Shakin' Stevens was the UK's best selling male singer during the 1980's. Shakin' who?, I hear you cry! Born Michael Barrett in March 1948 within a suburb of Cardiff, South Wales, our youthful Welsh rock 'n' roller began his profession in school along with a a small number of school friends and became the singer for the rock band they called The Olympics. The group performed in their own neighbourhood of Cardiff along with the South Wales area while they underwent quite a few name changes, including the Cossacks and The Denims. There is a yarn that one among Shaky's friends in the school playground was jiving about with an air-guitar and unexpectedly introduced "Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets". The adolescent Michael Barrett thought the name sounded zany but soon after adopted it for his stage show.
Shakin' Stevens turned professional and gave up the day-job of a milkman in 1969 although success wasn't immediate. He fronted Shakin' Stevens & The Sunsets, a 1950's -influenced band from Penarth also from South Wales. They were so good they had been supposedly given a supporting slot for the Rolling Stones in December 1969 even though however , there is some uncertainty in relation to this. A few years of on tour plus recording enabled the group to increase their repertoire and expand their presentation. During a Sunset's performance in London Jack Good bumped into Shaky and personally invited him to an trial for 'Elvis!' the newest West End musical he was producing. This performance ran for 19 months and gained a number of awards, including the Evening Standard 'Best Musical' prize. Playing Elvis throughout his army and acting years the subsequent advertising let the entire United Kingdom identify who Shakin' Stevens was. The 'Elvis!' show was interspersed with appearances by Shaky on Jack Good's revitalized TV show 'Oh Boy' and a 30 week agreement on an innovative new TV show titled 'Let's Rock'.
Towards the latter part of 1979 Shaky signed with new management with the name of Freyer Miller. She recommended that Shaky to break connection with the Sunset's and forge a solo career. Listening to his fresh management recommendation Shaky accomplished his first United Kingdom chart topping number one single with 'This Ole House'. It shot up the United Kingdom charts in the direction of the number one spot that put Shakin' Stevens in just about every residence inside the United kingdom as soon as the weekly chart show "Top of The Pops" was aired on a Thursday evening.
Shakin' Steven's primary hit was closely followed by ten further songs that made the chart top five, including three number one hits for instance "Oh Julie", "Green Door" and "Merry Christmas Everyone". The latter being held back by a year so it did not conflict with Band Aid's substantial selling charity hit 'Do they know it's Christmas?' It went on to become the number one Christmas hit in 1985 and continues to be broadcast on the radio every Christmas time since. Throughout his career Shaky released numerous albums of which the best selling was titled "Shaky" that achieved number one and remained in the album charts for 28 weeks this was followed by 'This Ole House' that climbed toward number two.
To cement his position as the UK's best selling musician Shaky experienced a total of thirty eight hit singles of which 36 had been consecutive. That was thirty two hit singles reached the top forty in the United kingdom singles charts with practically half in the top ten and 4 at number one. This achievement meant that he placed in the United kingdom singles chart for a total of 277 weeks and furthermore backed this up with a flow of winning hit albums. He has won dozens of Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum Discs and numerous universal honours and industry awards, including 'The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles', who awarded him a Number One Gold Award to reflect his chart accomplishment. Shaky was also ranked as the sixteenth highest selling artist from the United kingdom, ever.
Shakin' Stevens is still touring and recording today. The latest collection 'Now Listen' was released in December 2007. He opened the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday 28 June 2008 with a capacity crowd at 11am despite the fact that the British broadcasting corporation with their familiar competence missed filming it, turning up quite a few hours later on. With the intention to promote the release of the Epic Masters Box Set, Shaky performed a one-off performance at the O2 Academy in Islington, London, which also coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of his initial hit 'Hot Dog'.
Based on Shaky's authorized website, he is going to be doing a tour in the United kingdom opening 12th October 2010.
Maybe I'll see you there!
Author Resource:-
I have been a fan of Shakin' Stevens ever since he exploded onto our screens in 1981. Being raised on Elvis, Jerry Lee and Buddy, the music was already in my soul, but Shaky brought it home to the UK. If you haven't heard of Shakin' Stevens visit my small tribute to him and catch a few videos of the man in action.
www.squidoo.com/ShakinStevens
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