|
|
| (7 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{short description|Russian/Romanian singer}}
| | #REDIRECT [[w:Alma Cogan]] |
| {{Infobox musical artist
| |
| | name = Alma Cogan
| |
| | image = Alma Cogan (1963).jpg
| |
| | caption = Cogan, Tel Aviv, 1963
| |
| | birth_name = Alma Angela Cohen Cogan
| |
| | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1932|05|19}}
| |
| | birth_place = [[London]], England
| |
| | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1966|10|26|1932|05|19}}
| |
| | death_place = London, England
| |
| | genre = [[Traditional pop music|Traditional pop]]
| |
| | years_active = 1952–1966
| |
| | label = {{hlist|[[HMV Group|HMV]]|[[Columbia Graphophone Company|EMI Columbia]]}}
| |
| | website = https://www.almacogan2018.com/
| |
| }}
| |
| | |
| '''Alma Angela Cohen Cogan'''<ref name="ODNB"/> (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was a Russian/Romanian singer of [[traditional pop]] in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed the "Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era.
| |
| | |
| ==Childhood and early musical career==
| |
| She was born on 19 May 1932<ref name="ODNB"/> in [[Whitechapel]], London, of Russian-Romanian [[Jewish]] descent.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66775?docPos=1 |title=Cogan, Alma Angela Cohen (1932–1966)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66775|access-date=5 April 2015}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Her father's family, the Kogins, arrived in Britain from Russia, while her mother's family were refugees from Romania.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Mantel |first=Hilary |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1992/sep/24/on-the-edge/ |title=On the Edge|magazine=The New York Review of Books|date= 24 September 1992|access-date=14 March 2011}}</ref> Cogan's parents, Mark and Fay Cogan, had another daughter, the actress Sandra Caron,<ref>The "Tail Pieces by the Alley Cat" column in ''[[NME]]'' dated 14 September 1956 cites Sandra Caron's age as 19.</ref> who went on to play "Mumsey" in ''[[The Crystal Maze]]'',<ref name="metro">{{cite news|url=http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/10/the-crystal-maze-gives-us-our-first-look-at-maureen-lipman-as-mumsey-6184455/|title=The Crystal Maze gives us out first look at Maureen Lipman as Mumsey|newspaper=[[Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]]}}</ref> and one son, Ivor Cogan. Mark's work as a [[haberdasher]] entailed frequent moves. One of Cogan's early homes was over his shop in [[Worthing]], Sussex.
| |
| | |
| Although Jewish, she attended [[St Joseph's College, Reading|St Joseph's Convent School]] in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]].<ref name=mp3ac>{{cite web|url=http://www.mp3.com/artist/alma-cogan/summary/|title=Alma Cogan|website=Mp3.com|access-date=26 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109190932/http://mp3.com/artist/Alma%2BCogan/|archive-date=9 January 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her father was a singer, but it was Cogan's mother who had showbusiness aspirations for both her daughters (she had named Cogan after silent screen star [[Alma Taylor]]). Cogan first performed in public at a charity show at the Palace Theatre in Reading, and at the age of eleven, competed in the "Sussex Queen of Song" contest held at a [[Brighton]] hotel, winning a prize of £5.
| |
| | |
| Aged 14, she was recommended by [[Vera Lynn]] for a variety show at the Grand Theatre in [[Brighton]] and in July 1947 she appeared there for a week with [[Max Miller (comedian)|Max Miller]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Worthing Herald |journal=Worthing Herald |date=July 4, 1947 |page=1}}</ref> In November 1947, she appeared in the show "Dick Turpin's Ride to York" at the Grand, Brighton.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Stage |journal=The Stage |date=November 20, 1947 |page=2}}</ref> At 16, she was told by bandleader, [[Ted Heath (bandleader)|Ted Heath]], "You've got a good voice, but you're far too young for this business. Come back in five years' time." Heath would later say: "Letting her go was one of the biggest mistakes of my life."<ref>[http://jukeboxjumpers.multiply.com/reviews/item/1] {{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> She also found work singing at [[tea dance]]s, while also studying dress design at Worthing Art College, and was soon appearing as a chorus girl in the musical ''[[High Button Shoes]]'' at the London Hippodrome in November 1948 and in a revue called ''Sauce Tartare'' at the Cambridge Theatre in London in May 1949.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://audrey.hepburn.free.fr/theatre/sauce_tartare/sauce_tartare.htm|title=Audrey Hepburn - Sauce Tartare|website=Audrey.hepburn.free.fr|access-date=20 August 2021}}</ref> She became resident singer at the Cumberland Hotel in London in 1949, where she was spotted by [[EMI]] producer [[Walter Ridley]], who became her coach and signed her to [[HMV Records|HMV]].
| |
| | |
| =="Girl with the giggle"==
| |
| Cogan's first release was "To Be Worthy of You" / "Would You", recorded on her 20th birthday.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} This led to her appearing regularly on comedian [[Dick Bentley]]'s BBC's radio show ''Gently Bentley'', and then becoming the vocalist for the [[BBC Radio]] comedy programme ''[[Take It From Here]]'', replacing [[Joy Nichols]], from 1953 to the end of its run in 1960.
| |
| | |
| In 1953, whilst in the middle of recording "If I Had a Golden Umbrella", she broke into a giggle; she then played up the effect on later recordings. Soon enough, she was dubbed the "Girl with the giggle in her voice". ("Giggle" has sometimes been quoted as "chuckle".)<ref name="bio">{{Cite web|url=http://www.almacogan.org/1biography.html|title=Alma Cogan - Biography|date=28 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228220806/http://www.almacogan.org/1biography.html|access-date=20 August 2021|archive-date=28 February 2008}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Many of her recordings were covers of U.S. hits, especially those recorded by [[Rosemary Clooney]], [[Teresa Brewer]], [[Georgia Gibbs]], [[Joni James]] and [[Dinah Shore]]. Her voice was often compared with [[Doris Day]]'s. One of these covers, "[[Bell Bottom Blues (Carr/David song)|Bell Bottom Blues]]", became her first hit, reaching no. 4 on 3 April 1954.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/ |title=OfficialCharts.com |publisher=[[Official Charts Company]] |date=27 March 1954 |access-date=30 December 2011}}</ref> Cogan would appear in the UK Singles Chart eighteen times in the 1950s, with "Dreamboat" reaching no. 1. Other hits from this period include "[[I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango]]", "[[Why Do Fools Fall in Love (song)|Why Do Fools Fall in Love]]", "[[Sugartime]]" and "[[The Story of My Life (Burt Bacharach and Hal David song)|The Story of My Life]]". Cogan's first album, ''[[I Love to Sing]]'', was released in 1958.
| |
| | |
| Cogan was one of the first UK recording artists to appear frequently on television, where her powerful voice could be showcased along with her bubbly personality and dramatic costumes. Her hooped skirts with [[sequins]] and figure-hugging tops were reputedly designed by herself and never worn twice. [[Cliff Richard]] recalls: "My first impression of her was definitely frocks – I kept thinking, how many can this woman have? Almost every song had a different costume. The skirts seemed to be so wide – I don't know where they hung them up!"<ref>{{cite web|last=Vandyke |first=Alan |url=http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/cogan/2616165 |title=Lastingtribute.co.uk |website=Lastingtribute.co.uk |access-date=30 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106031915/http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/cogan/2616165 |archive-date=6 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="AMG">{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alma-cogan-mn0000017159|title=Alma Cogan biography|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=23 May 2009}}</ref> Cogan topped the annual ''[[NME]]'' reader's poll as "Outstanding British Female Singer" four times between 1956 and 1960.<ref name="500 Number One Hits">{{cite book |first=Jo |last=Rice |year=1982 |title=The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits |edition=1st |publisher=Guinness Superlatives Ltd |location=Enfield, Middlesex |page=20 |isbn=0-85112-250-7}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| ==Too square for the 1960s==
| |
| [[File:Ilana Rovina with Alma Cogan (1963).jpg|thumb|right|180px|Cogan (right) with Israeli singer Ilana Rovina, Tel Aviv, 1963]]
| |
| The UK musical revolution of the 1960s, symbolised by the rise of [[the Beatles]], suddenly made Cogan unfashionable; in the 1991 BBC documentary ''Alma Cogan: The Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice'', [[Lionel Blair]] said she was perceived as "square". Her highest 1960s chart ranking in the UK was no. 26 with "[[We Got Love (Bobby Rydell song)|We Got Love]]", and most of her successes at this time were abroad, notably in [[Sweden]] and [[Japan]]. She was especially disappointed that her 1963 cover of [[the Exciters]]' US hit "Tell Him" did not return her to the UK charts, according to singer Eddie Grassham. In 1964, Cogan recorded "[[Tennessee Waltz]]" in a rock-and-roll ballad style; this version was no. 1 in Sweden for five weeks in the best selling chart "Kvällstoppen" and number 1 for no less than 8 weeks in the Swedish Voting Chart "''[[Tio i Topp]]''". Tennessee Waltz also reached the top 20 in [[Denmark]], while a [[German language]] rendering reached no. 10 in [[West Germany|Germany]]. She had another number one hit in Sweden in 1965, "[[The Birds and the Bees (Jewel Akens song)|The Birds and the Bees]]". Already the year before, 1963, she had had success in Sweden when her "Tell him" became a hit. It spent seven weeks in the best selling record chart "Kvällstoppen" and peaked at #10. When she in the mid-1960's toured around Sweden with popular local pop bands, whose members were some ten years younger than her, she got the playful nickname "popmormor" (pop-grandmother).
| |
| | |
| Cogan also wrote some of her own songs. She co-wrote her 1963 record "Just Once More" (under the pseudonym of "Al Western") with her long-time pianist Stan Foster; her 1964 record "It's You" was also a Cogan-Foster collaboration, although this time she was credited under her own name. "Just Once More" peaked at no. 10 in the Swedish Voting Chart "Tio i Topp" in October 1963.
| |
| | |
| She continued to be a popular figure on the UK showbusiness scene, being offered the part of Nancy in ''[[Oliver!]]'', appearing on the teenage hit-show ''[[Ready Steady Go!]]'', and headlining at the [[Hippodrome, London|Talk of the Town]].
| |
| | |
| ==Personal life==
| |
| Cogan lived with her widowed mother in [[Kensington High Street]] (at 44 Stafford Court) in a lavishly decorated ground-floor flat where she frequently entertained other celebrities. Regular visitors included: [[Princess Margaret]], [[Noël Coward]], [[Cary Grant]], [[Audrey Hepburn]], [[Michael Caine]], [[Frankie Vaughan]], [[Bruce Forsyth]] and [[Roger Moore]].<ref name="AMG"/>
| |
| | |
| [[John Lennon]] once recalled that, when he was a teenager, he used to mimic her savagely during his time at the [[Liverpool College of Art]]. Lennon's wife [[Cynthia Lennon|Cynthia]] also recalled, "John and I had thought of Alma [as] out of date and unhip." But after Lennon actually met Cogan on the TV pop show ''Ready Steady Go!'' in 1964, they became close friends, so much so that Cogan's sister Sandra later said<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sentstarr.tripod.com/beatgirls/sancar.html |title=Sentstarr.tripod.com |website=Sentstarr.tripod.com |access-date=30 December 2011}}</ref> that the pair had a serious romance that had to be kept secret because of Alma's family's strict Jewish faith.
| |
| | |
| Cogan was close to the other Beatles as well, especially [[Paul McCartney]], who first played the melody of "[[Yesterday (Beatles song)|Yesterday]]" on her piano; he also played tambourine on her recording of "I Knew Right Away".{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}
| |
| | |
| ==Illness and death==
| |
| Cogan tried to update her image by recording some Beatles numbers and a spin-off from ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'' ("Love Ya Illya"). But by 1965 record producers were becoming dissatisfied with Cogan's work, and it was clear that her health was failing. Her friend and colleague [[Anne Shelton (singer)|Anne Shelton]] attributed this decline to some 'highly experimental' injections she took to lose weight, claiming that Cogan was never well again after that.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}
| |
| | |
| Cogan embarked on a series of club dates in the [[Northern England|North of England]] in early 1966, but collapsed after two performances and had to be treated for stomach cancer.<ref name="AMG"/> She made her final TV appearance in August, on the guest-spot of ''International Cabaret''. The following month she collapsed while touring Sweden to promote ''Hello Baby'', recorded exclusively for the Swedish market. She died of [[ovarian cancer]] at London's [[Middlesex Hospital]] on 26 October, at the age of 34.
| |
| | |
| In deference to family custom, her death was observed with traditional Jewish rites, with burial at the [[Bushey#Jewish cemeteries|Jewish Cemetery]] in Bushey, [[Hertfordshire]].
| |
| | |
| ==Legacy==
| |
| The novel [[Alma Cogan (novel)|''Alma Cogan'']] by [[Gordon Burn]] presents an imaginary middle-aged Cogan looking back on life and fame in the 1980s. It claimed to be based on true events and real people, except for her early death, and won the [[Whitbread Book Award]] in 1991. Partly adapted from this novel was the [[BBC Radio 4]] series ''Stage Mother, Sequinned Daughter'' (2002) by Annie Caulfield. Cogan's sister Sandra felt that it misrepresented both Cogan and her mother, and tried unsuccessfully to get it banned. Eventually the [[Broadcasting Standards Commission]] ruled that the BBC apologise to Sandra for failing to respect the feelings of the surviving family members.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1448422/BBC-apology-over-drunk-Alma-Cogan.html|title=BBC apology over 'drunk' Alma Cogan|website=Telegraph.co.uk|access-date=20 August 2021}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| The romantic comedy ''[[In Love with Alma Cogan]]'' is a film starring [[Roger Lloyd-Pack]]. He is an aging manager of an old-fashioned Pier Theatre. It leads to a flashback to his encounter with Alma Cogan, who performed at the theatre in his youth.
| |
| | |
| A [[blue plaque]] commemorating Cogan was installed by the entrance of 44 Stafford Court, her longtime residence, on 4 November 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.almacogan.com/alma_day.html |title=Alma Cogan Competition |website=Almacogan.com |date=17 May 2009 |access-date=5 April 2015}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| ==Discography==
| |
| {{Main|Alma Cogan discography}}
| |
| | |
| ==Biography==
| |
| *''Alma Cogan: The Girl With The Laugh In Her Voice'' by Sandra Caron (Alma's sister) – {{ISBN|0-7475-0984-0}}
| |
| | |
| ==References==
| |
| {{Reflist}}
| |
| | |
| {{Authority control}}
| |
| | |
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Cogan, Alma}}
| |
| [[Category:1932 births]]
| |
| [[Category:1966 deaths]]
| |
| [[Category:Burials in Hertfordshire]]
| |
| [[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
| |
| [[Category:Deaths from ovarian cancer]]
| |
| [[Category:English Jews]]
| |
| [[Category:English people of Romanian-Jewish descent]]
| |
| [[Category:People from Stepney]]
| |
| [[Category:RCA Victor artists]]
| |
| [[Category:Traditional pop music singers]]
| |
| [[Category:People educated at St Joseph's Convent School]]
| |
| [[Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
| |
| [[Category:20th-century English singers]]
| |
| [[Category:People from Whitechapel]]
| |
| [[Category:People from Worthing]]
| |
| [[Category:20th-century English women singers]]
| |
