Usually the people I have grown up listening to merit just a few lines in small type. My heroes are by and large little known singers and/or songwriters.
I was gutted to see that Barry Ryan has died.
He was a twin and, with his brother Paul, had quite a successful career as a duo with a number of top 20 hits. Paul suffered from stage fright and so retired from performing. But he did become an accomplished writer of good pop songs.
One of his songs was called Kitsch and I think that describes his songs well. They were by and large overblown and dramatic pieces of semi opera pop. The best known is "Eloise" which got to number two in the UK charts and which many years later was recorded by The Damned and their version reached number three in the UK. The Barry Ryan version got to number one in 17 countries.
It has a very distinctive opening with a maniacal laugh. Paul and Barry Ryan's mother was Marion Ryan who was a top singer in the 1950s and yes I'm old enough to vaguely remember her. I think that memory comes from the television quiz Spot the Tune for which she was the singer. It ran from 1956 until 1963 and then became Name That Tune.
I remember buying a Barry Ryan LP from a classical music shop (Ives) in St Giles in Norwich. It had a very small pop section and that's where I found Barry Ryan sings Paul Ryan which was the only one of his album to make the charts.
The music was delightful - totally over the top with Barry Ryan alternately crooning and then shrieking. "Love is Love," "The Colour of My Love," "The Hunt," "Kitsch", "Magical Spiel," "It is Written" they all seemed to be written to a formula but sitting here writing this I can hum them all. They all gather pace the longer they go on.
If you've never discovered Barry Ryan do seek his stuff out. Tragically Paul Ryan died way back in 1992 at the age of 44 from lung cancer.
His songs were also recorded by Dana (Who Put The Lights Out), Frank Sinatra (I Will Drink The Wine and Sunrise in the Morning), Englebert Humperdinck (Love's Only Love) and a few others.
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As for football, well I have absolutely nothing to say about Chelsea 7 Norwich 0. There are times I am ashamed to be a Canary fan and this was one of them.