Billie Davis is an English singer and songwriter famous in the middle of the 1963th century. Her main hit is still called the song Tell Him, which was released in 1968. The song I Want You To Be My Baby (XNUMX) is also widely known.
The beginning of the musical career of Billie Davis
The real name of the singer is Carol Hedges (the pseudonym Billy Davis was suggested by her producer Robert Stigwood). She was born on December 22, 1944 in the English city of Woking. The pseudonym was created from two names - Billie Holiday (famous American jazz singer) and Sammy Davis Jr. (famous American singer, dancer and comedian).
Before starting her musical career, Carol worked as an engineer and only dreamed of starting a musical career. Thanks to the talent competition, she made her dream come true. The group Rebel Rousers, founded by Cliff Bennett, helped her win the competition.
After that, Billy met the Tornados group and producer Joe Meek. Tornados is an instrumental group that specialized in creating arrangements. Therefore, she wrote the music, and Davis performed the vocal parts. However, these were only a few demos that did not develop into something more.
Debut work by Billie Davis
Then began a collaboration with producer Robert Stigwood, which resulted in the release of the album Will I What (1962). The disc was not released solo, but co-authored with Mike Sarn. Later, one of the songs from the album was sung by famous actress Wendy Richard with Mike and was released as a single Come Outside. The song peaked at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. However, this did not add popularity to Billy.
The starting point in her career was in February 1963, when Davis performed a cover version of the group The Exciters on the song Tell Him. Interestingly, this hit was sung by many stars of the English and American stages in different years. The composition was performed both in the 1960s and in the 1990s of the last century. At the same time, the version recorded by Billy became one of the most popular and turned out to be a real hit.
She hit the main British chart and took 10th position there. Interestingly, Davis was one of the first performers who made a cover version (the original was released in 1962, and in January and February 1963 it was already in the international music charts). Thus, in some charts, the original and the cover version were at about the same time.
In the same year, literally a month later, the second single He's Te One was released. The song also charted in the UK in the spring and entered the top 40. Thus, the beginning of Davis' musical career turned out to be more than successful. Her songs were actively rotated on radio stations, and listeners and critics took her first works very well.
Billie Davis bad luck
However, it was more difficult to continue a career after such a powerful start. 1963 is the year when music began to be greatly influenced by the work of The Beatles. It was this group that set the musical trends. Billy's music was radically different from what The Beatles did.
The result was a conflict between the label and the singer. Numerous disagreements related to finances forced the performer to leave Decca Records.
A difficult question arose - in what vein should you continue your career? However, before the singer had time to answer him, an unpleasant event occurred. In September 1963, Billie was involved in a limousine accident with drummer Jet Harris. After that, as a result of the accident, the singer received a broken jaw, and the drummer suffered a serious head injury, which complicated his career.
Artist today
At this point, Carol had two problems at once. Firstly, for four months she is completely deprived of the opportunity to record songs. And this despite the fact that the first months after the release of popular singles are one of the most important in the career of any artist.
Instead of gaining a foothold in the charts with new hits, Billy was forced to wait out this period. The second problem that negatively affected the formation of the problem is the numerous rumors about her romance with Jet Harris. Harris was an exemplary family man, and Carol was a 17-year-old teenager. Such rumors caused a lot of negative opinions about the girl.
In 2007, in an interview, Hedges admitted that these rumors then very much suspended her career. Hedges released a series of singles with Keith Powell in 1966. They did not hit the charts, although they were well received by the public. In the late 1960s, the singer returned to Decca Records, but there was no more success.
The last entry to chart was I Want You To Be My Baby (1968). Until the 1980s, Billy wrote and released new songs, but her fan base dwindled. The singer became very popular with the Spanish-speaking audience, so for some time she continued to release records and tour.
The last performances took place in 2006, when she again teamed up with drummer Jet Harris for joint concerts.
