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Mary Hopkin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950) is a Welsh folk singer.
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Born in Pontardawe, Wales to a Welsh-speaking family and began her musical career as a folk singer. She released several Welsh language albums before signing the Beatles' Apple Records. She was 'discovered' by Twiggy who saw her winning the British ITV television talent show Opportunity Knocks and recommended her to Paul McCartney. [1] She became one of the first artists to record on the Beatles Apple record label.
Her debut single "Those Were the Days", produced by Paul McCartney, was released in the UK on August 30, 1968 (catalogue number APPLE 2). Despite competition from a well-established star, Sandie Shaw, who released her version of the same song as a single that same year, Hopkin's version became a number one hit in the UK singles chart, and reached #2 in the United States.
On 21 February 1969 her debut album Postcard, also produced by McCartney, was released. It included covers of three songs from Donovan, who also played on the album, and one song each from George Martin and Harry Nilsson. It reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, although it proved to be her solitary success story in that particular chart.
The next single was "Goodbye", written by Paul McCartney (but credited to Lennon-McCartney)[citation needed], released on 28 March 1969 (APPLE 10); it reached number 2 in the UK singles chart. It was kept off the top of the charts by the Beatles' single "Get Back". "Goodbye" has never been officially released by the Beatles, although a demo version can be found on some of the Beatles' bootlegs.
She represented the UK in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest singing "Knock Knock Who's There", which came second in the contest, narrowly beaten by "All Kinds of Everything" performed by Irish singer Dana. "Knock Knock Who's There" was released as a single (APPLE 26) on 23 March 1970, reaching number 2 again in the UK. Her second, folky album Earth Song, Ocean Song was put out by Apple in 1970. The record was produced by her soon-to-be husband Tony Visconti and included covers of songs written by Cat Stevens, Gallagher and Lyle, and Ralph McTell.
After marrying Visconti in 1971, Hopkin withdrew from the pop music scene to have a family. Although reportedly unhappy with show business, Hopkin did not stop recording. With the help of Visconti, 1972 saw the release of the Christmas folk song "Mary Had A Baby"/"The Cherry Tree Carol" on the Regal Zonophone label, which was re-released in 1973. Later that year, the single "Summertime Summertime"/"Sweet And Low" was released on the Bell record label under the name of 'Hobby Horse'.
Although no other singles or albums came out in her name until 1976, she sang on numerous recordings that her husband Visconti produced, such as those featuring Tom Paxton, Ralph McTell, David Bowie, Bert Jansch, The Radiators From Space, Thin Lizzy, Carmen, Sarstedt Brothers, Osibisa, Sparks, Hazel O'Connor, and Elaine Page. On all of these recordings (and also on her husband's own album Inventory) she is credited as 'Mary Visconti'. During this time, she also appeared on various TV shows such as Cilla Black's and various radio station programmes.
In 1976, she returned to recording under her own name and released the single "If You Love Me", (originally recorded by Edith Piaf). The B-side "Tell Me Now" was an original composition by Hopkin.
Her next single was "Wrap Me In Your Arms", with the B-side again written by Hopkin ("Just A Dreamer"). These singles came out on Visconti's own Good Earth label. Talk of an album featuring Hopkin's songs (tentatively titled With You Without You), occurred, but the album did not materialise.
Two members of Steeleye Span (Bob Johnson and Pete Knight) chose Hopkin to play "Princess Lirazel" on their concept album The King of Elfland's Daughter. She also appeared at the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival with Bert Jansch. 1976 also saw the birth of her second child. Before the 1970s ended, Decca released a compilation LP of Hopkin's Cambrian Welsh recordings called The Welsh World of Mary Hopkin.
Hopkin's first project in the 1980s was a well-reviewed stint playing the Virgin Mary in "Rock Nativity" at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, Berkshire. After this, Mike Hurst (record producer and formerly of The Springfields) asked her to sing lead in a new group named Sundance that he had formed with Mike de Albuquerque of ELO. Their one single, "What's Love", allowed them to tour the UK with Dr. Hook, but Hopkin quickly left the group, dissatisfied with the gigs. In 2002, Hurst released recordings from this time on the Angel Air label.
In 1981, Hopkin and Visconti divorced. The following year, she provided vocals on "Rachel's Song" for the Vangelis soundtrack of Blade Runner. Around 1984, Peter Skellern asked Mary to join him and Julian Lloyd Webber in a band called Oasis. The self-titled record Oasis was released on WEA along with two singles. A tour of the UK was planned but was brought to an abrupt end because Hopkin took ill. The group disbanded shortly thereafter.
During the 1980s, Hopkin appeared in several charity shows, including an appearance at the London Palladium with Ralph McTell. In 1988, she took part in George Martin's production of Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood". She played the character Rosie Probert and notably performed a piece called "Love Duet" with Freddie Jones as Captain Cat. The making of the record was filmed and made into a 'South Bank Show Special', where Hopkin and Jones were shown rehearsing and recording "Love Duet". In 1992, the cast reunited for a performance of the play as a tribute to Dylan Thomas in the presence of Prince Charles for the Prince's Trust.
In 1989, Hopkin recorded a CD of songs called Spirit. This was recorded on the Trax label and is a collection of light classical songs, featuring the single "Ave Maria". The record was produced by Benny Gallagher of Gallagher and Lyle, who had contributed songs to her during her days at Apple Records.
Early in 1990, she was asked to sing with The Chieftains at the London Palladium in a charity show, and she would later join them on a tour of the UK.
Again she continued to do projects she wanted, working with people like Julian Colbeck, she wrote the lyrics and performed a song on his CD Back to Bach. Also, there was Marc Cerrone's "The Collector", a stage play/opera, for which she performed two tracks on the CD and video. She worked again with her old guitarist Brian Willoughby and Dave Cousins (of The Strawbs) on their CD The Bridge. Hopkin also appears on a Beatles tribute album by RAM Pietsch.
Around 1996, a Welsh label called Sain bought Cambrian's back catalogue and released all Hopkin's Welsh recordings on a CD called The Early Years, which removed the overdubbed drums found in the Decca recordings.
In 1999, she was again invited to join the Chieftains on their UK tour, and later that year performed a few concerts in Scotland with Benny Gallagher and Jim Diamond. More recently there have been three TV documentaries about her, one each for ITV, BBC, and S4C.
She has guested on The Crocketts' album The Great Brain Robbery, sang the theme song for Billy Connolly's BBC TV series The World Tour, and recorded "Those Were The Days" with Robin Williams rapping. She also appeared in a film by Sara Sugarman called Very Annie Mary, and duetted with Dolly Parton on her 2005 CD Those Were The Days, which went to #48 on the US charts (#9 Country) and number 35 in the UK (number 2 UK Country).
In September 2005 she released an album on her own label, Mary Hopkin Music, called Live at the Royal Festival Hall. It was followed in December 2006 by a brand-new Christmas recording, "Snowed Under", released as an mp3 download on the Welsh online store - Disaudio.com.
| Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | SUI | US (Billboard) | US (Cash Box) | |||||||
| 1968 | "Those Were The Days" | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| 1969 | "Goodbye" | 2 | 3 | 13 | 17 | |||||
| 1970 | "Temma Harbour" | 6 | 39 | 43 | ||||||
| "Knock Knock, Who's There?" | 2 | 92 (in 1973) | 86 (in 1972) | |||||||
| "Think About Your Children" | 19 | 87 | ||||||||
| 1976 | "If You Love Me" | 36 | ||||||||
- Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-190-X
- The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits - ISBN 0-85112-250-7
- Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-619-7
- ^ Guinness Book of Number One Hits Second edition 1988