| Matt Monro |
Matt
Monro
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Terence Edward Parsons |
| Born |
December 31, 1930
Shoreditch, London, England |
| Died |
February 7, 1985 (aged 54)
Ealing,
London,
England |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer |
| Years active |
1956 — 1985 |
| Label(s) |
Decca, Parlophone,
Capitol, Columbia |
| Website |
MattMonro.com |
Matt Monro (December
1, 1930 Shoreditch
– February
7, 1985 Ealing) was an English
ballad
singer of the 1960s
and one of the great international post-war entertainers. Throughout
his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls and
stadiums across the globe, from Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to
Africa,
the Middle
East, Europe,
and the Americas. He sold more than 100 million records during his
lifetime, imbuing each one with his elegant blend of majesty,
sincerity, and superior technique.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
Career
- 2 International
Success
- 3 His
Legacy
- 4 His
Music
- 5 Marriages
- 6 Audio
sample
- 7 External
links
|
Early Career
He was born Terence Edward Parsons in Shoreditch,
London.
Affectionately nicknamed "the singing bus driver" (because one of his
many occupations prior to achieving fame was driving the Number 27
bus from Highgate
to Teddington),
he got his first break in 1956 when he became a featured vocalist with
the BBC Show
Band. An important influence on his early career was pianist Winifred
Atwell, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage
name, and helped him sign with Decca Records.
In 1957 Monro released "Blue and Sentimental," a collection of
standards that, according to legend, he recorded in his bus driver's
jacket after rushing to the studio after work. Despite the album's
critical acclaim, Monro languished among the many young male singers
trying to break through at the end of that decade, many of them
emulating Frankie Vaughan by
trawling for success with home-grown covers of American hits. (Monro
himself even did a "Garden of Eden.") A short contract
with Fontana followed, and those recordings find Monro still trying to
find the right commercial touch.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade flash of fame had
burned out, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife
Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a "Camay" TV jingle. In
1959 he recorded a country pastiche song, "Bound for Texas," for The
Chaplin Revue, a feature-length film released
by Charlie Chaplin compiling three of
his old First National shorts. It would be
the first of many Matt Monro soundtrack themes.
International Success
In 1960, George Martin was looking for a singer
to record the Sinatra-style ditty that opened the album "Songs
For Swinging Sellers," to be used strictly as a guide for Peter
Sellers to imitate. Martin offered it to Monro, and when Sellers heard
the recording he decided to use it as-is, but bill Monro as "Fred
Flange." Though it was a demoralizing experience at the time, the
incident developed into a lifelong friendship with Martin, who
subsequently asked Monro to begin recording with him for EMI's Parlophone.
Their second single, "Portrait Of My Love," reached number two in the
British charts and finally established Monro as a star.
The following year, he was named Top International Act by Billboard
magazine. His follow-up hits included "My Kind Of Girl" (1961), "Softly As I Leave You"
(1962) and
the secondary title song from the James Bond film From Russia with Love
(1963). In 1964, he represented
the United
Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest,
singing "I Love the Little Things." (He finished second behind Italy's 16-year-old Gigliola
Cinquetti.) He had a major hit with the The
Beatles' "Yesterday" in 1965, releasing the
first UK single of the most recorded song of all time (The Beatles
demurred, though their version was issued in the U.S. and
internationally), and in 1966 he sang the Oscar-winning
title song for the film, Born Free, which
became his primary signature tune. The opening scene of The
Italian Job features Monro singing 'On Days Like These'.
Monro achieved fame in the U.S. when "My Kind Of Girl" (1961) and "Walk Away" (1964) hit the Top 40.
In 1966, following the death of Nat
"King" Cole, EMI
moved Monro from Parlophone to Capitol to
maintain an A&R balance on the L.A.-based label. (He had been
released by EMI in America previously on the Liberty label).
After relocating to California and recording several albums with
American arrangers, Monro returned to England and began appearing on
EMI's Columbia label, his final U.S.
album release being Close To You (1970). He continued
touring and recording until just before his death, releasing a single
and promoting it throughout England and Australia in 1984. In one of his
final appearances he praised Boy George, noting the
importance of quality recordings in all musical genres.
His Legacy
Monro died from liver cancer in 1985, leaving a widow,
Mickie, and three children: Mitchell, Michele, and Matthew. Mitchell, a
professional pilot, died of a heart
attack in 2004.
The 20th anniversary of Matt Monro's passing spotlighted the
continuing interest in his music, with a Top 10 tribute compilation CD
(UK), a No. 1 concert DVD (UK), a BBC documentary, and an official Web site [1
norefsend --> all appearing in 2005. His daughter
Michele has driven many of these projects, as well as a February 2007
compilation CD titled "From Matt With Love" that reached the top 40
during its first week in the UK market.
In Autumn 2005 Matt Monro Jr. toured the United
Kingdom with a tribute concert commemorating the anniversary. Also, EMI rereleased Matt Sings Monro,
a 1995 "duets" album that combined his voice with the senior Monro's.
Another posthumous Matt Monro "duet", with Cliff
Richard, appeared on Cliff's duets CD, Two's Company,
in 2007.
In recent years, many singers riding the resurging
wave of retro-pop have cited Matt Monro as a strong influence,
including Michael Buble, Monica Mancini, and Rick
Astley.
Musicians' biographies regularly note his stylistic influence on their
subjects, including Cass Elliot and Karen
Carpenter.
His Music
Most of Monro's recordings were produced or
overseen by Martin, ensuring a timelessness to both the artistic and
technical qualities of the singer's discography. Unlike his
contemporaries, Monro sang very few of the Tin
Pan Alley standards popular in today's repertoires. Instead, he and
Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and
commissioned English lyrics for super-melodies by innovative European
composers. One of the most in-demand soundtrack singers of his time, he
also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the
years, his recordings featured arrangements by Johnnie Spence, Sid
Feller, Billy
May, John Barry, Buddy
Bregman, Kenny Clayton, Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. Monro
also teamed with Nelson Riddle and Billy May
for classic BBC concerts.
While Monro's sometime nickname as "the British Sinatra"
lingers on, there is a quite marked difference in the two singers. Much
of that talk was because Monro popped on the music scene at the same
time as the other Sinatra disciples, and it was easy to use his
Britishness as a lazy differentiator. It also has been noted by critic Will Friedwald that Monro sang many
more Sinatra numbers than Sinatra covered Monro ones ("Softly As I
Leave You," "My Kind Of Girl," "Born Free," and a reportedly abandoned
"Walk Away"), but the fact is that Monro recorded very few songs
"associated" with Sinatra..."My Way," "Strangers In The Night," "This
Is All I Ask," "Fly Me To The Moon." True, there were popular songs
that they both covered, but Monro never went after Sinatra's material
as Friedwald implies. Rather, Monro sought material from the alternate
sources described above. He did, however, freely and regularly hail
Sinatra as the very best at what he did.
Marriages
He was twice married:
- Iris 1953 (divorced); one son Mitchell
- Mickie Schuller 1959-1985; one daughter Michele
and one son Matthew
Audio sample
