Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-

We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn

https://youtu.be/cHcunREYzNY

My Choice - Vera Lynn: The White Cliffs of Dover

Blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover were the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircraft taking on the Germans when they appeared on the horizon to attack the citizenry below. People watched the air battles from the cliffs. The spitfires and Hurricanes had blue underbellies. Some of the planes were blue, too, but those that weren't still had blue underbellies, hence bluebirds.

https://youtu.be/Hqtaoz4QFX8

Vera Lynn - Lili Marlene

https://youtu.be/ZSMuTm649Hk

Marlene Dietrich - Lili marleen song and text

https://youtu.be/D-szCTIE4q0

Dame Vera Lynn performs at 1990 Royal Variety Performance

https://youtu.be/f0Dwf93z7w8

Vera Lynn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dame Vera Lynn
Lynn at the War and Peace Show, July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Vera Margaret Welch
Born	20 March 1917 (age 98) East Ham, Essex (now London), England
Genres	Traditional pop
Years active	1935–1995
Labels	UK Decca/London, HMV

Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917),^[1] widely known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" is an English singer, songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during the Second World War. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. The songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England".

She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and her UK Number one single "My Son, My Son".

In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the British album chart, at the age of 92.^[2] She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of theSecond World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.^[3]

Early life[edit]

Vera Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917 in East Ham, in what was then the county of Essex, now East London. When she began performing publicly at the age of seven, she adopted her grandmother's maiden name (Lynn) as her stage name.^[4] Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in 1935. At this point she was being featured on records released by dance bands including those of Loss and of Charlie Kunz.^[5] In 1936 her first solo record was released on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire".^[6] This label was absorbed by Decca Records in 1938.^[7] After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a few years during which she recorded several standard musical pieces. In 1937, she moved to the aristocrat of British dance bands, Bert Ambrose.^[8]

She is best known for her 1939 recording of the popular song "We'll Meet Again", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles;^[9] the nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and made the song one of its emblematic hits. During the Phoney War, the Daily Express asked British servicemen to name their favourite musical performers: Vera Lynn came out on top and as a result became known as "the Forces' Sweetheart".^[10]

In 1941, during the darkest days of the Second World War, Lynn began her own radio programme, Sincerely Yours, sending messages to British troops serving abroad.^[5] She and her quartet performed songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas.^[11] Her other great wartime hit was "The White Cliffs of Dover", words by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent.^[12] In 1943 she appeared in the film We'll Meet Again.^[13] Contrary to later reports, she neither sang nor recorded "Rose of England" during this time and it was only in 1966 when her producer, David Gooch, selected it for her album More Hits of the Blitz that she became familiar with it. The album itself was a follow-up to Hits of the Blitz produced by Norman Newell.

During the war years she joined ENSA and toured Egypt, India and Burma,^[14] giving outdoor concerts for the troops. In March 1944 she went to Shamsheernugger airfield to entertain the troops before the Battle of Kohima. Her host and lifelong friend Captain Bernard Holden recalled "her courage and her contribution to morale".^[15] In 1985 it was announced that she would receive the Burma Star for entertaining British guerrilla units in Japanese-occupied Burma.^[16] She is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the war years.