Aitken, Laurel [real name Oliver Anthony Stephens] (1925–2005), singer, songwriter, and record producer, was born on 22 April 1925, in Jamaica, one of six children of a Jamaican father and a Cuban mother. His early years were spent in Havana, Cuba, but the family moved to ...
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Steve Barker
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Eddy Amoo (1944–2018), by unknown photographer, 1977
Alamy
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Amoo, Edward Robert [Eddy] (1944–2018), singer and songwriter, was born on 5 May 1944 at the Smithdown Road Infirmary, 126 Smithdown Road, Liverpool, the son of Robert Ofei Amoo (1917–1989), an engine greaser in the merchant navy, and his wife, ...
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Baldry, John William [known as Long John Baldry] (1941–2005), singer and guitarist, was born at East Haddon Hall, East Haddon, Northamptonshire, on 12 January 1941, the first of three children of William James Baldry (1915–1990), a Metropolitan Police constable, and his wife, ...
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Black, Cilla [real name Priscilla White] (1943–2015), singer and television presenter, was born on 27 May 1943 at 380 Scotland Road, Liverpool, the daughter of John Patrick White (1904–1971), dock labourer, and his wife, Priscilla, née Blythen (1911–1996...
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Cilla Black (1943–2015), by Terry O'Neill, 1990s
© Iconic Images/Getty Images
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Bolan, Marc [real name Mark Feld] (1947–1977), musician and poet, was born on 30 September 1947 in Hackney, London, the second child of Simeon Feld, cosmetics salesman (1920–1991), and his wife, Phyllis Winifred, née Atkins (1927–1991). The energy of 1950s rock'n'roll captivated the young ...
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Boswell, Eve [real name Eva Keleti] (1922–1998), popular singer, was born Eva Keleti in Budapest on 11 May 1922, the daughter of a couple who toured the music-halls as a musical act. She was educated in Budapest and later studied the piano at the ...
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Bowie, David [real name David Robert Jones] (1947–2016), singer and actor, was born on 8 January 1947 at 40, Stansfield Road, Brixton, south London, as David Robert Burns, the son of Hayward Stenton (John) Jones (1912–1969) and Margaret Mary Burns...
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David Bowie (1947–2016), by Michael Ochs, 1976
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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Brown, Errol Ainsworth Glenstor (1943–2015), singer and songwriter, was born on 12 November 1943 in Kingston, Jamaica. The result of a teenage pregnancy, he barely knew his police officer father, Ivan Brown, from whom his mother Edna (d. 1963), a secretary, had become estranged shortly after his birth. Desperate to rescue her son from a cultural backdrop of poverty and gang violence, ...
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Brown, Errol Ainsworth Glenstor (1943–2015), by Fin Costello, 1978
© Getty Images
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Roger Philip Mellor
Brown, Georgia (1933–1992), singer and actress, was born Lilian Claire Klot on 21 October 1933 at 24 Underwood Street, Whitechapel, London, the daughter of Mark Klot, formerly Kleotz (1904–1981), fur cutter and part-time bookmaker, and his wife, Annie, née Kirschenbaum (1906–1988). At the time of her birth registration her parents lived at ...
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Browne, George Edric (1920–2007), singer, songwriter, and actor, was born Edric Browne on 4 May 1920 in Corbeau Town, Port of Spain, Trinidad, the only son and youngest of three children of Ernest Browne, a government printer, and his wife, Frances, née Noriega...
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Capaldi, Nicola James [Jim] (1944–2005), musician, singer, and songwriter, was born on 2 August 1944 at 5 Avonside, Evesham, Worcestershire, the eldest of seven children of Nicola (Nicholas) Capaldi (1913–2005) and his wife, Marie, née Houchin (1913–1987). At the time of his birth registration the family lived at ...
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Spencer Leigh
Cocker, John Robert [Joe] (1944–2014), singer, was born on 20 May 1944 at 38 Tasker Road, Crookes, Sheffield, the son of Harold Nathan Cocker (1907–2001), a civil servant then serving as an aircraftsman in the RAF, and his wife, ...
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John Van der Kiste
Connolly, Brian Francis (1945–1997), rock singer, was born on 5 October 1945 at 106 Aikenhead Road, Glasgow. He was apparently abandoned by his mother, a hotel waitress, soon after birth and raised by a nurse and her husband, who gave him the adoptive surname ...
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Cox, Harry Fred (1885–1971), farmworker and singer, was born on 27 March 1885 at Pennygate, Barton Turf, Norfolk, one of the thirteen children (nine of whom survived beyond infancy) of Robert Cox (1837–1929?), fisherman, wherryman, and farmworker, and his wife, Sarah Whittaker, known as Nobbs (1850–1946?)...