40 Fun Facts About Billy Fury

Which chart feat eluded Billy Fury, despite his 332 weeks on the UK chart?

A number one hit always escaped him, yet he stayed popular long after his chart run ended and was still recording days before his death.

Which Beatle was a neighbour of Billy Fury, who has a blue plaque on London's Cavendish Avenue?

Paul McCartney lived on the same street; like the Beatles, Fury had left Liverpool for London, and his home was number 1 Cavendish Avenue.

Which Manchester band put a photograph of Billy Fury on the sleeve of their final single in 1987?

The Smiths used his picture for Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, billed as their last single because the band had already split.

Before fame, the teenage Billy Fury worked as a deckhand on which kind of Liverpool vessel?

A tugboat was his workplace on the Liverpool docks, and he wrote the words to one early hit on a cigarette packet in a cinema between tides.

Which childhood illness damaged Billy Fury's heart and contributed to his death at the age of 42?

Rheumatic fever left him with a weak heart that needed surgery in 1972 and 1976, forcing him to give up touring before a fatal heart attack.

Which instrumental group, famous for Telstar, served as Billy Fury's backing band in 1962 and 1963?

The Tornados were hired for him in 1962, the year their own Telstar became the first US number one by a British group.

Which 1960 Billy Fury single found a new audience in 1999 as the music for a Toyota Yaris advert?

Wondrous Place was a favourite of his that he re-recorded at least three times, though it only climbed to number 25 on its first release.

In which 1973 David Essex film did Billy Fury come out of semi-retirement to play a holiday-camp rocker?

That'll Be the Day put him in gold lamé as a 1950s holiday-camp singer, with Ringo Starr and Keith Moon also in the cast.

What did Camden Council name after Billy Fury in 2010, close to the studios where he made his records?

An alleyway in West Hampstead became Billy Fury Way, and a large mural of his face at one end was unveiled and blessed in 2011.

Which 1961 ballad, first recorded in America by Tony Orlando, became Billy Fury's signature tune?

Halfway to Paradise stayed on the UK chart for 23 weeks, and its full orchestra recast the rock and roller as a singer of big ballads.

Which pop impresario pushed the unknown Billy Fury on stage in Birkenhead in 1958 and signed him?

Larry Parnes gave his young singers punchy new stage names, and the press nicknamed the tough dealmaker Mr Parnes, Shillings and Pence.

Which birth name did Billy Fury leave behind when his manager gave him a punchier stage name?

Ronald Wycherley was born in Liverpool in 1940, was given his first guitar by the age of 14 and was fronting his own group a year later.

Billy Fury went backstage in 1958 hoping to sell his songs to which established British rock and roller?

Marty Wilde was the intended buyer, but the young songwriter was sent out to sing three of his own numbers instead and joined the tour next day.

Which American songwriter co-wrote, with Gerry Goffin, the ballad that became Billy Fury's signature tune?

Carole King also co-wrote I'd Never Find Another You, his last hit of 1961, which was likewise first recorded by Tony Orlando.

Which 1961 Billy Fury hit was a vocal version of a 1925 tango by Danish composer Jacob Gade?

Jealousy is the English title of Gade's Jalousie, whose royalties let the composer set up a charity to help young Danish musicians.

Under which early name did the Beatles audition in 1960 to become Billy Fury's backing group?

The Silver Beetles missed out on the job, but the same impresario soon sent them round Scotland backing another of his singers, Johnny Gentle.

Which future chart-topper played piano in the Blue Flames when they were Billy Fury's backing band?

Georgie Fame, born Clive Powell, was given his stage name by Fury's manager and kept the Blue Flames going after they parted from the singer.

Which guitarist, later a hit-maker with A Picture of You, played lead on Billy Fury's 1960 debut album?

Joe Brown narrowly avoided being renamed Elmer Twitch by the manager he shared with Fury.

Which producer, the man behind TV's Six-Five Special, also made Billy Fury's acclaimed 1960 debut album?

Jack Good gave the LP a raw Sun Records sound, and The Guardian later put it on a list of 1,000 albums to hear before you die.

Session drummer Andy White played on Billy Fury's debut album and then, in 1962, on which Beatles single?

Love Me Do was re-recorded with White on drums while Ringo Starr was handed a tambourine, a week after Starr had drummed on an earlier take.

In which 1962 pop musical did Billy Fury star as struggling singer Billy Universe, leader of the Satellites?

Play It Cool was his first film, modelled on the Elvis Presley pictures and billed by its director as Britain's first twist film.

Which director, later known for the Death Wish films, made Billy Fury's first film, a 1962 pop musical?

Michael Winner wanted to shoot in real West End clubs, but the producers insisted on studio sets built by idle craftsmen at Pinewood.

Which 1962 hit does Billy Fury sing in an airport departure lounge during his first film?

Once Upon a Dream reached number seven and was the film's only hit; its tune came from Norrie Paramor, better known as Cliff Richard's producer.

Which 1965 musical comedy starred Billy Fury alongside Jon Pertwee, the Bachelors and several of his own dogs?

I've Gotta Horse was co-written by his manager around the star's real love of animals and shot in Great Yarmouth, where he had just played a summer season.

Which actress, the title star of Carry On Cleo, co-starred with Billy Fury on film in 1965?

Amanda Barrie has said the pair had an affair during the shoot; Fury proposed to her, but she did not accept.

Which teenage star, singer of Walkin' Back to Happiness, appeared as herself in Billy Fury's first film?

Helen Shapiro was just 14 when she recorded two UK chart-toppers in 1961, and she also took the female lead in Richard Lester's It's Trad, Dad!

Which early rock and roll TV show, broadcast from the Hackney Empire, showcased Billy Fury several times?

Oh Boy! was non-stop rock and roll that trounced the BBC's Six-Five Special in the ratings and made a star of Cliff Richard.

Which American crooner took I Will, a 1964 UK hit for Billy Fury, into the US top ten a year later?

Dean Martin reached number ten with the Dick Glasser song, which went on to give Ruby Winters a UK top five hit in 1977.

Which American singer first had a hit with It's Only Make Believe, a UK top ten single for Billy Fury in 1964?

Conway Twitty added the finishing touches to the song, which his drummer Jack Nance mostly wrote during an interval at a club in Hamilton, Ontario.

Billy Fury's comeback album was produced by Stuart Colman, best known for hits with which rock and roll revivalist?

Shakin' Stevens was scoring huge hits with Colman when the producer made The One and Only with Fury, an album released only after the singer's death.

Which record label released Billy Fury's hits from 1959 until he signed with Parlophone in 1966?

Decca recorded him at its West Hampstead studios, where the Beatles failed an audition on New Year's Day 1962.

Which quiet outdoor hobby did rock and roll star Billy Fury pursue keenly away from the stage?

Birdwatching was part of a lifelong love of animals: he kept a farm and devoted much of his later life to wildlife preservation.

What did the Billy Fury fan club give to a Liverpool museum in 2003, paid for with money raised by fans?

A bronze statue by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy was unveiled that April by the television producer who had put Fury on screen in the 1950s.

Billy Fury's partner of the 1960s, 'Lady Lee' Middleton, later married which British radio DJ?

Kenny Everett met her soon after she left Fury in 1967, and she made her own wedding dress out of a tablecloth from Harrods.

Which lyricist's album Tribe includes a tribute song called Billy Fury, voiced by a singer dreaming of rock stardom?

Bernie Taupin opens the track with jukebox sound effects, and his writing partner Elton John joins in on backing vocals towards the end.

Jon Lee, who played Billy Fury in the 2008 film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, found fame in which pop group?

S Club 7 made him famous as a teenager through their BBC television series Miami 7, a decade before the Joe Meek biopic.

What kind of record was Billy Fury's 1963 LP We Want Billy!, among the first of its type in British rock?

A live album was still a novelty in 1963, and he mixed his own hits with R&B covers such as Unchain My Heart.

Billy Fury was on the bill of the 1960 British tour that ended with which American rocker's fatal car crash?

Eddie Cochran died after the taxi taking him towards Heathrow hit a lamppost in Chippenham, a crash his co-star Gene Vincent survived.

Which 1960 Billy Fury hit, his first top ten single, was named after the heroine of a French film?

Colette was a duet with Ann O'Brien of the Vernons Girls, who was paid £7 for the session; Fury said the song earned him £3,000.

Which bandleader, once Ringo Starr's boss in the Hurricanes, was the model for Billy Fury's 1973 film rocker?

Rory Storm had turned up at the 1960 auditions for Fury's backing band only so that he could have his picture taken with the star.