Bowlly was born in Lourenço Marques in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. His parents were Greek and Lebanese. They met en route to Australia and moved to South Africa.
Bowlly was brought up in Johannesburg. After a series of odd jobs across South Africa in his youth, including being a barber and a jockey, he sang in a dance band led by Edgar Adeler on a tour of South Africa, Rhodesia, India and Indonesia during the mid-1920s.[citation needed] He was fired from the band in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Jimmy Liquime hired him to sing with the band in India and Singapore. In 1927 Bowlly made his first record, a cover version of "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin that was recorded with Adeler in Berlin, Germany. During the next year, he worked in London, England, with the orchestra of Fred Elizalde.
The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 resulted in Bowlly being made redundant and returning to several months of busking to survive. In the 1930s, he signed two contracts—one in May 1931 with Roy Fox, singing in his live band for the Monseigneur Restaurant in London, the other a record contract with bandleader Ray Noble in November 1930.
During the next four years, he recorded over 500 songs. By 1933 Lew Stone had ousted Fox as bandleader, and Bowlly was singing Stone's arrangements with Stone's band. After much radio exposure and a successful British tour with Stone, Bowlly was inundated with demands for appearances and gigs—including undertaking a solo British tour—but continued to make most of his recordings with Noble. There was considerable competition between Noble and Stone for Bowlly's time. For much of the year, Bowlly spent all day in the recording studio with Noble's band rehearsing and recording, then the evening with Stone's band at the Monseigneur. Many of these recordings with Noble were issued in the United States by Victor, which meant that by the time Noble and Bowlly came to America, their reputation had preceded them.
He performed in England with his band, the Radio City Rhythm Makers. But by 1937 the band broke up when vocal problems were traced to a wart in his throat, which briefly caused him to lose his voice. Separated from his wife and with his band dissolved, he borrowed money from friends and traveled to New York City for surgery.
His absence from the UK in the early 1930s damaged his popularity with British audiences, despite his association with pianist Monia Liter as his accompanist. His career began to suffer as a result of problems with his voice, which affected the frequency of his recordings. He played a few small parts in films but never professed to be an actor. The parts he did play were often cut, and scenes that were shown were brief. Noble was offered a role in Hollywood, although the offer did not include Bowlly, as a singer had already been hired. Bowlly moved back to London with his wife Marjie in January 1937.
With diminished success in Britain, he toured regional theatres and recorded as often as possible to make a living, moving from orchestra to orchestra, working with Sydney Lipton, Gerald Bright and Ken "Snakehips" Johnson. In 1940 there was a revival of interest in his career when he worked in a duo with Jimmy Messene in Radio Stars with Two Guitars on the London stage. It was his last venture before his death in April 1941. The partnership was uneasy. Messene had a drinking problem. When he showed up for work, he was occasionally unable to perform. Bowlly recorded his last song two weeks before his death. It was a duet with Messene on Irving Berlin's satirical song about Hitler, "When That Man is Dead and Gone".
In December 1931, Bowlly married Constance Freda Roberts (died 1967) in St Martin's District, London; the couple separated after a fortnight, and sought a rapid divorce. He remarried in December 1934, to Marjie Fairless; this marriage lasted until his death.
On 16 April 1941, Bowlly and Messene had just given a performance at the Rex Cinema in Oxford Street, High Wycombe, now demolished. Both were offered the opportunity of an overnight stay in the town, but Bowlly opted to take the last train home to his flat at 32 Duke Street, Duke's Court, St James, London. His decision proved to be fateful. He was killed by a Luftwaffe parachute mine that detonated outside his flat at ten past three in the morning.
His body appeared unmarked: although the massive explosion had not disfigured him, it had blown his bedroom door off its hinges and the impact against his head proved fatal. He was buried with other bombing victims in a mass grave at what is today known as Hanwell Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, where his name is given as Albert Alex Bowlly.
Bowlly is sometimes credited with inventing crooning or "The Modern Singing Style", releasing a book of the same name. He experimented with new methods of amplification, not least with his Melody Maker advert, showing him endorsing a portable vocal megaphone. With the advent of the microphone in 1931, he adapted his singing style, moving away from the Jazz singing style of the 20s, into the softer, more expressive crooning singing style used in popular music of the 1930s and 1940s.
A Blue Plaque commemorating Bowlly was installed, in November 2013, by English Heritage at Charing Cross Mansion, 26 Charing Cross Road, described as "his home at the pinnacle of his career".
In the late 1980's, the BBC used his song 'Sweet and Lovely' as the theme tune to 'First of the Summer Wine' - the prequel to long-running comedy 'Last of the Summer Wine'. 'First of the Summer Wine' ran for two seasons of six episodes plus a pilot and, like the main series, was written by Roy Clarke.
The song "Guilty" was used by the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 2000, playing over the end credits instead of the programme's usual title music to signify the final appearance of character Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) who had persuaded her friend Dot Cotton (June Brown) to help her die.
Dinah
Al Bowlly Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gave me Dinah;
I'm the proudest one
Beneath the Dixie sun.
News is spreadin'
'Bout our weddin';
I hear church bells ringin',
Dinah,
Is there anyone finer
In the state of Carolina?
If there is and you know her,
Show her!
Dinah,
With her Dixie eyes blazin',
How I love to sit and gaze in
To the eyes of Dinah Lee!
Yet, every night,
My, how I shake with fright,
Because my Dinah might,
Change her mind about me!
But if Dinah,
Ever wandered to China,
I would hop an ocean liner,
Just to be with Dinah Lee!
Dinah,
Is there anyone finer
In the state of Carolina?
If there is and you know her,
Show her!
Dinah,
With her Dixie eyes blazin',
How I love to sit and gaze in
To the eyes of Dinah Lee!
Yet, every night,
My, how I shake with fright,
Because my Dinah might,
Change her mind about me!
But if Dinah,
Ever wandered to China,
I would hop an ocean!,
Just to be with Dinah Lee!
The lyrics to Al Bowlly's song "Dinah" talk about the singer's love for his fiancee, Dinah. He proudly claims that Carolina gave him Dinah and he is the proudest man under the Dixie sun. The news of their upcoming wedding is spreading around and he can hear the church bells ringing. He sings that there is no one finer than Dinah in the state of Carolina, and if anyone knows someone better, they should show her. He is in love with her Dixie eyes and loves sitting and gazing in them. However, he also admits that he is scared every night that Dinah might change her mind about him. He is so in love with her that even if she ever wandered off to China, he would hop on an ocean liner just to be with her.
The song is a classic love song, celebrating the beauty and uniqueness of the singer's love for Dinah. It is a simple song with a catchy tune, and the lyrics are easy to sing along with. The singer expresses his love for his fiancee in a romantic yet lighthearted manner, using hyperbole and exaggeration to describe his love for her. The song is a testament to how love can be found in the most unexpected places and how love can conquer all obstacles.
Line by Line Meaning
Carolina
The location where he met the love of his life, Dinah
Gave me Dinah;
Dinah became his beloved partner and gave him happiness
I'm the proudest one
He is incredibly happy to be with Dinah
Beneath the Dixie sun.
He feels fortunate to be living in the Southern part of the United States with Dinah
News is spreadin'
People are talking about their wedding plans
'Bout our weddin';
Word is getting around about the upcoming marriage ceremony
I hear church bells ringin',
He can hear the symbolic sound of wedding bells ringing as they anticipate their big day
Here's the song my heart keeps singin':
He's so in love with Dinah that his heart sings a happy tune, even without him realizing it
Dinah,
His love interest and wife-to-be
Is there anyone finer
He thinks of Dinah as the most beautiful and perfect person that he knows
In the state of Carolina?
He hasn't seen anyone more gorgeous than Dinah within the state confines of Carolina
If there is and you know her,
If anyone knows someone else with Dinah's level of beauty, he asks them to introduce themselves
Show her!
Insisting to meet anyone else who could compare with Dinah
With her Dixie eyes blazin',
He admires her passionate and fiery personality
How I love to sit and gaze in
He likes to spend time looking into her eyes, appreciating her inner beauty and personality
To the eyes of Dinah Lee!
He adores her name which is included in every verse, thus singing it very affectionately
Yet, every night,
He keeps worrying about losing Dinah
My, how I shake with fright,
He's afraid he'll lose her someday
Because my Dinah might,
He's scared that Dinah may have a change of heart and break up with him
Change her mind about me!
He's anxious and fearful that his partner may change their feelings for him
But if Dinah,
His imagination runs wild about what could happen if he were to lose her
Ever wandered to China,
If Dinah has to leave the country or goes to far away place, such as China
I would hop an ocean liner,
He would go to the ends of the earth to be with her
Just to be with Dinah Lee!
He can't bear the thought of losing her and would do anything to stay together
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Harry Akst, Samuel M. Lewis, Joseph Young
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Paul Herring
In my view, the finest crooner who ever lived. Al Bowlly died in 1941 when the Luftwffe bombed his flat. Left us way too soon.
Peter Atkinson
Agreed, but I do like early Crosby too.