Billy Fury

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the birth of Britain's finest rock'n'roll singer, Billy Fury. Born on 17 April 1940 in Liverpool as Ronald Wycherley, he leapt to fame after an impromptu audition in the dressing room of the Birkenhead Essoldo in 1958, after which impresario Larry Parnes signed him to his stable and rechristened him Billy Fury. In 1959, he charted with "Maybe Tomorrow" and the hits continued to flow into the 1960s, firstly with Decca then with Parlophone, despite Billy's ill-health following a childhood illness which left him with a weakened heart. In 1971 he underwent open-heart surgery, but recovered to record "Will The Real Man Stand Up" on his own Fury label, and played the part of "Stormy Tempest" in the film "That'll Be The Day" in 1973. A second major operation in 1976 forced Billy to retire again, but he re-emerged at the end of the decade with new recordings of his best-known songs, and several live and television appearances. In 1981 Fury signed up for a new deal with Polydor, but his health was rapidly deteriorating and on 28 January 1983 he succumbed to a fatal heart attack. Unlike many of his pre-Beatles contemporaries, his reputation has grown over the years, and Billy Fury is now rightly regarded as the finest rock 'n' roll singer Britain ever produced. In 2003, a life-size statue of Billy by Tom Murphy was unveiled on the waterfront in Liverpool