Lulu

Lulu (Kennedy-Cairns) is a Scottish singer, entertainer and actress. Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie in Lennoxtown, East Dumbartonshire in 1948, she became a fixture in the UK charts at the age of 15, when her cover of the Isley Brothers' Shout (backed by her band The Luvvers) reached no. 7 (it would resurface in the top 10 in 1986). It became her best-known recording, and she went on to have 17 top 40 hits over a 36-year period without ever having a number 1. Her film career received a boost after her appearance in To Sir With Love (1967): the title track earned her the top spot in the US. AllMusic says of her musical style, "her mid-'60s recordings (which included a version of "Here Comes the Night" that preceded Them's hit rendition) were often surprisingly rowdy and R&B-influenced. Although she didn't match Dusty Springfield, her Brenda Lee-like rasp could be quite gutsy and soulful."

She moved into television and was ubiquitous during the late 60s and early 70s: one of her shows, Happening For Lulu, featured a controversial appearance by Jimi Hendrix, who stopped his planned set to launch into a tribute to the recently defunct Cream. In 1969, the song Boom Bang A Bang was selected by BBC viewers for Lulu to sing at the Eurovision Song Contest: in a controversial win, it tied with three other songs.

Around this time, she married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, divorcing him four years later in part due to his heavy drinking. 1974 proved to be a commercially successful year, as Lulu provided the title song to the James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun and her cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, produced by and featuring Bowie himself, made the top ten. Since this golden period, her recording career has hit peaks and troughs, although her on-screen work has continued unabated.

Links to Peel
Peel admitted in his foreword to Ken Garner's In Session Tonight (1993) that he had been lying for years when he said the very first session broadcast on Top Gear was by Lulu. The fact that she recorded for the show at all may at first appear to be an anomaly, but Bernie Andrews booked her partly at the insistence of Donald MacLean in order to prove that the programme was open-minded, and said "it was actually a blood good, ballsy session" (''The Peel Sessions, BBC Books 2007, p.48).

Following her Eurovision success, she told Peel backstage, "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' standing on my head if that's what it took to win.... I am just so glad I didn't finish second like all the other Brits before me, that would have been awful."

Festive Fifty Entries

 * None

Sessions

 * One session, no known commercial release.

1. Recorded: 1967-11-14. First broadcast: 19 November 1967. No repeats.
 * Higher And Higher / Love Loves To Love Love / To Love Somebody

Other Shows Played
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 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label