Neil Reid | |
---|---|
Born | 1959 (age 64–65) |
Origin | Glasgow, Scotland |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
Years active | 1968–1974 |
Labels | Decca |
Neil Reid (born 1959) is a Scottish former child singing star, winner of ITV's Opportunity Knocks, and the youngest person to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. [1]
Known also as "Wee Neil Reid", he was eight when he was discovered singing at a pensioners' party in 1968. [2] Reid won Opportunity Knocks on 13 December 1971 singing his version of "Mother of Mine", [3] which, when released commercially by Decca Records shortly afterwards, went to number two on the UK Singles Chart following a performance on Top of the Pops. [4] [5] The "Mother of Mine" record sold over 250,000 copies in the United Kingdom, and over 2.5 million globally. [6] It also sold around 400,000 copies in Japan alone. [6]
Reid's self-titled album went to number one in 1972, making Reid the youngest person to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, at the age of 12 years 9 months. This remains one of the very few Number 1 selling albums that has never had an official CD release and as such is unavailable in this format.
Reid's follow-up single three months later "That's What I Want To Be" peaked at number 45, [7] and Reid quickly faded from national prominence to performing on the Northern England Working men's club circuit. Two years after winning Opportunity Knocks, Reid's voice broke and as a result he gave up professional singing. He did a final round of concerts in 1974 in South Africa, where he toured with the Irish pop group The Bachelors. Reid's 1974 single (his last recording), "Hazel Eyes", was released in South Africa to coincide with the tour.[ citation needed ]
After leaving show business, Reid became an independent financial adviser and a management consultant. [8] In 2008 he was interviewed by Amanda Holden about his child stardom for ITV1's When Britain First Had Talent in January 2008.[ citation needed ] In 2024 he took part in the BBC documentary Lena Zavaroni: The Forgotten Child Star [9] .
Album and details | Peak positions |
---|---|
UK | |
Neil Reid
| 1 |
Smile
| Track list
|
Year | Single | Peak positions | Album |
---|---|---|---|
UK | |||
1971 | "Mother of Mine" | 2 | Neil Reid |
1972 | "That's What I Want to Be" | 45 |
Ruby Florence Murray was a Northern Irish singer. One of the most popular singers in the British Isles in the 1950s, she scored ten hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1954 and 1959. She also made pop chart history in March 1955 by having five hits in the Top Twenty in a single week.
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English television personality, entrepreneur, and record executive. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows Pop Idol (2001–2003), The X Factor UK, and Britain's Got Talent (2007–present), as well as the American television talent competition shows American Idol (2002–2010), The X Factor US (2011–2013), and America's Got Talent (2016–present). Cowell founded the British entertainment company Syco in 2005, as well as its now-defunct predecessor, Syco Music in 2002.
Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer and actress who achieved recognition in an episode of the reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer, which recorded her attempts to gain a record deal and her eventual signing with the EMI label. Her first two singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5", both entered the top ten of the UK singles chart simultaneously. She became one of the most successful British female recording artists of the 1980s. Easton became the first and only recording artist in Billboard history to have a top five hit on each of Billboard's primary singles charts: "Morning Train ", "We've Got Tonight" with Kenny Rogers and "Sugar Walls".
Neil Sedaka is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard "Howie" Greenfield and Phil Cody.
Opportunity Knocks is a British television and radio talent show originally hosted by Hughie Green, with a late-1980s revival hosted by Bob Monkhouse, and later by previous winner Les Dawson. From its origin on BBC Radio in 1949 the show provided a platform to fame for acts such as Spike Milligan and Frankie Vaughan. One of the most popular shows on British television, in the 1960s and 1970s it had a weekly audience of 20 million viewers.
Pauline Matthews, better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English pop singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records.
Beverley Mahood is a in Irish born Canadian country music singer-songwriter and television host based in Ontario, Canada. Beverley emigrated from Belfast to Canada as a child. She is also formerly part of the all-female trio Lace, produced by David Foster. From 2004 to 2005, she co-hosted the Citytv Vancouver morning show, Breakfast Television. Mahood was then named to co-host CMT Canada's flagship show, CMT Central. She starred as the anchor judge on the series "CMT Chevy Karaoke Star." Other hosting duties have included the reality series Project Mom/Project Dad and Pick a Puppy (2010–2013) and the countdown program Ultimate.
Lena Hilda Zavaroni was a Scottish singer and television show host. At age 10, with her album Ma! , she was the youngest person in history to have an album in the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Later she starred in her own television series, made numerous TV guest-star appearances, and appeared on stage. From the age of 13, Zavaroni suffered from anorexia nervosa and developed clinical depression when she was 15. Following an operation to cure her depression, Zavaroni died at the age of 35 from pneumonia on 1 October 1999.
This is a summary of 1999 in music in the United Kingdom.
Kelly Jones is a Welsh musician and a founding member, lead singer, and guitarist of the rock band Stereophonics.
David Whitfield was a popular British male tenor vocalist from Hull. He became the first British artist to have a UK No.1 single in the UK and in the United States with "Cara Mia", featuring Mantovani and his orchestra. He died from a brain haemorrhage in Sydney, Australia, while on tour at the age of 54.
Lena Martell is a Scottish singer, with a long career in theatre, television and musicals. She has recorded thirty albums which include the number one UK single with "One Day at a Time" in 1979.
Giovanni Edgar Charles Galletto-Savoretti, known professionally as Jack Savoretti, is an English-Italian acoustic singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released seven studio albums to date: Between the Minds (2007), Harder Than Easy (2009), Before the Storm (2012), Written in Scars (2015), Sleep No More (2016), Singing to Strangers (2019) and Europiana (2021). Singing to Strangers became his first number-one album on the UK Albums Chart.
This is a summary of 2005 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts. Average sales for a number-one single were 80,437 per week.
Demi Ann-Marie Holborn is a Welsh professional singer, one of the UK's youngest female solo artists to hit the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.
"Mother of Mine" is a song written by Bill Parkinson and made famous by a Scottish former child singing star Neil Reid, who sang it on ITV's Opportunity Knocks and won the competition on 13 December 1971, singing his version of the song.
Neil Reid is the first album, for Scottish Opportunity Knocks winner, Neil Reid. The album reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart and the single "Mother of Mine" also peaked at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
Ma! is the debut album by Scottish singer Lena Zavaroni, released in 1974 on Philips Records. The record was a hit and made Zavaroni the youngest artist, to have a record in the Top 10 UK albums chart, a distinction she still holds.
"Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me", alternatively sung as "Ma, She's Making Eyes at Me", is a song published in 1921. The lyrics were by the American composer and comedian Sidney Clare, and the music was by the American songwriter and producer Con Conrad.