Shirley Bassey Biography

Shirley Bassey is a world-famous Welsh singer who has recorded numerous hits and is best known for her three James Bond theme songs. Born in Wales, she was the youngest of the seven children of her parents who separated before she was three years old. After leaving school at age 15, she worked in a factory and sang in men’s clubs before she made her big breakthrough and landed a recording deal. She released her first single at the age of 19 and had her first hit with the famous ‘Banana Boat Song’. Constantly in the spotlight throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she combined her trademark vocal delivery with elements of jazz, funk and soul. She gained worldwide popularity when she sang ‘Goldfinger’ for the eponymous 1964 James Bond movie. Among her subsequent U.K. chart toppers were ‘As I Love You’ and ‘Reach for the Stars/Climb Every Mountain’ and she continued to have hits in Britain well into the 1970s. She also sang the theme songs for two other Bond films, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and ‘Moonraker’; both the songs turned out to be blockbusters. One of the first black British entertainers to gain national and international fame, she became a forerunner of the scores of pop music divas who emerged in the last decades of the 20th century.