Cilla Black, 1943-2015

Last Sunday, just minutes after finalising the title of this blog, I was informed of the passing of Priscilla Marie Veronica White, or as she was more commonly known, Ms Cilla Black. Like so many of my generation, I grew up with Cilla the TV personality, queen of Saturday nights, but of course she was far more than that. It seemed only fitting to kick off my blog with a post dedicated to one of the greatest female vocalists this country has produced.

Priscilla was born in Liverpool in 1943 and from an incredibly early age knew that she wanted to be a star, sneaking out in her lunch breaks at the hair salon to listen to bands down at the Cavern and Zodiac clubs. Growing up with the likes of The Beatles had its perks and in 1963 she was introduced to their manager, Brian Epstein, and was later signed as his only female singer. Despite being written by Lennon and McCartney, her first single Love of the Loved only made it to No. 35 in the UK charts. However, that didn’t stop Cilla Black (the name change due to a misprint in a local music paper). Underneath that girl-next-door exterior lay a feisty go-getter, and when Epstein returned from a trip to the States with a Dionne Warwick song he’d heard on the radio, she was ready to give it all she had.

Anyone Who Had A Heart is a song of pure heartache. Written by the legendary Burt Bacharach, it presents the ultimate girlfriend dilemma; do I stay with the man I love, despite the pain and anguish he causes me, because I’m scared it’ll ruin me to leave? This same problem is tackled in other hits, like Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Love You), for example ("My friends keep telling me that you ain't no good, but oh, they don't know, that I'd leave you if I could"), but unfortunately in neither case is a solution found, both ladies ending up just as distraught as they were at the start.

For Dionne, the single reached a rather pitiful No. 42 in the UK charts (and only No. 8 in the States) but once Cilla got her hands on it the song flew all the way to the No. 1 spot, and in its first three months it had sold nearly one million copies. Not only did Anyone Who Had A Heart catapult Cilla’s career, but it was the biggest UK chart hit by a female artist in the whole of the 1960s.

What made it so special then? Well as Bacharach described it, it was the passion that Cilla put behind the song and its lyrics: “There weren’t too many white singers around which could convey the emotion that I felt in many of the songs I wrote, but that changed with people like Cilla Black”. You could argue that praise simply doesn’t get any higher than that.

If you love the track too, why not join the thousands petitioning to get it back to No. 1? Here's the campaign's Facebook page with more details. 

Now, Liverpudlian accent I have not, but in finding that redhead Cilla was in nature a true mousey brunette, I’ve discovered a very personal bond with her that I shall hold on to in my attempts at recording a version of this song. I'd previously underestimated what a high register Cilla sings in, and being an alto girl myself, the power that she is able to give those top notes is mighty impressive. Still, that wasn't going to stop me giving it a damn good go.

So, here it is. My tribute to the one and only Cilla, an icon and national treasure. It’s sad that she’ll never get the chance to fulfill her desire to “grow old disgracefully”, but in honouring her memory, do try to remember her wish: "On my gravestone, I want 'Here lies the singer,' not 'Here lies the T.V. presenter’”.