Lesley Cox (née Duncan; 12 August 1943 – 12 March 2010) was an English singer-songwriter, best known for her work during the 1970s. She received much airplay on British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, but never achieved greater commercial success, in part because of her unwillingness to chase stardom, as well as crippling stage fright.
Duncan was born in Stockton-on-Tees on 12 August 1943, and left school while only 14 years old. At 19, while working in a London coffee bar, she and her brother were placed on weekly retainers by a music publisher. Within a year, Duncan had signed her first recording contract, with EMI, and appeared in the film What a Crazy World.
Duncan is considered one of Britain's first female singer-songwriters. Her songs included "Everything Changes" and "Sing Children Sing", and the song for which she is best known, "Love Song". Elton John recorded a duet with Duncan of the song, similar to her solo version, for his album Tumbleweed Connection. She appeared onstage with John in concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 18 May 1974, to perform the duet once again, and the live recording of "Love Song" was included on John's Here and There album. John described "Love Song" as "one of the very few" songs he did not co-author but included on an album earlier in his career. Duncan's version was later covered by more than 150 other artists, including David Bowie. In 2022, both Duncan and John's versions of the song were featured in the folk horror film Men. This success notwithstanding, and despite their receiving critical acclaim, Duncan's multiple solo albums failed to achieve commercial success.
Olivia Newton-John recorded "Love Song" and it was included in her 1971 debut album If Not For You, as well as Olivia's remastered, reissue of her greatest hits, double album Vol.1-Deluxe Edition, released in 2022.
Links to Peel[]
Lesley Duncan was featured in the ABC Of Beauty article, published on the 2 Nov 1968 edition of Disc & Music Echo, where Peel offered readers a list of artists who had attracted his attention. Peel seemed to be aware of her, as she was a friend of his DJ colleague Jeff Dexter[1] and was a busy session singer who provided backing vocals on many records by artists including Dusty Springfield, as well as making singles under her own name, including the one he mentioned in his Disc piece ("RCA-Victor single "Lullaby" is lovely. Observe")
On the Top Gear of 26 January 1969, he played White Trash's version of the Goffin and King song "Road To Nowhere" and mentioned that the song had also been recorded by Lesley Duncan, but he doesn’t have a copy of her version, although he did get one and played the B-side on the Night Ride of 09 February 1969. Two weeks later, Night Ride included a session by her, with Sweet Thursday as the backing group. One of the session tracks, "SIng Children Sing", became the title track of her 1971 solo LP and is one of her best-known compositions, as is "Love Song", also on the session, which was also included on the LP.
Peel doesn't seem to have played much of Lesley Duncan's later material, although it received airplay on the shows of Bob Harris and other Sounds Of The Seventies presenters. In 1974, Peel reviewed her single, 'Watch The Tears' for Singles Reviews, published in the Sounds music paper on 9th March 1974, and compared her favourably with more famous American female singers: "Lesley has a style and a voice that appeals, one would have thought, to an American audience rather than a European. The Carole Kings and Laura Nyros do a roaring trade in the States and I suspect that young Lesley is every bit as good as they. Her voice is just fine, the song is good, and the arrangement, involving a lot of subdued brass, is completely apt....".
Sessions[]
Lesley Duncan & Sweet Thursday - Peel session - Night Ride 28-2-69
1. Recorded with Sweet Thursday: 1969-02-19. First Broadcast: 26 February 1969
- Exactly Who You Are / Look What You’ve Done / Lullabye / Sing Children Sing / Love Song
Other Shows Played[]
- 1968
- 06 October 1968: Lullaby (7") RCA Victor RCA 1746
- 1969
- 09 February 1969: Love Song (7" - A Road To Nowhere) RCA Victor