Of butlers, cucumbers, pies, Oscars and Dame Shirl

RIP, Jack Vettriano, prints of whose works, incuding "The Singing Butler" [above], are some of the best-selling in British history.

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• Oscars news: The culmination of "the back-slapping season" has come and gone, and yet again a load of awards went to people we don't know or care about, and to a clutch of films I have not, and will never see. Yawn.
• More art news: A Brueghel miniature painting has been rediscovered, 50 years after it was stolen.

• Weirdest carnival ever? In La Paz, Bolivia, there is an annual cucumber parade (Farándula de los Pepinos) in the carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras (which is today). I wouldn't want that with my pancakes!
• Thick as a plank news: An 18-year-old woman in Florida was arrested after vandalising the car of her ex-boyfriend's neighbour, rather than his. And Americans wonder why we sneer at their education system?
• Happy British Pie Week! Yes, unbelievably, the beloved comfort food of varying quality meat encased in pastry does indeed have its own "awareness week". Who am I to argue? Yum, yum.
• And finally: Happy 80th birthday today to Dieter Meier, brainchild behind the Swiss oddball synth pioneers Yello! By way of a tribute, these masterpieces...

Yello - The Race

Yello - Oh Yeah

...and one of my all-time favourite songs, ever!

Yello featuring Shirley Bassey - The Rhythm Divine

Utter perfection.

And the weather? Spring, Spring, Spring!!

The Ultimate Diva

Diva, virtuoso, assoluta, demigod, phenomenon, superstar, divine one, glamazon, icon, whatever term you choose to use, Dame Shirley Bassey is all of them and more!

Celebrating her 75th birthday today, La Bassey has outshone, out-lasted (and out-belted) the best of the camp idols over the years, and remains at the pinnacle of her fame - seven decades on from her debut as a teenager back in the murky depths of Cardiff's club circuit.

Dame Shirley is indeed the Number 1 "patron saint" of our pantheon here at Dolores Delargo Towers. She has only today (remarkably) made her debut in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp in celebration!

Less surprisingly, Shirley Bassey has featured here many times since the misty beginnings of this blog in 2007 - notably, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and indeed here. Phew! I think she's a little bit popular.

The great diva's back catalogue is an endless realm of gay standards, drag queen arm-waving classics, belters, melodramas and tearful ballads. It is a difficult thing for a show queen such as I to choose an appropriate selection of favourites with which to wish the magnificent Tigress of Tiger Bay many happy returns - but I'll just limit it to a "few" favourites...

Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

Yello featuring Shirley Bassey - The Rhythm Divine

Shirley Bassey - This Is My Life

Shirley Bassey - Never Never Never

Shirley Bassey - If You Don't Understand

Shirley Bassey - The Living Tree

Propellerheads featuring Miss Shirley Bassey - History Repeating

Shirley Bassey - After The Rain

There are always the inevitable rumours that The Dame is on her way to retirement, and it is true she has stated she has no intention of putting herself through a full tour any more. However, she has said she will still continue to perform at gala events. So let us hope there's a big gala this year so I can (finally) get to see her on stage!

There is apparently a new tribute show by someone called Carolyn Rowe that is coming to the Leicester Square Theatre in March 2012, but somehow it won't be quite the same...

Facts about Dame Shirley Bassey:

• She is the youngest of Nigerian sailor Henry Bassey and Englishwoman Eliza Jane Start's six children, although she also has four step-siblings from her mother's previous relationships.
• Her nicknames include "Bassey the Belter" and the "Tigress of Tiger Bay" - she was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, an area which has since been renamed Cardiff Bay.
• Bassey landed her first job in show-business in 1953 in touring variety show Memories of Jolson, based on the life of singer/comedian Al Jolson, but she briefly quit her burgeoning career when she fell pregnant with her eldest daughter, Sharon, at the age of 16.
• The star scored her first recording contract in 1956 and released her debut single, Burn My Candle - the track was banned by the BBC due to its risqué lyrics, but it still became a popular chart hit.
• Bassey suffered a tragedy in 1985 when her second child, daughter Samantha, was found dead in a river in Bristol, England. The singer maintains the 21 year old's death was not suicide, although a fresh police investigation into her passing ruled in 2010 that there was "no evidence of any criminal act involved".
• She has recorded three James Bond theme tunes - the title tracks for 1964's Goldfinger, 1971's Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker in 1979.
• In 2000, Bassey celebrated a double whammy - she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was named the Most Successful British Female Singer by officials at the Guinness Book of Records.
• She was appointed a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Artist for Peace in 2004.
• She marked her 50th year in the entertainment industry in 2003 with the release of her album Thank You for the Years.
• Her smash hit Goldfinger was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Bassey Blog

Six degrees of Shirley Bassey

Now here's a wonderful example of "Six Degrees of Separation". How do you work out a path that links Glen Campbell with Shirley Bassey (via Tina Turner)? I did...

I heard Glen Cambell's original Wichita Lineman playing in our mate Sally's pub the other night, and that got me thinking. Not just how brilliant the song is, but I remembered a version of the song that was recorded in the early 80s by the British Electric Foundation (BEF).

The BEF was a project that emerged from the split of the original Human League, and their album Music of Quality and Distinction was a musical landmark, re-launching the career of none other than Tina Turner in the process (Tina did a cover of Ball of Confusion, and the BEF boys Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh went on to produce her comeback single Let's Stay Together). Together with Glenn Gregory, the BEF became Heaven 17.

Convinced that the vocalist on their version of Wichita Lineman was Billy MacKenzie, I went searching. It turned out that the vocalist was in fact Glenn Gregory on this track, but in the process I managed to get hold of some of the tracks they did with Billy, including Roy Orbison's It's Over, Bowie's Secret Life of Arabia and Deniece Williams' Free.

Now, Billy MacKenzie and his band The Associates were a major influence on my life. I had a huge crush on him, and love his semi-operatic vocals - Party Fears Two remains one of my all-time favourite songs. I was distraught when he took his own life in 1997. Thus stimulated, I went on a search for more stuff about Billy and found out that he had some other interesting collaborations, not least as a songwriter on a couple of albums by that fab electro duo Yello (another fave band of mine).

Among the songs he wrote for Yello (he even sang a version of the song) was the sensational Rhythm Divine - which, of course, became one of the best songs ever recorded by none other than... Shirley Bassey!

Whew! And just to complete the circle, here's the song that began this quest, followed by the one that ended it...

Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Yello feat. Shirley Bassey - Rhythm Divine