Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell, 26 June 1943) is an English rhythm and blues and jazz singer, and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.
Fame is the only British pop star to have achieved three number one hits with his only Top 10 chart entries: \"Yeh Yeh\" in 1964, \"Getaway\" in 1966 and \"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde\" in 1967.
Fame was influenced from early on by jazz and such blues musicians as Willie Mabon and Mose Allison, and was one of the first white artists to be influenced by the ska music he heard in Jamaican cafes in and around Ladbroke Grove. Black American soldiers who visited the Flamingo Club, where the band had a three-year residency, would play him the latest jazz and blues releases from America, \"Midnight Special\" by Jimmy Smith, \"Grooving With Jug\" by Gene Ammons and Richard \"Groove\" Holmes, and \"Green Onions\" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
In August 1963 the band took a weekly Friday-night spot at \"The Scene\" on Great Windmill Street. In September 1963 the band recorded its debut album, Rhythm And Blues At the Flamingo, live at the Flamingo Club. Produced by Ian Samwell, who had previously played with Cliff Richard, and engineered by Glyn Johns, the album was released, in place of a planned single, on the EMI Columbia label. It failed to reach the chart but the October 1964 follow-up, Fame At Last, achieved No. 15 on the UK album chart. In 1964 Fame and the band appeared on five episodes of Ready Steady Go!
When Ronan O'Rahilly, who then managed him, could not get Fame's first record played by the and was also turned down by Radio Luxembourg, he announced that he would start his own radio station in order to promote the record. The station became the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline.
Fame subsequently enjoyed regular chart success with singles, having three Top 10 hits, which all made number one in the UK Singles Chart. His version of \"Yeh Yeh\", released on 14 January 1965, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart and a total of 12 weeks on the chart. The following-up single, in 1965, was \"In The Meantime\", which also charted in both UK and US. Fame made his US television debut that same year on the NBC Hullabaloo series. His single \"Get Away\", released on 21 July 1966, spent one week at No. 1 on the UK chart and 11 weeks on the chart in total. The song, originally recorded with a view to using it as a television jingle for a petrol advertisement, was later used as the theme tune for a quiz show on Australian television. At this point Fame disbanded his band and went solo.
Fame's version of the Bobby Hebb song \"Sunny\" made No. 13 in the UK charts in September 1966.[ The follow-up, \"Sitting In The Park\", a Billy Stewart cover, made No. 12. His greatest chart success was \"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde\" in 1967, which was a number one hit in the United Kingdom, and No.7 in the United States. \"Yeh Yeh\" and \"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde\" sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.
