Ronnie Carroll

Ronnie Carroll (born Ronald Cleghorn; 18 August 1934 – 13 April 2015) was a Northern Irish singer, entertainer and political candidate. Career Carroll was born Ronald Cleghorn in 116 Roslyn Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1934, the son of a plumber. In January 1954, 19-year-old Ronnie Cleghorn was appearing in a variety show at the Town Hall, Portadown billed as Belfast's Nat King Cole and the show went on to play at several locations in Northern Ireland. Coming across to England, Cleghorn joined a show called "Hollywood Stars" at the Queen's in Blackpool in March 1954 in which the cast gave impressions of trans-Atlantic screen personalities. He sang in the style of Nat King Cole in blackface. Cleghorn adopted the stage name of "Carroll" in May 1954 and the show toured the UK for the next eighteen months. He made his first television appearance on BBC's "Camera One" on 10 January 1956 singing “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing”. He was given a recording contract by Philips and his first record "Last Love" was released on 1 February 1956. Carroll joined a touring show "New Faces of 1956" which began in Nottingham on 27 February 1956 and then he went into a radio show "Calling All Stars". Later that year, he was topping the bill on variety stages and his record “Walk Hand in Hand” was in the charts. He is the only singer to have represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest two years in succession. Having taken part in the 1960 UK Eurovision selection contest with the song "Girl with a Curl", he returned to win the selection and be Britain's entry in the 1962 contest, and with the song "Ring-a-Ding Girl" shared fourth place, the same placing he reached in 1963 with "Say Wonderful Things". This success was followed by two Top 10 hits during 1962 and 1963, but a lack of good material meant that he could not sustain a chart presence. In 1962 he appeared on the bill of "The Winifred Atwell Show". From Monday 17 September 1962, for one week only, he gave twice-nightly performances at the Brighton Hippodrome.