Billy Fury
Billy Fury (real name Ronald Wycherley) became arguably the best
rocker that Britain produced in the early 60s. He wrote his own
songs and benefited from unusually skilful and sympathetic
production. Maybe Tomorrow, Margot and Colette
catapulted him to prominence in spring 1960.
The search for a British Elvis had long preoccupied pop
svengalis like Larry Panes, and Fury - despite Cliff's claims -
was as close as they got.
Fury - a Liverpudlian deck hand - swung his hips like he meant
it. He even got banned in Ireland. On self-penned blues/rock
tracks like Since You've Been Gone, Fury's sound was
reminiscent of Elvis's Sun sessions. He was also a classy pop
crooner: witness Wondrous Place, a mysterious number
which belongs in a David Lynch movie. And Halfway To Paradise is
a classic sulky rock 'n' roll love song, sung with real urgency
and played with a staccato rhythm reminiscent of Johnnie
Ray.
Hits like Jealousy and Like I've Never Been
Gone kept him in the spotlight until 1966. Ironically, four
Liverpudlians who once tried to serve as his backing band would
end his reign as king of the charts.
Naturally moody and reticent (which added enormously to his
appeal), Fury didn't like people much, preferring birds and
horses - he even co-starred with his own racehorse in the movie I've
Gotta Horse. Poor Billy didn't have the best of luck
either. Eddie Cochran had pledged to help him tour America but
then died in a car crash.
During the seventies his career was dogged by ill-health, but
after a cameo appearance in the David Essex film That'll Be
The Day he returned to the fray with two minor hits in 1982.
In January of the following year he died in London of a heart
attack. He was 42 when he died - the same age as Elvis.
Georgie Fame's band The Blue Flames backed Billy Fury for a
while, and John Lennon famously asked for his
autograph. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones
described the 1960 album The Sound Of Fury as
"one of the pivotal rock 'n' roll albums".
|
