Joan Regan | |
---|---|
Born | Romford, Essex, England | 19 January 1928
Died | 12 September 2013 London, England | (aged 85)
Genres | Traditional pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer, actress |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 1953–2013 |
Labels | Decca, emi Pye, Nectar |
Joan Regan (born Joan Bethel or Siobhan Bethel; 19 January 1928 – 12 September 2013) [1] was an English traditional pop singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s. [2]
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]
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]
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" |
— | 19 | — | |
"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. |
Regan recorded a number of other songs, including " It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful World" and " That Old Feeling".