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
[edit] External links
- Alma Cogan International Fan Club
- UK Artists Biography page on Alma Cogan
- Alma Cogan page
- Bio of Alma Cogan with reference to her contacts with the Beatles
- Find-A-Grave profile for Alma Cogan
- http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/almacogan.txt
[edit] Biography
- Alma Cogan: A Memoir by Her Sister Sandra Caron, Bloomsbury Publishing, Ltd, 1991 [London]
- "Alma Cogan: The Girl With The Laugh In Her Voice" by Sandra Caron (Alma's sister) [ISBN 0-7475-0984-0]
