In the early and mid-1960s, Bassey had numerous hits in the UK, and five albums in the top 15. In January 1959, “As I Love You” reached number one and stayed there for four weeks it was the first number-one single by a Welsh artist. “As I Love You” was released as the B-side of another ballad, “Hands Across the Sea” it did not sell well at first, but after an appearance at the London Palladium sales began to pick up. In mid-1958, she recorded two singles that would become classics in the Bassey catalogue. However, upon closer inspection, this document, dated 17 December 1953 (three weeks before her 17th birthday), appears to promise £10 for two performances. In a 1999 interview with Nigel Havers in her Monte Carlo apartment, Bassey pointed to a piece of paper framed on the wall and referred to it as her first contract, at a salary of £14 a week (a considerable sum for a sixteen-year-old in 1953). Her father was Nigerian, and her mother came from Teesside. She grew up in the adjacent community of Splott. Shirley Veronica Bassey, the sixth and youngest child of Henry Bassey and Eliza Jane Start, was born on Bute Street, Tiger Bay, Cardiff. A Welsh icon, known best perhaps for her ties with the James Bond franchise, Dame Shirley Bassey has dominated popular culture for nearly six decades.
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