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Joan Regan (born Joan Bethel or Siobhan Bethel; 19 January 1928 – 12 September 2013)[1] was an English traditional pop music singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s.[2]
Joan Regan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 January 1928 Romford, Essex, England |
| Died | 12 September 2013 (aged 85) London, England |
| Genres | Traditional pop music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actress |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Years active | 1953–2013 |
| Labels | Decca, emi Pye, Nectar |
Biography
Regan was born in either Romford, Essex, or West Ham, London, (sources disagree) the youngest of six children to Irish parents. She had rheumatic fever as a child which left her with a damaged mitral valve, although this did not cause problems until she was in her seventies.[3][4]
Regan married an American serviceman, Dick Howell, a friend of her brothers who met in the Navy. She and Howell married on her 18th birthday in 1946. For a time they lived in Burbank, California. They had three children, one of whom died at an early age. The marriage eventually broke down. Regan, a Catholic, was able to obtain a legal dissolution, rather than a divorce.[5] Before becoming a singer, Regan worked at a number of jobs, including re-touching photographs.[3] Her successful singing career began in 1953, when she made a demo record of "Too Young" and "I'll Walk Alone". The demo came to the attention of Bernard Delfont, and that helped her sign a recording contract with Decca Records.[3]
She had a number of Top 40 hits for the label, many of them were cover versions of American hits. Among them were Teresa Brewer's "Ricochet", "Till I Waltz Again with You", and "Jilted", Doris Day's "If I Give My Heart to You" and Jill Corey's "Cleo and Me-O" and "Love Me to Pieces".[6]
Beginning on November 18, 1953,[7] she became the resident singer on BBC producer Richard Afton's television series Quite Contrary.[2] Afton later replaced Regan with Ruby Murray as resident vocalist beginning with the show on June 23, 1954.[8][9] She appeared on the Six-Five Special, and was given her own BBC television series, Be My Guest, which ran for four series starting in 1959.[2][3]
After being knocked out by a descending safety curtain during her first appearance in variety,[6] she developed her act to include impressions of Judy Garland, Dame Gracie Fields and Dame Anna Neagle, to the last of whom she bore a facial resemblance.[2]
In the late 1950s, she appeared several times at the London Palladium, including the Royal Command Performance in 1955 and also in the show Stars in Your Eyes[3] with Cliff Richard, Russ Conway and Edmund Hockridge which ran for a 6-month season at the Palladium in 1960.[10] In 1958, she appeared as herself in the film Hello London.[11]
On leaving Decca in 1958, she signed with EMI's HMV label, where she had a Top 10 hit with a cover version of the McGuire Sisters' "May You Always".[6] Two years later, she left EMI for Pye Records, and had two minor record successes, ("Happy Anniversary" and "Papa Loves Mama").[3]
In July 1957, she married her second husband, Harry Claff, who was the joint general manager and box office manager at the Palladium.[6] In November that year, the Daily Herald reported Regan was to have a baby in February 1958, seven months after the wedding.[6] After receiving "abusive and wounding letters from people who were personally unknown to her", Regan successfully sued the newspaper for libel;[6] her daughter, Donna, was actually born in April 1958.[2] Claff and Regan divorced in 1963 after Claff was sentenced to prison for embezzlement of £62,000.[6] He served five years in prison.[6] His defence was that he had only "borrowed" some money from the London Palladium, where he was box-office manager, and would have paid it back. By this time, the hits had dried up and she suffered a nervous breakdown.[6] Regan married her third and last husband, Dr. Martin Cowan, a medical doctor, at Caxton Hall, London on September 12, 1966.[12][2][3] After Dr. Cowan's retirement, they moved to Florida in 1982.[13]
In the United States, Regan recorded two singles for Columbia (one of which, "Don't Talk To Me About Love", went on to become a Northern soul classic). In 1984 she slipped in the shower, hit her head on the tiles and suffered a brain haemorrhage.[6] After an emergency operation she was left paralysed and speechless.[2] Her recovery, which entailed much physical and speech therapy, was aided by her miming to her old records.[6] It took many months of treatment before she regained the ability to sing.[6] In 1987, some of those old tracks, together with others by Dickie Valentine, Lita Roza and Jimmy Young, were issued on the double album, Unchained Melodies.[2]
In 1988, she returned to the UK where, with the help and encouragement of Russ Conway, who had been her rehearsal pianist in the early 1950s, she returned to the stage.[6] She recorded for Nectar Records from 1989 to 1996, for whom she recorded a single "You Needed Me" and two albums, The Joan Regan Collection and Remember I Love You.[3]
Later years and death
Regan continued singing, entertaining and supporting her charities (including the Not Forgotten Association) to the age of 82. She died on 12 September 2013, aged 85.[1] She was survived by her three children.[5]
Discography
Albums
- The Girl Next Door (Decca, 1954)
- Just Joan (Decca, 1956)
- Joan and Ted (with Edmund Hockridge) (Pye-Nixa, 1961)
- The World of Joan Regan (Decca, 1976)
- Remember I Love You (Nectar Music, 1996)[2]
- The Best of Joan Regan (Pulse, 1999)
- The Best of Joan Regan (Spectrum Music, 2001)
- Soft Sands – Decca Singles (Vocalion, 2004)
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS | UK[14] | US[15][16] | ||
| 1953 | "Till They've All Gone Home"
b/w "I'll Always Be Thinking of You" |
— | — | 23 |
| "The Long Way"
b/w "Rag-a-Bone Man" |
— | — | — | |
| "Ricochet" (with the Squadronaires)
b/w "Merry-Go-Rounds and Swings" |
— | 8 | — | |
| 1954 | "Red, Red, Red"
b/w "Tani" |
— | — | — |
| Someone Else's Roses"
b/w "The Love I Have for You" |
— | 5 | — | |
| "Cleo and Me-o" (with Dickie Valentine)
b/w "Pine Tree, Pine Over Me" |
— | — | — | |
| "I'll Travel with You"
b/w "Jil Ted" |
— | — | — | |
| "If I Give My Heart to You"
b/w "Faded Flowers" |
— | 3 | — | |
| "Wait for Me, Darling" (with the Johnston Brothers)
b/w "Two Kinds of Tears" |
— | 18 | — | |
| "This Ole House" (with the Keynotes)
b/w "Can This Be Love?" |
— | — | — | |
| 1955 | "Prize of Gold"
b/w "When You're in Love" |
21 | 6 | — |
| "Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sunshine In" (with Rusty Regan)
b/w "If You Learn to Love Each Other" |
— | — | — | |
| "Don't Be Afraid of Love"
b/w "Danger! Heartbreak Ahead" |
— | — | — | |
| "Just Say You Love Her"
b/w "Nobody Danced with Me" |
— | — | — | |
| "The Shepherd Boy"
b/w "The Rose and the Flame" |
— | — | — | |
| "Croce di Oro"
b/w "Evermore" (US); "Love and Marriage" (UK) |
— | — | 55 | |
| 1956 | "Don't Take Me for Granted"
b/w "The Boy with the Magic Guitar" |
— | — | — |
| "Honestly"
b/w "I'd Never Leave You Baby" (with the Johnston Brothers) |
— | — | — | |
| "Sweet Heartaches"
b/w "Second Fiddle" |
— | — | — | |
| "Gone"
b/w "Make Me a Child Again" |
— | — | — | |
| 1957 | "Nearer to Me"
b/w "Cross My Ever-Loving Heart" |
— | — | — |
| "Wonderful! Wonderful!"
b/w "Speak for Yourself John" |
— | — | — | |
| "Good Evening Friends" (with Max Bygraves)
b/w "7½ Cents" |
— | — | — | |
| "Love Me to Pieces"
b/w "Soft Sands" |
— | — | — | |
| 1958 | "I May Never Pass This Way Again" | — | — | — |
| "Love Like Ours"
b/w "Take Me in Your Arms" |
— | — | — | |
| 1959 | "May You Always"
b/w "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" |
— | — | — |
| "May You Always"
b/w "Who's Afraid (Not I, Not I, Not I)" |
— | 9 | — | |
| "Happy Anniversary"
b/w "So Close to My Heart" |
— | 29 | — | |
| 1960 | "If Only You'd Be Mine"
b/w "O Dio Mio" |
— | — | — |
| "Papa Loves Mama"
b/w "When You Know Someone Loves You" |
— | 29 | — | |
| "One of the Lucky Ones"
b/w "My Thanks to You" |
— | 47 | — | |
| "Must Be Santa"
b/w "Will Santa Come to Shanty Town" |
— | 42 | — | |
| 1961 | "How Wonderful to Know"
b/w "(Ting-a-Ling) It Must Be Spring" |
— | — | — |
| "We Who Are in Love (Nous les Amoureux)"
b/w "My Foolish Heart" |
— | — | — | |
| "Surprisin'"
b/w "In the Arms of My Love" |
— | — | — | |
| 1962 | "Most People Get Married"
b/w "Don't Let Me Stand in Your Way" |
— | — | — |
| 1963 | "Wand'ring Boy"
b/w "Golden Dreams'" |
— | — | — |
| 1966 | "Don't Talk to Me About Love"
b/w "I'm No Toy" |
— | — | — |
| 1967 | "No One Beside Me"
b/w "A Love So Fine" |
— | — | — |
| 1989 | "You Needed Me"
b/w "Together Again" |
— | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | ||||
Songs
Regan recorded a number of other songs, including "It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful World" and "That Old Feeling".
See also
- List of artists under the Decca Records label
References
- Leigh, Spencer (17 September 2013). "Joan Regan: Singer who had hits in the 1950s and became the toast of the London Palladium". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- "Joan Regan". Nme.com. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
- Sharon Mawer. "Joan Regan biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
- "Joan Regan obituary". Guardian.com. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- "Obituary". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 2066/7. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
- "Daily News (London)". Daily News (London): 6. 6 November 1953.
- "Belfast News-Letter". Belfast News-Letter: 4. 1 June 1954.
- "Singers Of The Fabulous Fifties". CommuniGate. UK: This Is Sussex. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 24 September 2008.
- "The Stage". The Stage: 3. 28 April 1960.
- Hello London, IMDb.com; accessed 3 September 2017.
- "Daily Mirror". Daily Mirror: 4. 13 September 1966.
- "The Stage". The Stage: 82. 18 August 1988.
- "JOAN REGAN | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
- Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music. Record Research. p. 363. ISBN 9780898200836.
- Whitburn, Joel (1994). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1993. Record Research. p. 493. ISBN 9780898201048.
External links
Authority control | |
|---|---|
| General | |
| National libraries | |
| Other |
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На других языках
[de] Joan Regan
Joan Regan, eigentlich Siobhan Bethel (* 19. Januar 1928 in Romford, Essex, Vereinigtes Königreich; † 12. September 2013 in London) war eine britische Pop-Sängerin der 1950er und frühen 1960er Jahre. Sie war zu diesem Zeitpunkt eine der erfolgreichsten britischen Sängerinnen.- [en] Joan Regan
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