I gotta move on down the line

Heavens! I missed wishing many happy returns to the lovely Hazell Dean, who celebrated her 55th birthday last week! We met her once at a House of Homosexual Culture event on the South Bank, and she is every bit as lovely as she seems in her TV and stage appearances.

Provider of many a song that formed the soundtrack to my gay awakening in the 80s, Essex-born Miss Hazel Dean Poole was a singer for many years before Hi-NRG producer Ian Anthony Stephens wrote her seminal single Searchin' (I Gotta Find A Man), a mega-hit in gay clubs worldwide. This (of course) brought her to the attention of the biggest producers of the day Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and the rest, they say, is history...

What I never knew was that Miss Dean entered the Song For Europe competition - twice! (in 1976 and 1984) - without success. And I am overjoyed to find a rare appearance of one of her entries, the rather unlikely power ballad I Couldn't Live Without You for a Day. It's quite good in its own way, but my goodness - how she changed her image!

Hazell Dean - I Couldn't Live Without You for a Day (Eurovision, 1976)

Here is the great lady in her heyday - a feast of Hi-NRG campness!

Hazell Dean - Searchin'

Hazell Dean - Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)

Hazell Dean - Who's Leaving Who?

And my personal favourite...

Hazell Dean - They Say It's Gonna Rain

Hazell Dean official website