Lyn Cornell, sometimes billed as Lynn Cornell, was born in Liverpool, and as she worked for the Vernons Pools company in her hometown, she was recruited to become a member of The Vernons Girls, who appeared on the ITV show 'Oh Boy!' with the house band between 1958 and 1959, as well as making a series of relatively successful singles for Parlophone between 1958 and 1961. In April 1960 Cornell launched her solo career with the release of her first single 'Demon Lover' for Decca, and she is perhaps best known for her recording of the title theme for the film 'Never On Sunday', which reached No. 30 in the UK Singles Chart. At the end of a very productive year for her, she released a Christmas single, 'The Angel And The Stranger', and in the summer of the following year she performed at the North Pier Pavilion in Blackpool, on a bill including Matt Monro and Bert Weedon. In April 1962 she married the session musician Andy White, who had been drafted in by George Martin to drum on versions of The Beatles' 'Love Me Do' and 'P.S. I Love You', which temporarily relegated Ringo Starr to maracas. The same year, Decca released Cornell's version of 'African Waltz', which failed to make inroads compared to John Dankworth's instrumental chart hit, but the flip was an arrangement of the Jon Hendricks penned jazz standard 'Moanin'', which showed her expanding well beyond traditional pop music boundaries. This was followed by Jack Good's eccentric production work on her 1962 cover of The Blue Belles' US hit 'I Sold My Heart To The Junkman', but despite gaining airplay on the BBC Light Programme, it failed to match the chart appearance of 'Never On Sunday'. In 1963 Decca released her working of the folk standard 'Sally Go 'Round The Roses', but when that too failed to hit the charts she joined The Carefrees in 1964, who became best known for their song 'We Love You Beatles', being their first and only charting single, reaching No. 39 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the Billboard chart for five weeks. After a lengthy break from a solo career in the music industry, she joined up with former Vernons Girls member Ann Simmons, and with assistance from the record producer, Phil Swern, they formed the vocal duo The Pearls, going on to release 12 singles, the most successful of which was 'Guilty', which reached No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974. To see how she finally achieved the chart success that she deserved, here are all the singles that she recorded for Decca in the early 60's, showing her vocal versatility in attempting to have hits in a variety of different styles, including pop, rock, jazz and folk.
Track listing
01 Demon Lover (single 1960)
02 Like Love (b-side of 'Demon Lover')
03 What A Feeling (b-side of 'Teaser' 1960)
04 Never On A Sunday (single 1960)
05 Swain Kelly (b-side of 'Never On A Sunday')
06 The Angel And The Stranger (single 1960)
07 Xmas Stocking (b-side of 'The Angel And The Stranger')
08 The Sweet Life (La Dolce Vita) (single 1961)
09 When Is Someday (b-side of 'The Sweet Life')
10 Adios My Love (single 1961)
11 African Waltz (single 1962)
12 Moanin' (b-side of 'African Waltz')
13 I Sold My Heart To The Junk Man (single 1962)
14 Step Up And Rescue Me (b-side of 'I Sold My Heart To The Junk Man')
15 Sally Go Round The Roses (single 1963)
16 You Can Kiss Me If You Like (b-side of 'Sally Go Round The Roses')
17 Kisses Can Lie (from the film 'Just For Fun' 1963)
