This post was originally an episode of The Old Time Review Daily Podcast. In each edition, Jamie Dyer spoke off the cuff about a famous person, film or song for up to three minutes. The following is a transcription, which has been cleaned up to remove any hesitation and some repetition. Where possible, the subject has been expanded on from the original broadcast.
This is the Old Time Review Daily Podcast for the 27th of May, 2021, and this is Jamie Dyer speaking to you from the UK. On this day in 1943. Priscilla Maria Veronica White was born. Now, you may not know her by that name, but you may know her as Cilla Black. She was multi-talented.
She had a load of hits in the 1960s as a singer, including Anyone Who Had a Heart, Alfie, and You’re My World going on into the 70s and 80s. as a singer and all-round performer. Cilla also presented television as well, and had an amazing rapport with the public. She loved surprising them and the public really warmed to her as a television personality.
She did Surprise Surprise, which changed a lot of people’s lives. And of course, in my era, she presented Blind Date every Saturday night. She just had such an amazing presence on the screen that went beyond “that singer from Liverpool” that she initially was; The lady who worked alongside the Beatles, and of course is part of the huge history of music in Liverpool, but she went beyond that. I do recommend going and listening to a lot of her music because, in the 1960s, her voice was incredible.
I like her track, Something Tells Me. She did a remix album in the late ’00s, Which I do recommend as well, if you’re a dance fan, she was never afraid to kind of try new things. And I was really sad actually when Blind Date went off the air in 2003, she sort of started to step down from roles and she sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 72. So that is Cilla Black, who was born on this day in 1943. And that is today’s Old Time Review Daily Podcast.
