Her debut album, 19, was certified four times platinum in the UK, but it was the follow up, 21, which established the 24-year-old as a global star, selling over 25 million copies to date. She had released over 40 albums before her death in France in 2003.ĩ: ADELE Tottenham-born singer Adele Adkins got her big break after a friend posted her demo on social networking site MySpace in 2006.
From 1964, however, Simone, with songs such as Mississippi Goddam and To Be Young, Gifted and Black, became key to the Civil Rights movement in the USA. The band, driven by Hydne's punchy rock and new wave songs, including Brass in Pocket and Don't Get Me Wrong, made them successful on both sides of the Atlantic over the next two decades.Ĩ: NINA SIMONE Born to a preacher's family in North Carolina, Nina Simone - the stage name of Eunice Kathleen Waymon - was originally known in the late-Fifties and early-Sixties for her jazzy mix of gospel, pop and blues. In 2001, a bench in Soho Square was engraved with her lyrics "One day I'll be waiting there / No empty bench in Soho Square".ħ: CHRISSIE HYNDE Ohio-born Christine "Chrissie" Hynde had been an NME writer, a shop assistant in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's King's Road clothes shop SEX, and a member of several punk bands before she formed The Pretenders in 1978. MacColl was still releasing music when she was killed in a boating accident while on holiday in Mexico in 2000. She released several acclaimed albums in the Eighties, and was the writer behind Tracey Ullman's They Don't Know, a top 10 hit in the UK and US. Her second album, Tapestry (1971), which featured You've Got a Friend, went on to sell 25 million copies.Ħ: KIRSTY MACCOLL The English singer-songwriter is best remembered for her bitter yet passionate duet with Shane MacGowan on the Pogues's recurring Christmas hit Fairytale of New York. In 1962 she had a hit of her own, with It Might As Well Rain Until September, but would not focus on a solo career until 1970. Her songs Jolene and 9 to 5 are country-pop staples, while in 1973 Parton wrote I Will Always Love You, later memorably covered by Whitney Houston.ĥ: CAROLE KING Starting in the late-1950s, Carole King - born Carol Klein in New York in 1942 - initially collaborated with her former husband, lyricist Gerry Goffin, on songs that became big hits for other artists, including Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Take Good Care of My Baby. The Tennessee-born 66-year-old started out singing on local radio stations in the Fifties, and was a country star by the late-Sixties. Her 1975 debut album Horses mixed rock and poetry, would go on to influence bands from REM and The Smiths to Garbage and KT Tunstall.Ĥ: DOLLY PARTON Over a 57-year career in which the prolific singer-songwriter has written more than 3,000 songs and sold over 100 million copies of her 90 odd albums, Dolly Parton has rightly become known as the Queen of Country Music. Fellow singers such as PJ Harvey, Florence and the Machine and Bat for Lashes's Natasha Khan have all identified her as a major influence on their work.ģ: PATTI SMITH A key figure of the New York punk scene in the Seventies, Chicago-born Patti Smith had toyed with careers in art, acting and journalism before focussing on music. In 1987, Bush won a Brit award for best British female, and in 2002 she was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for outstanding contribution to British music. Since then she has released 10 albums and had 25 top-40 singles with her arty pop. Her 1971 album Blue often ranks well on lists of the greatest albums of all time.Ģ: KATE BUSH English singer-songwriter Kate Bush was just 19 when her debut single, Wuthering Heights, topped the British charts for four weeks in 1978. For her pure vocals and thoughtful lyrics, which range from socially conscious to deeply confessional, Mitchell is seen as one of the voices of her generation. 1: JONI MITCHELL Canadian Roberta Joan Anderson (aka Joni Mitchell) began her career busking in Toronto but went on to become one of the leading figures in folk music in the Sixties and Seventies.
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