IF I NEVER SING ANOTHER SONG
MATT MONRO
SONGWRITERS: DON BLACK; UDO JERGENS & ALEXANDRA
COUNTRY: U. K.
ALBUM: HEARTBREAKERS
LABEL: PARLOPHONE
GENRE: POP
YEAR: 1989
Matt Monro(born Terence Edward Parsons, 1
December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer. Known as "The Man
with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year
career. AllMusic has described
Monro as "one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the '60s", who
"possessed the easiest, most perfect baritone in the business".
His recordings include the UK top 10 hits
"Portrait of
My Love", "My Kind of Girl",
"Softly As I
Leave You", "Walk Away"
and "Yesterday"
(originally by the Beatles). He
also recorded several film themes such as "From Russia with Love" for
the eponymous
James Bond film, "Born Free"
for the eponymous film and "On Days Like These"
for The Italian Job.
Monro was born Terence Edward Parsons on 1
December 1930 in Finsbury, north London, to Frederick and Alice
Parsons. He had three brothers — Arthur, Reg and Harry — and a sister, Alice.
He attended Duncombe School in Islington, and Elliott School,
Putney.
Monro had a difficult childhood. His father
died when he was three and after his mother became ill, he was fostered out for
two years. Leaving school at 14, he tried a succession of jobs without
remaining in any of them for very long, before National
Service beckoned in 1948. Monro became a
tank driving instructor in the British armed
forces and was posted to Hong Kong. He had
sung in public from an early age, for example at the Tufnell Park Palais, and
in Hong Kong he took to entering local talent contests, winning several. In
fact, he became a regular guest (and frequent winner) of Radio
Rediffusion's Talent Time show in Hong Kong.
He was invited by then-host Ray Cordeiro to perform in his own one-off show entitled Terry Parsons Sings, on
the condition that he would bow out of future Talent Time episodes to make way
for others. Agreeing to the deal, he performed his first on-air concert for
Rediffusion on 27 June 1953.
Following his discharge from the Army after
five years, he returned to London, to try to make a career out of singing.
Initially he had little success and was obliged to take on a number of
different jobs to supplement his meagre income from the occasional singing
engagement. He also hung around the music publishers offices in Denmark Street and occasionally made demos of new songs for their ever-optimistic
song-pluggers. Eventually, he became a bus driver for London
Transport, driving Route 27 from Holloway (Garage code
J) Bus Garage (now demolished: the present Holloway Garage (HT) is the former
Holloway Trolleybus Depot).
In 1956, he made a demo record, "Polka
Dots and Moonbeams" which was heard by pianist Winifred Atwell, who was
an important influence on his early career. She recommended him to her own
recording company, Decca Records, who
signed him. She became his mentor, providing him with his stage name, Matt
Monro. Matt came from Matt White, a journalist friend, and Monro was Atwell's
father's Christian name. His first record which was released in November 1956,
was "Ev'rybody Falls in Love with Someone", a song which had just won
the BBC Festival of Popular Songs. Monro gained some radio exposure on Radio Luxembourg and, starting on January 2, 1957, became a featured vocalist with
the BBC-TV Show Band
Parade show presented by Cyril Stapleton which ran until June 28, 1957. He also got a television spot on The Winifred
Atwell Show in 1956.
In 1957, Monro released Blue and Sentimental,
an album of standards. Despite the album's favourable reception, Monro
languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of
the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan by recording cover versions of American hits. Monro
even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of
Eden" during this period. A short recording contract with Fontana Records followed.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade
profile had declined, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife
Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a
TV advertising jingle for Camay soap. In 1959,
he recorded a country pastiche song, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue, a
feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack themes.
In my heyday, young girls wrote to me
Everybody seemed to have time to devote to me
Everyone I saw all swore they knew me
Once upon a song
Main attraction, couldn't buy a seat
The celebrity, celebrities were dying to meet
I've had every accolade bestowed on me
And so you see
If I never sing another song
It shouldn't bother me
I've had my share of fame
You know my name
If I never sing another song
Or take another bow
I would get by
But I'm not sure how
Always posing, but you love it all
Though you have to learn to act like you're
above it all
Everything I did, the world applauded
Once upon a star
Framed citations, hung on every wall
Got a scrapbook full of quotes I can't recall
at all
There were times I felt the world belonged to
me
And so you see
If I never sing another song
It shouldn't bother me
I've had my share of fame
You know my name
If I never sing another song
Or take another bow
I would get by
But I'm not sure how
La-la-la-la-la-la-la, la-la
La-la-la-la-la, la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la, la-la.
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