Britain's Answer to Elvis Presley. Billy Fury. Legends Of Rock'n'Roll

Educational Video

The USA had Elvis Presley. The UK had Elvis Presley and their very own King of Rock'n'Roll, Billy Fury.

This guy is regarded as the UK’s only real true Rocker. A guy who wrote his entire first album before that was ever even heard of. A true precursor to The Beatles. And speaking of The Beatles this legend had more weeks on the UK top ten through the 1960’s than even them. This was the scale of his huge popularity. With James Dean good looks, a voice which could swing between raucous rockabilly and velvet smooth big ballad, truly respectful status from other iconic artistes, a great songwriter and real longevity who am I talking about? Of course, it’s Ronald Wycherley otherwise known as Billy Fury.

Ronnie carried on playing and writing his songs and when an extravaganza show of the UK’s current stars came to the Essaldo Theatre in Birkenhead Ronnie took the Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey to take his songs to play to the main current star Marty Wilde.

After playing his tracks to Marty and Impresario Larry Parnes in the dressing room and impressing them so much (with girls screaming through the window) Parnes told him to prepare to go on stage and perform.

A very very nervous Ronnie was pushed on stage and performed his own songs, just him and his guitar and he later said that his legs were shaking so much that he couldn’t stop them. Fortunately the audience thought that it was part of the act. He went down a storm and quite incredibly was told by Larry Parnes to go home and tell his parents that he was going out on tour with the show the very next day! The X-Factor has got nothing on this story!

A recording session was soon setup and the legendary producer Jack Good was drafted in for it. Being the man who essentially introduced Rock’n’Roll nationally in the UK via his TV shows 6-5 Special, Boy Meets Girls and Oh Boy, he was the perfect guy for Billy’s first record. A powerhouse of personality, enthusiasm and being somewhat eccentric, he understood Rock’n’Roll perfectly and produced this album with the absolute, perfect ingredients. Some of the songs had a very rockabilly feel and Jack created an almost UK, Sun Records sound. Sun Records being the place where Elvis Presley recorded his early rockabilly hits.

The whole album was written by Ronnie and believe it or not was completed in just two four hour sessions! Joe Brown came up with fantastic guitar hooks and the record sounds as though the band had played these songs for years. Unbelievable. Many big music stars have endorsed this album as iconic and the name of it? Well it may have been something completely different if Ronnie’s suggestion of his name becoming ‘Steen Wade’ had been accepted. Larry Parnes thought better and went ahead and called him Billy Fury hence the album being named The Sound Of Fury!

Billy very quickly became a huge star. He had the whole package...good looks, a fantastic voice, a dynamic live performer and a songwriter but he had one extremely worrying problem. A serious heart problem. He had been very ill as a child with Rheumatic Fever and the story goes that he had made this a lot worse by saving a crippled bird from the River Mersey in freezing cold conditions. Billy was always an animal lover and he couldn’t bear to see any of them suffer.

The illness created a very weak heart and he always believed that he would only ever reach the age of 21.

A change of musical direction was instilled by his manager Larry Parnes. He saw Billy as a more all round entertainer appealing to a wider demographic of young and old and so he was introduced to big ballads written mainly by American Songwriters. Commercially Parnes was correct with singles such as A Thousand Stars, Jealousy and Like I’ve Never Been Gone all achieving top 3 and 2 status. His most well known hit was a number 2 smash and is one of the few examples of the cover version achieving superiority over the original. Tony Orlando released his version of Halfway To Paradise in the States, Billy in the UK. Let’s have a listen.
*Halfway to Paradise reached #2

Billy continued to be at the top of his game throughout the 60’s and as I mentioned earlier had more weeks in the top ten than even the Beatles. He appealed to all. The girls wanted to rip his clothes off and the fellas basically wanted to be him. Another interesting point, in my opinion about Billy Fury is that he was accepted by both Mods and Rockers at a time when they were bitter and violent rivals. To me this just shows his appeal and status as a music great.

As the music scene changed throughout the 60’s Billy continued success with hits like In Thought’s Of You, I’d Never Find Another You, It’s Only Make Believe, Run To My Loving Arms and Because Of Love but towards the latter part of the decade his popularity declined as did his health.

On the 28th January, 1983 he had a heart attack and sadly passed away.

Written, recorded, edited and produced by Gavin Skelhorn.

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