Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898[1] – 17 April 1941) was a British voca… Read Full Bio ↴Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898[1] – 17 April 1941) was a British vocalist who was popular during the 1930s in England. He recorded more than 1,000 records. His most popular songs include "Midnight, the Stars and You", "Goodnight, Sweetheart", "The Very Thought of You", "Guilty", "Love Is the Sweetest Thing" and the English version of "Dark Eyes", the "Russian Gypsy" song by Adalgiso Ferraris as "Black Eyes" with words of Albert Mellor.
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.
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.
Lying in the Hay
Al Bowlly Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Lying in the Hay' by these artists:
Ray Noble and His Orchestra I feel so lazy when I'm lying in the hay Sunny…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Al Bowlly:
1 I could show the world how to smile I could be…
A Man and His Dream You always stir my imagination, Sometimes it borders on fant…
All I Do Is Dream of You All I do is dream of you the whole night…
All Of Me All of me Why not take all of me? Can't you see I'm…
As Long As I Live As long as I live You'll always be part of me You'll…
Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen Of all the girls I've known, and I've known some Until…
Blue Hawaii Night and you and Blue Hawaii The night is heavenly…
Blue Moon Blue moon you saw me standing alone Without a dream in…
Brother Can You Spare a Dime They used to tell me I was building a dream And…
By the Fireside In the gloaming by the fireside With you, I'll be content In…
Call It A Day It's a lovely day tomorrow Tomorrow is a lovely day Come and…
Can't We Be Friends I thought I'd found the man of my dreams Now it…
Can't We Talk It Over We were so in love the day love started Who would…
Close Your Eyes Music play something dreamy for dancing while we're here r…
Dancing in the Dark Those who dance and romance while they dance They seem so…
Dark Eyes Gypsy love of mine, Is there ne'er a sign On your path…
Did I Ever See A Dream Walking Did you ever see a dream walking? Well, I did.…
Did You Ever See a Dream Walking_ Did you ever see a dream walking? Well, I did.…
Dinah Carolina Gave me Dinah; I'm the proudest one Beneath the…
Dinner at Eight In your appointment book you'll see you and I have a…
Down By the River (Oh yeah) I'll be down by the river Waiting for the…
Dreaming With my eyes wide open, I'm dreaming Can it be true…
East Come Easy Go Easy come, easy go, that's the way If love must have…
Easy to Love You'd be so easy to love, So easy to idolize, All others…
From Me To You You left me sad and lonely; Why did you leave…
Goodnight Sweetheart Good night sweetheart, till we meet tomorrow Good night swe…
Goodnight, Sweetheart Good night sweetheart, till we meet tomorrow Good night swee…
Got a Date With an Angel Got a date with an angel Got to meet her at…
Guilty Though you've decided that our love is wrong And think that…
Hand in Hand When the day fades away into twilight The moon is my…
Hang out the Stars in Indiana Hang out the stars in Indiana; up in a sky…
Have a heart You have taken my heart and it's thrilling You have taken…
Have You Ever Been In Heaven Have you ever been lonely? Have you ever been blue? Have…
Have You Ever Been Lonely Have you ever been lonely? Have you ever been blue? Have…
Have You Ever Been Lonely? Have you ever been lonely? Have you ever been blue? Have…
Heart and Soul Heart and soul, I fell in love with you Heart and…
Heartaches Heartaches, heartaches My loving you meant only heartaches Y…
Hold My Hand When the day fades away into twilight The moon is my…
I Found You I could show the world how to smile I could be…
I Got Rhythm I've got you under my skin I've got you deep in…
I Love You Truly I love you truly, truly dear, life with it's sorrow, life…
I Never Had A Chance I never had a chance I thought you cared for me But…
I ve Got You Under My Skin I've got you under my skin I've got you deep in…
I'll Do My Best To Make You Happy A friend in need Is a friend indeed That's how the story…
I'll Never Be The Same I'll never be the same Stars have lost their meaning for…
I'm Madly in Love With You When first we met, my life was such a gay…
I've Got You Under My Skin I've got you under my skin. I've got you deep in…
If Anything Happened to You You seem to laugh and to smile, just all of…
If I Had You I could show the world how to smile I could be…
In the Still of the Night In the still of the night As I gaze from my…
Is I In Love? I Is All I do is dream of you the whole night…
Isle of Capri 'Twas on the Isle of Capri that I found her, Beneath…
It Was a Lover and His Lass It was a lover and his lass With a hey and…
It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow It's a lovely day tomorrow Tomorrow is a lovely day Come and…
It's All Forgotten Now It′s all forgotten now The trouble and the pain Forgotten, e…
Its A Lovely Day Tomorrow It's a lovely day tomorrow Tomorrow is a lovely day Come and…
Lear to Croon Learn to croon If you want to win your heart's desire S…
Learn to Croon Learn to croon If you want to win your heart′s desire Sweet…
Let's Swing it Swing it Keep your fingers tappin' Swing it Anything ca…
Little Drummer Boy The day is ended little drummer boy Lights out was sounded…
Little White House Ooh, ooh, ooh What a little moonlight can do Ooh, ooh, ooh…
Love For Sale When the only sound on the empty street Is the heavy…
Love Is the Sweetest Thing Love is the sweetest thing What else on earth could ever…
Love You Funny Thing Love, you funny thing Look at what you did to me Love,…
Lover Come Back to Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Mad About The Boy Mad about the boy, I know it's stupid to be mad…
Midnight the Stars and You When a star is born They possess a gift or two One…
Minnie The Moocher Now here′s a story of Minnie the Moocher She was a…
Moon Blue moon you saw me standing alone Without a dream in…
Moonstruck You had me spellbound, bewildered by your charms Heaven or h…
My Hat's on the Side of My Head Funny thing what love can do Take a little look at…
My Heart Is Taking Lessons My heart is taking lessons, learning how to sing Every morni…
My Woman My woman, is as mean as she can be My woman,…
Now All the world's great lovers have been glorified History pla…
Over the Rainbow Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high There's a land that…
Paris in the Spring Paris in the spring, mm...mm... Love is in the air, mm...mm.…
Remember Me Remember me, remember me Just keep me in your memory I′ll ne…
Rip Tide Live was as calm as a summer sea When silver moonlight…
Riptide Live was as calm as a summer sea When silver moonlight…
Shout For Happiness (Hey!) (Hey!) Shout, shout, shout for happiness There's no …
Somebody Loves You I know too well that I'm just wasting precious time In…
Something in the Air There's something in the air That wants me to beware tonight…
sweet & lovely Sweet and lovely Sweeter than the roses in May Sweet and lov…
The Day You Came Along My heart went leaping The day you came along Forgot my weepi…
The Glory of Love 'Twas on the Isle of Capri that I found her, Beneath…
The Old Spinning Wheel Covered with dust and forgotten, Like the face upon the…
The Very Though of You I don't need your photograph to keep by my bed Your…
There's Something in the Air There's something in the air That wants me to beware tonigh…
Theres Something In The Air There's something in the air That wants me to beware tonight…
Time On My Hands When the day fades away into twilight The moon is my…
Top Hat I just got an invitation through the mails: "Your presence…
Twentieth Century Blues Why is it that civilized humanity Can make the world so…
Very Thought Of You I don't need your photograph to keep by my bed Your…
Wanderer Leave me alone, let me wander Don't tie my hands, just…
Weep No More My Baby Try to forget, get a smile upon your face Face the…
What a Little Moonlight Can Do Ooh, ooh, ooh What a little moonlight can do Ooh, ooh, ooh…
When You Wish Upon a Star When a star is born They possess a gift or two One…
Whispering Don't worry I'm not looking at you Gorgeous and dressed in…
With My Eyes Wide Open With my eyes wide open, I'm dreaming Can it be true…
With My Eyes Wide Open Im Dreaming With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming Can It Be True,…
You Couldn't Be Cuter You couldn't be nicer Couldn't be sweeter Couldn't be better…
You Have Taken My Heart You have taken my heart and it's thrilling You have taken…
You Just You You couldn't be nicer Couldn't be sweeter Couldn't be better…
You Ought to Be in Pictures You oughta be in pictures, You're wonderful to see, You…
You're a Sweetheart You're a sweetheart, if there ever was one If there ever…
You're Driving Me Crazy You left me sad and lonely; Why did you leave…
You're Mine You You're a sweetheart, if there ever was one If there ever…
You're My Everything You're my everything underneath the sun You're my everything…
You're My Thrill You're my thrill You do something to me You send chills righ…
You've Got What Gets Me You've got what gets me What gets me, you've got You've go…
Youre My Thrill You're my thrill You do something to me You send chills righ…
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Anthony Frew
No other singer can capture the 1930s - the greatest singer of his time - at once at home playing to a picnic - a dance - Late night radio - right through to the ghostly overlook hotel - a voice that transcends time and is of a time - Al Bowlly
Sandra Marten
Wonderful voice. Taken way too early. Love his talent.x
Sully
Hello, 2019.
OLD GUARD SQUAD
Greetings pretty 2019. 2022
David LoganSr
Hello from 2023!