Please
click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-
We'll
Meet Again - Vera Lynn
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.
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
Vera Lynn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Vera Lynn
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Lynn at the War and Peace Show,
July 2009
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Background information
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Birth name
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Vera Margaret Welch
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Born
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Years active
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1935–1995
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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.
