LOS ANGELES, Aug 3: British singer Cilla Black, who is best known for her 1964 single “You’re My World”, has passed away. She was 72.
The singer, who had a home in Estepona, southern Spain, died Saturday, according to Spanish police.
The cause was not immediately disclosed, said The Hollywood Reporter.
Black had a 50-year music and television career.
She was born Priscilla White in Liverpool, northwest England. The singer worked as a teenager in the cloakroom of the city’s Cavern Club, where her musical talent was spotted by The Beatles.
Black had a string of hits starting in 1964 with “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and “You’re My World.” Both went to Number 1 in Britain, and the latter also charted in the US.
She also had success with the Bacharach-David theme tune for the 1966 film “Alfie”, and recorded several Beatles songs, including “The Long and Winding Road.”
By the late ’60s she was famous enough to be known by her first name alone, and hosted a BBC variety show, “Cilla”.
With her reliable good cheer and tireless work ethic, Black was a TV natural. Her catchphrase — delivered in a strong Liverpool accent that replaced the letter “t” with “r” — was “a lorra, lorra laughs.”
She became a British television fixture as the cheeky, cheery host of 1983 game show “Blind Date” and heartwarming-reunion program Surprise Surprise (between 1984 and 2001).
Black’s husband of 30 years, Bobby Willis, died in 1999. She is survived by their three sons. (PTI)
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