Vera Lynn

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Vera Lynn
Birth name Vera Margaret Welch
Born 20 March 1917 (1917-03-20) (age 92)
Image:Flag of England.svg East Ham, London, England
Genre(s) Traditional Pop
Years active 1935-1995
Label(s) UK Decca, EMI

Dame Vera Lynn DBE (born 20 March 1917) is a popular English vocalist whose career flourished during World War II, when she was nicknamed "The Forces' Sweetheart". Among her numerous popular songs are: "We'll Meet Again"; and "The White Cliffs of Dover". She was considered one of the major entertainers during World War II.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917 in East Ham, London. Later she adopted her grandmother's maiden name Lynn as her stage name. She began singing at the age of seven in a working men's club. Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in 1935. At this point she was being featured on records released by dance bands including Loss's and Charlie Kunz's. In 1936 she made her first solo record, on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire". This label was soon swallowed up by Decca. After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a few years during which she recorded several standards. She later moved to the aristocrat of British dance bands, Bert Ambrose.

[edit] War years

Lynn married clarinetist and saxophonist Harry Lewis in 1939, the year World War II broke out. In 1940 she began her own radio series, "Sincerely Yours", sending messages to British troops stationed abroad. In this show she and a quartet performed the songs most requested of her by soldiers abroad. She also went into hospitals to interview new mothers and send messages to their husbands overseas. She toured Egypt, India, Burma and gave outdoor concerts for soldiers. In 1942 she recorded the Ross Parker/Hughie Charles song "We'll Meet Again" while making the film of the same name. The nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") had a great appeal to the many people separated from loved ones during the war, and it became one of the emblematic songs of the wartime period.

[edit] Post-war career

After the war, her "Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart" became the first record by a British artist to top the US charts, doing so for nine weeks, and she appeared regularly on Tallulah Bankhead's US radio programme "The Big Show". "Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart", along with "The Homing Waltz" and "Forget-Me-Not" gave Lynn a remarkable three entries on the first UK Singles Chart, a top 12 (which contained 15 songs owing to tied positions).

Lynn's career flourished in the 1950s, peaking with "My Son, My Son", a number-one hit in 1954. Lynn (who had one daughter) co-wrote the song with Eddie Calvert. In early 1960, Lynn left Decca Records, with whom she had been for nearly 25 years, and joined EMI. There, she recorded for EMI's Columbia, MGM and HMV labels.

Lynn was appointed an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1969 and a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1975. In 1976 a charity dedicated to funding breast cancer research was founded, Lynn being its chair and later its president [1]. She sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony marking the golden jubilee of VE Day. Lynn, then 78, decided to go out on a high as this is her last known public performance. In 2002 at the age of 85 she became the president of the cerebral palsy charity SOS and hosted a celebrity concert on its behalf at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

[edit] Recent years

The United Kingdom's VE Day ceremonies in 2005 included a concert in Trafalgar Square in which Vera Lynn made a surprise appearance. She made a speech praising the veterans and calling upon the younger generation always to remember their sacrifice and joined in with a bar or two of We'll Meet Again. Following that year's Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance Dame Vera encouraged the Welsh mezzo-soprano singer Katherine Jenkins to assume the mantle of "Force's Sweetheart".

In her speech she said, "These boys gave their lives and some came home badly injured and for some families, life would never be the same. We should always remember, we should never forget and we should teach the children to remember."

[edit] Recordings by Vera Lynn

  • 1935
  • "The General's Fast Asleep"; "No Regrets"; "When the Poppies Bloom Again"; "I'm in the Mood for Love" (Rex Records); "Sailing Home With The Tide" (Rex Records); "Thanks A Million" (Rex Records)
  • 1936
  • "Heart Of Gold" (Rex Records); "A Star Fell Out Of Heaven" (Rex Records); "Crying My Heart Out For You" (Rex Records); "It's Love Again" (Rex Records); "Did Your Mother Come From Ireland?" (Rex Records): "Have You Forgotten So Soon?" (Rex Records); "Everything Is Rhythm" (Rex Records)
  • 1937
  • "When My Dream Boat Comes Home" (Rex Records); "Goodnight, My Love" (Rex Records); "All Alone In Vienna" (Rex Records)
  • 1939
  • 1940
  • 1941
  • "Smilin' Through"; "When They Sound the Last All Clear"; "Yours"; "My Sister and I"; "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire".
  • 1942
  • "You're in my Arms".
  • 1948
  • 1952
  • 1954 onwards
  • Albums recorded for EMI from 1960 onwards
  • "Yours" 1961
  • "As Time Goes By" 1961
  • "Hits From The Blitz" 1962
  • "Among My Souvenirs" 1964
  • "More Hits Of The Blitz" 1966
  • "Hits Of The 60's - My Way" 1970
  • "Favourite Sacred Songs" 1972
  • "Christmas With Vera Lynn" 1976
  • "Vera Lynn In Nashville" 1977

In March 2007 EMI issued a 2CD set of all Vera Lynn's single only recordings from her EMI contract 1960-1977.

[edit] Films

  • We'll Meet Again (1942)
  • Rhythm Serenade (1943)
  • One Exciting Night (1944)

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Vera released the Lynsey De Paul/Barry Blue penned song Don't You Remember When in 1976 as a single. The song showcased her vocal talents as well as had a nostalgic feel and featured backing vocals from Lynsey as well as tamborine by her boyfriend Ringo Starr.
  • Pink Floyd wrote a song called "Vera" for their 1979 album The Wall as a reference to her and her song "We'll Meet Again" ; in the film based on the album, a Christmas song "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" by Vera Lynn is played over the opening credits ; the band also used her song "We'll Meet Again" as an introduction on their shows of the tour of this album. As well Roger Waters used the song during the introductions on his 2006-2007 world tour "Dark Side of The Moon Live". The song Vera was played during the show.
  • She has written two autobiographies. "Vocal Refrain" in 1970, and "We'll Meet Again" in the early 1990s.
  • Vera Lynn went to what is now called Brampton Primary School in Masterman Road, East Ham.
  • Gary Numan recorded "War Songs" with lyrics "Old Men Love War Songs / Love Vera Lynn" on his 1982 album "I, Assassin".
  • "Vera" is also rhyming slang for gin, since gin rhymes with Lynn.
  • Vera Lynn is mentioned in the Call of Duty 3 game by Treyarch. Her namesake is provided to two jeeps. "Vera" and "Lynn".

[edit] References

  • Vera Lynn, Vocal Refrain, 1975, W.H. Allen, London.
  • R. Cross, We'll Meet Again

[edit] External links

de:Vera Lynn fr:Vera Lynn hr:Vera Lynn it:Vera Lynn he:ורה לין nl:Vera Lynn no:Vera Lynn fi:Vera Lynn sv:Vera Lynn

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Vera_Lynn"
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