Posted September 11, 200717 yr http://www.diggiloo.net/pandora/1967/uk1.jpg Country: United Kingdom Year: 1967 Title: Puppet On A String Artist: Sandie Shaw Music and Lyrics: Bill Martin & Phil Coulter Points: 47 Placing: 1st Sandra Ann Goodrich was born on February 26th 1947, in Dagenham and the world would knew her as Sandie Shaw. Discovered by Adam Faith, Sandie recorded her first single in 1964, "As Long As You're Happy Baby", but it was the next single, an bscure Burt Bacarach song called "Always Something There To Remind Me" that shot her to fame hitting the UK #1. She continued with more hits, including the #1 "Long Live Love" and soon became one of the most successful British female artists of that time. She was up there with the wave of British pop divas of the 60's (Lulu, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield...). In 1967, she was chosen by BBC to be the UK representative in the Eurovision Song Contest that would take place in Vienna. She sang five songs and the winner was found through postcard voting. 5th Ask Any Woman 4th Had A Dream Last Night 3rd I'll Cry Myself To Sleep 2nd Tell The Boys 1st Puppet On A String The authors of "Puppet On A String" admitedly wrote this song in oompah band style to appeal Continental Europe. Sandie never hided that she disliked the song: "I hated it from the very first oompah to the final bang on the big bass drum. I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune." Her favourite was the Rolf Harris-penned "Tell The Boys" which became the B-side of the "Puppet On A String" single. It was the first victory for the United Kingdom in the ESC after five second places in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964 and 1965. In Vienna, she performed the song barefoot only with daisies on her feet, which was a bold move for the time. She was the runaway winner, with more than double of the votes of the second place, Ireland's "If I could choose". The song gave her the third UK #1 and she recorded it in Spanish, French, Germany and Italian. Afterwards Sandie's career passed through hard times espcially after divorcing Jeff Banks. She made a brief comeback in the 80's having a UK top 30 hit with "Hand In Glove". The release of compilations of her songs made the interest in her music grow again. In 2006, Lily Allen sampled "Puppet On A String" for her song "Alfie" and in 2007, Sandie released a new re-recorded version of the song re-titled "Puppet's Got A Brand New String" to commemorate her 60th birthday. Last month she had corrective surgery on her iconic feet. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Puppet.jpg HRgAZL2Oz44
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