LULU (SINGER)

'Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie', OBE, (born 3 November 1948 in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire), best known by her stage name 'Lulu', is a Scottish singer, songwriter, actor, model, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through the 2000s.

Contents

Biography

Early 1960s

The Eurovision Song Contest

Late 1960s-mid-1970s

Later career

Discography

Albums

Singles

Filmography

External links

Biography

Early 1960s

Lulu grew up in Glasgow, where she attended Whitehill Senior Secondary School, Dennistoun. Taken under the wing of Marion Massey, she shot to fame at the age of fifteen with her version of "Shout!", delivered in a raucous and extremely mature voice. Her backing group were called ''The Luvvers'', but after several more British hits she left the group to become a solo artist. Massey would guide her career for more than 25 years, for most of which she was Lulu's equal partner as a business enterprise. Massey's husband Marc London also wrote many of Lulu's hits.
In 1966, Lulu toured Poland with the British rock and roll band The Hollies, making her the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year, she recorded two German language tracks, "Wenn Du Da Bist" and "So Fing es an" for the Decca Germany label. She left Decca after failing to place any singles on the chart in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. All of the 7 singles she cut and released with Most made the UK chart. Despite this, Lulu was disparaging about Most in her autobiography "I Don't Want To Fight", published in 2002. She described him as "cheap" and had little positive to say about their working relationship, which she ended in 1969 after her biggest UK solo hit. Nonetheless, when Most died in 2003, Lulu was full of praise for him and told the BBC they had been "very close"!
In 1967 she made her debut as a film actress in ''To Sir, with Love'', a British vehicle for Sidney Poitier. She had a major hit with the title song "To Sir, with Love", which shot to number one in the United States; she makes notable use of melisma in the song, and decades later it remains the song for which she is best known in that country. (In the UK, it was released only on the B-side of "Let's Pretend", a much less successful hit.) In the meantime, she continued with a thriving pop career in the UK and several television series of her own. From 30 June to 2 July 1967, Lulu appeared on The Monkees tour at the Empire Pool, Wembley. Rumours of a romance and indeed an engagement with Davy Jones of The Monkees were rife, but it was a complete media fabrication, created by Jones himself.
In the late 1960's Lulu had a brief relatioship with Master Mariner Ricky G. This was the inspiration which led to the recording of "Boom Bang-a-Bang". Long spells apart due to work commitments led to the demise of this union. With no regrets and many fond memories, each pursued other directions in their lives. Both went on to achieve great success.

The Eurovision Song Contest

On 29 March 1969, she represented the United Kingdom by performing the song "Boom bang-a-bang" at the Eurovision Song Contest, and was joint winner with the representatives of Spain, the Netherlands and France — there had never been a draw before, and the rules were altered to prevent it ever happening again.

★ In 1975 she hosted the BBC's A Song for Europe contest, the qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest. She joined fellow Eurovision winners at a charity gala held in Norway in 1981.

★ Since then, Lulu rarely talks about her Eurovision experiences, or her song "Boom Bang A Bang", which she then and now dislikes despite the fact that it was her biggest solo UK hit (reaching number two on the chart in 1969).
Below Lulu explains how she got into the contest, and about what came out (From the BBC Radio 2 special on 50 Years Of The Eurovision Song Contest):

''I had a series on TV, and Bill Cotton was the Head of Light Entertainment [at the BBC], and he said to my manager: "I'd like her to do the Eurovision Song Contest, on the series." And she came to me and I went "Why? What do I want to do that for?"... and she said that he said that "you'll get good ratings, and he is the boss, and he wants you to have good ratings.

''Maybe I could have said no, but I felt I didn't really have a choice in the matter. And I thought... I was full of myself, thinking ratings isn't what it's all about... But, you know, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a great song that didn't go through...

''I had this amazing band, like 20 pieces. We did all these different songs... every single one of us said "Which one is gonna win? Which one is gonna win?" and we all laughed and went: "Bet you it's that Boom boom bang a bang a bang a bang..." (Laughs) "But then it won. Somehow there was an intelligence working there... and it was a huge success.

Late 1960s-mid-1970s

Also in 1969, Lulu married fellow musical star Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a ceremony in Gerrards Cross. Their careers forced them apart, and they divorced, childless, in 1973. In 1970 Lulu was back on the US charts with the top 30 hit "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)" (later covered by Aretha Franklin) and a collaboration with the Dixie Flyers on "Hum a Song (From Your Heart)." In 1969, she recorded "New Routes" an album with most of the material recorded at Muscle Shoals studios; several of the songs featured slide guitarist Duane Allman, including a haunting version of Jerry Jeff Walker's Mr. Bojangles. A year later she followed with a similar album "Melody Fair". She also recorded 4 other German Language tracks, ("Ich Brauche Deine Liebe", "Wach' ich oder träum' ich', "Warum Tust Du Mir Weh", and "Traurig Aber Wahr") on the Atlantic record label. These songs again, went un-noticed in the German music market.
After appearing in a successful TV series, "Three Of A Kind", which aired on the BBC in 1967, a format that featured music and comedy, Lulu was given her own TV series in 1968, which ran annually until 1975 under various titles including "Lulu's Back In Town", "Happening For Lulu", "Lulu", and "It's Lulu". She later co-hosted a revived series of "Oh Boy!" for ITV in the early 1980's. Her BBC series featured music and comedy sketches and star guests. Her most famous guest was possibly Jimi Hendrix, who appeared in 1969, swore live on the show and refused to stick to the original songs that had been planned. In 1999, Lulu returned to BBC1 to host their Saturday night lottery/game show "Red Alert" which bombed completely and was very short lived.
In 1972 she starred in the Christmas pantomime ''Peter Pan'' at the Palace Theatre, Manchester where the show was a huge success. She repeated her performance at the London Palladium in 1975, and returned to the same role in different London-based productions from 1987 to early 1989. Other notable London stage appearances came in the early 1980's in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Song And Dance" and the National Theatre's "Guys And Dolls". She damaged her vocal chords while performing in the Webber show, requiring surgery that threatened her singing voice.
In 1974 she performed the title song in the James Bond movie ''The Man with the Golden Gun''. Two slightly different versions of the song were used, at the start and end respectively - the end song actually name-checking James Bond.
Also during 1974, she did a cover of two of David Bowie's classic songs, "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Watch That Man". Bowie himself produced the recordings and played saxophone, and provided back-up vocals on it. There were also rumours that they had a brief love affair at the time.
"The Man Who Sold the World" peaked at number three on the UK chart, her first UK top 10 hit in five years and also her last until 1986.
In 1977, Lulu married John Frieda, who was previously her hairdresser, and remained with him for twenty years until divorcing him in 1995, having separated in 1991. They had one son, Jordan Frieda later in 1977. She became interested in Eastern mysticism and joined Siddha Yoga Meditation.

Later career

Lulu's singing career waned, but she remained in the public eye, continuing to act and host her own long running radio show on London's Capital Radio station. She also became the celebrity spokes-model for Freeman's fashion catalogue for a long while during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In late 1979, Lulu's career suffered a minor setback when she was in a car accident that nearly took her life, having collided head on with another car on Brooksend Hill. That same year, she recorded for Elton John's label Rocket and seemed about to hit the charts again with the lauded "I Love To Boogie", but surprisingly, despite critical acclaim and much airplay, it did not make the top 75.
In 1981 Lulu returned to the US chart with "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)", a Top 20 hit which also reached number two on the Adult Contemporary chart despite stalling at number 62 in the UK. The same year, she appeared in the video for "Ant Rap" alongside Adam And The Ants. She won the Rear of the Year award in 1983 and re-recorded a number of her songs. This included "Shout," which reached the Top 10 in 1986 in the UK, securing her a spot to perform on the popular BBC music program, ''Top Of The Pops''. In 2002, Lulu achieved the accolade of being one of only two performers (Cliff Richard being the other) to have sung in the Top Of The Pops studio in each of the five decades that the show ran. A follow up single to "Shout", an updated version of Millie's 1960's hit "My Boy Lollipop", failed to chart and Lulu stopped recording until 1992, focussing instead on TV, acting and live performances. These tracks were released on the Jive label. Lulu has had hits on the Decca, Columbia, Atco, Polydor, Chelsea, Alfa, Jive, Dome, RCA, Mercury and Universal labels. She has also released singles for GTO, Atlantic, Globe, EMI, Concept, Lifestyle, Utopia and Rocket, and Epic in the USA. For a while, she held the record for the most number of hit labels in the UK charts.
In 1987, she played Adrian Mole's mother on television (replacing Julie Walters), and in 1993 she made a recording comeback, guesting on the cover version of the Dan Hartman song "Relight My Fire", with boyband Take That. The single reached number one in the British charts and Lulu went on to become Take That's support act for their 1994 tour. By this time, her marriage to John Frieda had completely crumbled, and with the divorce, she released "Independence" in January 1993. She also appeared as herself, an unhappy public relations client of main character Edina Monsoon in two episodes of the hugely popular BBC television programme ''Absolutely Fabulous''. She teamed with French and Saunders many times, including their send up of The Spice Girls (The Sugar Lumps) for Comic Relief in 1997 when she took the role of "Baby Spice", mimicking Emma Bunton. The title track from "Independence" just missed the top ten and all four singles released from the album hit the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994. Despite these hit singles, the album itself did not make a major impact on the charts.
A further album recorded in 1999 provisionally titled Where the Poor Boys Dance was shelved due to unsuccessful supporting singles such as Hurt Me So Bad which charted, but did not make the Top 40. Also in 1999, she co-wrote and recorded a duet with UK pop singer Kavana entitled ''Heart Like The Sun'', but it was not released commercially until Kavana's 2007 greatest hits collection, ''Special Kind Of Something: The Best of...''.
Now officially known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, in 2000, she was awarded an OBE by the British Government. Her 2003 autobiography is called ''I Don't Want to Fight'' after a hit song she and her brother wrote for Tina Turner, which is a song that Lulu later released in 2003, as part of her ''The Greatest Hits'' album. In 2002 her gold album ''Together'' was a collection of duets with the likes of Elton John and Paul McCartney, tracks from which were performed in a high profile TV special for ITV, "An Audience With Lulu". She followed this with the publication of her autobiography, "I Don't Want To Fight." In 2004 she released the moderately successful album ''Back on Track'' and went on a UK-wide tour to celebrate 40 years in the business. In late 2004, Lulu became the host of her own 2-hour radio show, on BBC Radio 2, playing an eclectic blend of music from the 1950s to the 2000s, all having to do with the influence of songwriting. In 2005, Lulu released ''A Little Soul in Your Heart'', a collection of soul classics that entered the UK charts at a disappointing No. 28. after a large amount of TV advertising. In March 2006, Lulu launched her official MySpace profile, where she could keep in contact with current fans, and reconnect with old ones.
She has more recently appeared in the BBC's reality TV show ''Just the Two of Us'' in 2006 as a judge, and in late June and early July 2006, appeared on Take That's UK and Ireland tour, to perform their song "Relight My Fire". She appeared on ''American Idol'' Season 6 on March 20, 2007 as a mentor for the female contestants, and the following night performed "To Sir, With Love" live. Lulu is currently appearing in the UK as a guest for Jools Holland in his series of concerts.

She continues to act occassionally and starred alongside Tom Courtney and Stephen Fry in the hit British movie, "Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?"
Lulu's Atco singles will be released onto CD for the first time on September 10th, 2007 (According to Amazon.co.uk).

Discography

Albums

★ 1965 ''Something To Shout About

★ 1967 ''Love Loves to Love Lulu

★ 1967 ''To Sir, With Love'' - #24 US

★ 1969 ''The Most Of Lulu

★ 1969 ''Lulu's Album

★ 1969 ''New Routes'' - #88 US

★ 1970 ''Melody Fair

★ 1970 ''It's Lulu

★ 1971 ''The Most of Lulu'' — #15 UK

★ 1973 ''

★ 1976 ''Heaven and Earth and the Stars

★ 1978 ''Don't Take Love For Granted

★ 1980 ''The Very Best of Lulu''

★ 1981 ''Lulu'' - #126 US

★ 1981 ''Take Me to Your Heart Again''

★ 1984 ''Shape and Dance With Lulu''

★ 1993 ''Independence'' — #67 UK

★ 1997 ''Absolutely Lulu''

★ 2002 ''Together'' — #4 UK (Duets with Various Artists)

★ 2003 ''The Greatest Hits'' — #35 UK

★ 2004 ''Back on Track'' — #68 UK

★ 2005 ''A Little Soul in Your Heart'' — #28 UK

Singles

★ 1964 "Shout!" — #7 UK / #94 US

★ 1964 "Can't You Hear Me No More"

★ 1964 "Here Comes the Night" — #50 UK

★ 1964 "Satisfied"

★ 1965 "Leave a Little Love" — #8 UK

★ 1965 "Try to Understand" — #25 UK

★ 1965 "Tell Me Like It Is"

★ 1966 "Call Me"

★ 1966 "What A Wonderful Feeling"

★ 1966 "Wenn Du Da Bist/So Fing Es An" (Germany)

★ 1967 "Stealing My Love From Me" (US)

★ 1967 "The Boat That I Row" — #6 UK / #15 IRL

★ 1967 "Let's Pretend" — #11 UK ("To Sir, With Love" was the flip side of this single in the UK.)

★ 1967 "To Sir, With Love" (US) — "'#1 US"' (5 wks., certified Gold) /

★ 1967 "Love Loves To Love Love" — #32 UK

★ 1967 "Shout!" (US re-issue) — #96 US

★ 1968 "Best Of Both Worlds" (US) — #32 US

★ 1968 "Me, The Peaceful Heart" — #9 UK / #11 IRL/ #53 US

★ 1968 "Boy" — #15 UK

★ 1968 "Morning Dew" (US) — #52 US

★ 1968 "I'm A Tiger" — #9 UK / #8 IRL / #18 AT

★ 1968 "This Time" (US)

★ 1969 "Boom Bang-a-Bang" (Recorded in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian) (Eurovision song contest WINNER) (18points) — #2 UK / #1 IRL/ #1 NO / #3 CH / # 10 AT

★ 1969 "Oh Me, Oh My (I'm A Fool for You Baby)" — #47 UK / #22 US / #36 US AC

★ 1970 "Hum A Song (From Your Heart)" (with the Dixie Flyers) — #54 US / #26 US AC

★ 1970 "Oh Me, Oh My (Povera Me)" (Italy)

★ 1970 "After the Feeling Is Gone" (with the Dixie Flyers) — #117 US / #20 US AC

★ 1970 "Everybody's Got To Clap "

★ 1971 "Ich Brauche Deine Leibe/ Wach'ich oder traum ich" (Germany)

★ 1971 "Warum Tust Du Mir Weh/Traurig Aber Wahr" (Germany)

★ 1972 "Even If I Could Change"

★ 1972 "You Ain't Wrong, You Just Ain't Right" (US)

★ 1972 "Make Believe World" (US)

★ 1974 "The Man Who Sold the World" — #3 UK/ #8 IRL

★ 1974 "The Man With The Golden Gun"

★ 1975 "Take Your Mama For A Ride (Pt. 1)" — #37 UK

★ 1975 "Boy Meets Girl"

★ 1975 "Heaven And Earth And The Stars"

★ 1977 "Your Love Is Everywhere"

★ 1978 "Don't Take Love For Granted"

★ 1979 "I Love To Boogie"

★ 1981 "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do) " — #62 UK / #18 US / #2 US AC

★ 1982 "If I Were You" — #44 US / #27 US AC

★ 1982 "I Will Do It For Your Love"

★ 1982 "Take Me To Your Heart Again"

★ 1984 "Is That So?"

★ 1985 "Love Is The Answer" (Poland)

★ 1985 "Hello My Friend" (Poland)

★ 1986 "Shout!" (new version) — #8 UK / #5 IRL

★ 1986 "My Boy Lollipop" — #86 UK

★ 1990 "Nellie The Elephant"

★ 1993 "Independence" — #11 UK / #21 IRL

★ 1993 "I'm Back for More" (with Bobby Womack) — #27 UK

★ 1993 "Let Me Wake Up in Your Arms" — #51 UK

★ 1993 "Relight My Fire" (with Take That) — "'#1 UK"'/ #2 IRL / #10 NL / #18 CH / #27 AT/ #33 AUS

★ 1993 "How 'Bout Us" — #46 UK (cover of 1981 hit for the R&B group Champaign)

★ 1994 "Goodbye Baby And Amen" — #40 UK

★ 1994 "Every Woman Knows" — #44 UK

★ 1996 "Reaching Out"

★ 1997 "Who Do You Think You Are" (The Sugar Lumps for Comic Relief)

★ 1999 "Hurt Me So Bad" — #42 UK

★ 2000 "Better Get Ready" — #59 UK

★ 2000 "Where The Poor Boys Dance" — #24 UK

★ 2002 "Phunk Phoolin'" (Kerphunk Ft. Lulu)

★ 2002 "We've Got Tonight" (with Ronan Keating) — #4 UK / #7 NL / #10 IRL / #12 AUS / #46 NZ

★ 2005 "Put A Little Love In Your Heart"

Filmography

★ ''Gonks Go Beat'' (1965)

★ ''To Sir, with Love'' (1967)

★ ''Cucumber Castle'' (1970)

★ ''The Cherry Picker'' (1972)

★ ''Alicja'' (1982) (voice)

★ ''Men in Love'' (1989)

★ ''Antonio's Girlfriend'' (1992)

★ ''To Sir With Love 2'' (1996)

★ ''Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?'' (1999)

External links

★ Lulu's Official Website

★

★ Lulu Discography UK Discography w/ Original Picture Sleeve (inc. Singles 7")

★ [1] Lulu fansite