Laurie London

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Laurie London (born 19 January 1944, Bethnal Green, East London) achieved fame as a boy singer of the 1950s, recording in both English and German.

At the age of thirteen he made an up-tempo version of the spiritual song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with the Geoff Love Orchestra for Parlophone Records (45-R4359) which was picked up by its co-owned American sister label Capitol Records (F3891). In April 1958 it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and remained there for 4 weeks, but was to be his only hit record.

According to one online source,[1] , "he worked at the Abbey Road Studios with such renowned record producers as Norman Newell and George Martin" and that "special songs were written for him, tailored to the German taste in popular music, and he recorded them in Cologne and Munich with producer, Nils Nobach."

He participated in the 1959 "Deutsches Schlager-Festival" (German Hit-Festival) singing "Bum Ladda Bum Bum".

London has a credit [2] as "singer" in the 1961 German movie "...und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier", which might be loosely translated as "stay with me, my darling".

He originally retired from singing at the age of nineteen.

Later cover versions of the Cliff Richard hit "Lucky Lips" (1963); and "The Bells Of St. Mary" (CBS, 1966) went unnoticed.[3]

London then totally quit the music industry except for a few rare public appearances. In the 1990s he ran a hotel (The Angel) in Petworth, West Sussex but sold it in 2000. These days he lives in North London.[4]

[edit] Recordings

  • "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"
  • "Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum (Boom-Ladda-Boom-Boom)"
  • "Auf wiederseh'n Marlen"
  • "Banjo Boy"
  • "Basin Street Blues"
  • "Bells Of St. Mary's"
  • "Boomerang"
  • "Casey Jones"
  • "Cradle Rock"
  • "Dark Town Strutter's Ball"
  • "Darling Sue"
  • "Down By The Riverside"
  • "God's Little Acre"
  • "Gospel Train"
  • "Handed Down"
  • "Hear Them Bells"
  • "Hey, Hey - es wird Musik gemacht"
  • "Hopalong Cassidy"
  • "I'll Make You Forget Him"
  • "I'm Afraid"
  • "I'm Gonna Walk And Talk With My Lord"
  • "I Gotta Robe"
  • "Ich bin nicht arm, ich bin nicht reich (I'm Not Poor, I'm Not Rich)"
  • "Itsy Bitsy Teene Weenie Honolulu Strand Bikini"
  • "Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho"
  • "Lucky Lips"
  • "Mamatschi"
  • "Mandolino Pling Plang Plong"
  • "My Mother"
  • "Nix Fraulein, nix Mademoiselle"
  • "Old Time Religion"
  • "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"
  • "Pretty Eyed Baby"
  • "Roll On Spring"
  • "Sad Songs"
  • "Schenk mir einen Traum"
  • "Schöne weisse Rose"
  • "Schritt für Schritt"
  • "(She Sells) Sea Shells"
  • "Three O'Clock"
  • "Today's Teardrops"
  • "Up Above My Head"
  • "Wild und heiss"

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.boysoloist.com/artist.asp?VID=1012 BCSD - Laurie London at "the Boy Choir and Soloist Directory"
  2. ^ ...und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ bear-family.de
  4. ^ bear-family.de

[edit] External links

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