Vera Lynn

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Biography

Dame Vera Lynn , Order of the British Empire|DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917) is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II .

During the war she toured Egypt , British Raj|India and British rule in Burma|Burma , giving outdoor concerts for the troops. She became known, and is still referred to, as " Forces' Sweetheart|The Forces' Sweetheart "; the songs most associated with her are " We'll Meet Again (1939 song)|We'll Meet Again ", " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover|The White Cliffs of Dover ", A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and " There'll Always Be an England ".

She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as " Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart " and " My Son, My Son ".

In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the UK|British album chart, at the age of 92. She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of the Second World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.

Early life

Vera Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917 in East Ham in the county of Essex . When she began performing publicly at the age of seven, she adopted her grandmother's maiden name (Lynn) as her stage name. Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in 1935. At this point she was being featured on records released by dance bands including those of Loss and of Charlie Kunz .Seidenberg, Sellar, Jones p. 132 In 1936 her first solo record was released on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire".Some Sunny Day p. 74 This label was absorbed by Decca Records in 1938.Some Sunny Day p. 73 After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a few years during which she recorded several standard musical pieces. In 1937, she moved to the aristocrat of British dance bands, Ambrose (bandleader)|Bert Ambrose .Some Sunny Day p.83

In 1939, during the Phoney War , the Daily Express asked British servicemen to name their favourite musical performers: Vera Lynn came out on top and as a result became known as 'the Forces' Sweetheart'.

In 1941, during the darkest days of World War II, Lynn began her own radio programme, Sincerely Yours , sending messages to British troops serving abroad. She and her quartet performed songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas.Some Sunny Day p.139-140

She is best known for her 1942 recording of the popular song " We'll Meet Again ", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles; the nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and made the song one of its emblematic hits. She also appeared in We'll Meet Again (film)|the 1943 film of that name . Her other great wartime hit was " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover|The White Cliffs of Dover ", words by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent .Seidenberg, Sellar, Jones p. 24 Contrary to later reports, she neither sang nor recorded " Rose of England " during this time and it was only in 1966 when her producer, David Gooch, selected it for her album More Hits of the Blitz that she became familiar with it. The album itself was a follow-up to Hits of the Blitz produced by Norman Newell .

During the war years she toured Egypt , British Raj|India and British rule in Burma|Burma , giving outdoor concerts for the troops. In 1985 it was announced that she would receive the Burma Star for entertaining British guerrilla units in Japanese-occupied Burma. Dame Vera Lynn to receive Burma Star . The Times Wednesday, March 20, 1985; pg. 2; Issue 62091; col A She is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the war years.

Post-war career

Lynn's Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart became the first record by a British performer to top the charts in the United States , remaining there for nine weeks. She also appeared regularly for a time on Tallulah Bankhead 's U.S. radio programme, The Big Show .Some Sunny Day p. 233 " Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart ", along with "The Homing Waltz" and "Forget-Me-Not", gave Lynn a remarkable three entries on the first UK Singles Chart , a top 12 (which actually contained 15 songs owing to tied positions).

Her popularity continued in the 1950s, peaking with " My Son, My Son ", a number-one hit in 1954 which she co-wrote with Gordon Melville Rees. In 1960 she left Decca Records after nearly 25 years, and joined EMI .Some Sunny Day p.262 She recorded for EMI's Columbia, MGM and HMV labels. In 1967, she recorded " Comment te dire adieu? #Background|It Hurts To Say Goodbye ", a song which hit the top 10 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart."

Vera Lynn was the subject of This Is Your Life (UK TV series)|This Is Your Life on two occasions, in October 1957 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, and in December 1978, for an episode which was broadcast on 1 January 1979, when Andrews surprised her at the Cafe Royal , London.

She hosted her own variety series on BBC1 in the late 1960s and early 1970s The singer who comes back at the top while popular music fashions change . The Times, Thursday, 20 January 1972; pg. 16; Issue 58380; col A and was a frequent guest on other variety shows, notably The 1972 Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show. In 1972 she was a key performer in the BBC anniversary programme Fifty Years Of Music . In 1976 she hosted the BBC's A Jubilee Of Music , celebrating the pop music hits of the period 1952-1976 to commemorate the start of Queen Elizabeth II 's Silver Jubilee year. For ITV she presented a 1977 TV special to launch her album Vera Lynn in Nashville , which included pop songs of the 1960s and country songs.

The Royal Variety Performance included appearances by Vera Lynn on three occasions: 1960, 1975 and 1986.Some Sunny Day p. 289

Lynn is also notable for being the only artist to have a chart span on the British single and album charts reaching from the chart's inception to the 21st century& nbsp;— in 1952 having three singles in the first ever singles chart, complied by New Musical Express , and most recently having a #1 album with ''We'll Meet Again& nbsp;— The Very Best Of Vera Lynn'' (see below).

Honours

Lynn was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, and promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1975. She was made an Order of St John of Jerusalem|Officer of the Order of St John (OStJ) in 1998 and, in 2000, Dame Vera received a special "Spirit of the 20th Century" Award.

Charity work

In 1953 Lynn formed the cerebral palsy charity SOS (The Stars Organisation for Spastics) and became its chairperson.

The Vera Lynn Charity Breast Cancer Research Trust was founded in 1976, with Lynn its chairperson and later its president.

In 2002 Lynn became president of the cerebral palsy charity The Dame Vera Lynn Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy, and hosted a celebrity concert on its behalf at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

On 19 August 2008 Lynn became the Patron of the Forces Literary Organisation Worldwide for ALL, a charitable not-for-profit organisation which helps those affected by war.

On 16 November 2010 Dame Vera Lynn became Patron of The Dover War Memorial Project, a voluntary not-for-profit group remembering the Fallen from Dover, Kent, England.

Later years

Lynn sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony that marked the golden jubilee of Victory in Europe Day|VE Day . This was her last known public performance.Some Sunny Day p.295

The United Kingdom's VE Day Diamond Jubilee ceremonies in 2005 included a concert in Trafalgar Square , London, in which Lynn made an unannounced appearance. She made a speech praising the veterans and calling upon the younger generation always to remember their sacrifice and joined in with a few bars of "We'll Meet Again". Following that year's Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance , Dame Vera encouraged the Wales|Welsh mezzo-soprano singer Katherine Jenkins to assume the mantle of "Forces' Sweetheart".

In her speech Lynn said, "These boys gave their lives and some came home badly injured, and for some families life would never be the same. We should always remember, we should never forget, and we should teach the children to remember."

In September 2008 Lynn helped launch a new social history recording website, "The Times of My Life", at the Cabinet War Rooms in London.

On 3 September 2009 Andrew Castle hosted Lynn on GMTV to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Britain's declaring war on Nazi Germany|Germany . At the end of the interview she sang a verse from "We'll Meet Again," at Castle's request.

Her autobiography Some Sunny Day was published in August 2009, when Lynn was 92. She had written two previous memoirs: Vocal Refrain (1975) and ''We'll Meet Again'' (1989).

On 18 February 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Lynn was suing the British National Party (BNP) for using " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover|the White Cliffs of Dover " on an anti-immigration album without her permission. Her lawyer claimed the album seemed to link Lynn, who does not align with any political party, to the party's views by association.

On 13 September 2009 Lynn became the oldest living artist to make it into No. 1 in the British album chart, at the age of 92, passing such veterans of music as United States|American jazz trumpet er Louis Armstrong and France|French singer Charles Aznavour . Her collection '' We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn entered the chart at number 20 on 30 August, and then climbed to number 2 the following week, before reaching the top position, outselling both the Arctic Monkeys and the Beatles . In its third week the album went gold album|gold with sales of over 100,000.

Year	Album	Chart Positions									Certifications	Sales
Year	Album	UK	IRE	EU	DUT	NOR	NZ	DEN	BEL	AUS	Certifications	Sales
2009	' We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn	1	48	8	83	18	8	28	10	21	United Kingdom\|UK : Gold New Zealand : Gold	United Kingdom\|UK : 240,000+

Personal life

In 1941 Lynn married Harry Lewis, a clarinet ist and saxophone|saxophonist , whom she had met two years earlier. They had one child, Virginia Penelope Anne Lewis. Harry Lewis died in 1999.

Lynn has lived in Ditchling in Sussex since the early 1960s.

Recording career

Vera Lynn made her solo recording debut with the song "Up The Wooden Hill To Bedfordshire" in February 1936. The 9" 78rpm single was issued on the Crown Records label, which went on to release a total of 8 singles recorded by Vera Lynn and Charles Smart on organ. Early recordings include " I'm in the Mood for Love " and " Red Sails in the Sunset (song)|Red Sails in the Sunset ".

In 1938 the Decca label took over control of the British Crown label and the UK based Rex label, they had also issued early singles from Lynn in 1937, including "Harbour Lights". In late September 1939 Vera Lynn first recorded a song that continues to be associated with her, the song " We'll Meet Again was originally recorded with Arthur Young on the Novachord .
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the Decca Records|Decca label issued all of Vera Lynn's records, including several recorded with Mantovani and His Orchestra in 1942 and with Robert Farnon , from the late 1940s. Firstly they were only available as 78rpm singles, which only feature two songs an A and a B-side . In the mid 1950s Decca issued several Extended play|EP singles, which featured between two and four recordings per side, such as ''Vera Lynn's Party Sing Song from 1954 and singles were issued on two formats the known 78prm 10" and the recently introduced 45rpm 7" single. In the late 1950s Lynn recorded four albums at Decca, the first; Vera Lynn Concert remains her only live recording ever to be issued on vinyl.

In 1960, after more than 20 years at Decca Records, Lynn signed to the US based MGM Records , in the UK her recordings were distributed by the His Masters Voice label, later EMI Records , several albums and stand alone singles were recorded with Geoff Love & His Orchestra, Norman Newell also took over as Lynn's producer in this period and remained with her until her 1976 Christmas with Vera Lynn . Recording at EMI Records up until 1977, Lynn released thirteen albums with material as diverse as traditional Hymns , Pop music|pop and Country music|country songs, as well as re-recording many of her known songs from the 1940s for the albums Hits of the Blitz (1966), More Hits of the Blitz and Vera Lynn Remembers - The World at War (1974). In the 1980s two albums of contemporary Pop music|pop songs were recorded at the Pye Records label, both included covers of songs previously recorded by such artists as Abba and Barry Manilow .

In 1982 a stand alone single "I Love This Land" (Falklands War song) was issued and in 1984 Horatio Nelson Records issued Vera Lynn's last recordings made before her retirement. The album Vera Lynn Remembers , produced by Harry Lewis, Lynn's husband, features 17 re-recordings of songs known and associated with Vera Lynn over her 50 year recording career.

Discography

Original albums

Year	Album title	Other notes
1955
1956
1958
1959
1960
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1966
1970
1972
1972
1974
1976
1977
1979
1981
1984

Charted albums

Date	Album	UK Chart position
21 Nov 1981	20 Family Favourites	25
9 Sep 1989	''We'll Meet Again	44
30 Aug 2009	'' We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn	1
30 May 2010	Unforgettable	61

Charted singles

Date	Title	UK Chart position
14 Nov 1952	" Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart "	10
	"Forget-Me Not"	5
	"The Homing Waltz"	9
5 Jun 1953	"The Windsor Waltz"	11
15 Oct 1954	" My Son, My Son "	1
8 Jun 1956	"Who are We"	30
26 Oct 1956	" A House with Love in It "	17
15 Mar 1957	"The Faithful Hussar (Don't Cry My Love)"	29
21 Jun 1957	"Travellin' Home"	20

Films

'' We'll Meet Again (film)|We'll Meet Again (1943)

Rhythm Serenade (1943)

One Exciting Night (1944)

Venus fra Vestø (1962)

In popular culture

Both Lynn and "We'll Meet Again" are featured in Pink Floyd 's 1979 album The Wall . They are directly cited in the track " Vera (song)|Vera ". In the live version of The Wall , Is There Anybody Out There: The Wall Live 1980–1981 , "We'll Meet Again" opens the concert before the show starts. It serves as a link between band member Roger Waters and his father, who was killed during World War II. The film Pink Floyd The Wall (film)| The Wall begins with Lynn singing "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot".

Lynn and the words "We'll meet again some day" are mentioned in The Kinks ' song "Mr. Churchill Says".

The final scene of Stanley Kubrick 's Dr. Strangelove features "We'll Meet Again" playing as many nuclear explosions are set off.

One of the episodes of the TV documentary series The World at War is named after one of Lynn's songs "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow", which dealt with the Burma Campaign . Ms. Lynn herself reminisced visiting the British troops in Burma, and a snippet of the song is included amidst the struggles of the British Forces in dealing with the mud and the monsoon.

In Gary Numan 's song "War Songs", there is a line that reads "Old men love war songs, I'm Vera Lynn".

In the British campaign of Call of Duty 3 , there are two SAS Jeeps . One is named "Vera", and the other is named "Lynn".

Scottish band Travis (band)|Travis have a song called " U16 Girls " with the following line: "I met a girl in Paris, she talked like Vera Lynn."

During a Street Talk segment on The AFL Footy Show in 2009, an elderly Englishman claiming to be Vera Lynn's brother appeared before Sam Newman on the streets of St Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda . Although there was no way to prove his claim, it was expected to be true because of his striking physical resemblance as well as his knowledge of her songs.

In the movie Hellboy (film)| Hellboy , during Professor Broom's confrontation with Rasputin , a recording of Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" plays in the background (according to the closed-captioning).

The name Vera Lynn is cockney rhyming slang for "skin", a cigarette paper used for roll-ups. This was immortalised in the song " Ebeneezer Goode " by the Shamen with the line "Anyone got any Veras? Lovely!" It is also slang for "bin".

The punk band the Sex Pistols are noted for coming onstage to the Lynn version of the song "There'll Always Be an England". It is also the name of their only live DVD.

English rock band The Libertines used Lynn's song "We'll Meet Again" as their walk-on music during their 2010 reunion concerts.

Lynn is the subject of "The Yip& #33; Song" by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians.

Lynn is mentioned among several memories of the World War II|Second World War in the graphic novel When the Wind Blows (graphic novel)|When the Wind Blows and the animated film adaptation.

In an episode of '' 'Allo 'Allo '', Herr Flick bugs General von Klinkerhoffen's golf bag. When trying to pick up what the General is saying, Lynn's " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover|White Cliffs of Dover " is heard, leaving Herr Flick to remark, That damn woman, she gets everywhere .

"We'll Meet Again" is played at the close of The Singing Detective .

The character of Lynn Minmay in the anime series Super Dimension Fortress Macross is based on Vera Lynn.

In the Futurama episode " A Big Piece of Garbage " Lynn's song "We'll Meet Again" is sung over the closing credits.

In the 1984 film The Hit , "We'll Meet Again" is sung by the gangsters on trial to witness Terence Stamp as he leaves the courtroom. It serves as a way of telling Stamp's character that he is a marked man for testifying against his friends.

Publications

Lynn, Vera (1975). Vocal Refrain . London: W.H. Allen

Lynn, Vera and Cross, Robin (1989). ''We'll Meet Again . London: Sidgwick & Jackson

Lynn, Vera (2009). Some Sunny Day . London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-731815-5

Copyright Citations

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