Anyone Who Had A Heart as Performed by Cilla Black (1964)

Cilla Black – Anyone Who Had a Heart(1964)

Liverpudlian Priscilla Maria Veronica White, renamed Cilla Black by her Svengali Brian Epstein, became one of the most beloved pop-rock performers and tv personalities in England. Musically she got better with age and her first song, even though it was a Lennon-McCartney composition, did not do especially well.

“Her second single, released at the beginning of 1964, was the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition “Anyone Who Had a Heart”. In the United States, it was a new single destined to be a hit for Dionne Warwick where it peaked at #8 while Cilla’s version shot to #1 in Britain, where it remains to this day the top selling single of all time by a British female artist. “(SOURCE)

“Even greater success was in store for Black three months later with the release of “You’re My World,” an English version of a song originally written in Italian. What “I Only Want To Be With You” is to Dusty Springfield, “Shout” is to Lulu, and “Always Something There To Remind Me” is to Sandy Shaw, “You’re My World” is to Cilla Black–a signature song that stands astride her whole career.” (SOURCE)

Cilla has an official website here.

I love this song as representative of the female branch of the British Invasion and as a wonderful Bacharach-David tune — but my two of my four favorite female vocalists of the BI genre are coming up so enjoy Cilla’s live performance below and stay tuned.