Career Accomplishments Of Shirley Bassey That Are Notable

Shirley Bassey was well-known for an outstanding voice which was able to achieve international recognition that is not common for Black British performers. She was born in the year 1937 in Wales and recorded many hits in her career that included theme songs for James Bond movies. These three songs included Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger.

Shirley experienced a difficult early life when she left school early and started working in a factory and a few pubs. When she was sixteen years old she was awarded the part in a musical-revue where she continued to perform until she fell pregnant. Very shortly after giving birth to a baby girl that she named Sharon, Bassey went back to performing.

Her powerful voice managed to attract the attention of Mike Sullivan an entertainment agent who was the person responsible for overseeing Shirleys career. This is when she progressed onto singing two of the theme songs for James Bond movies, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. Other renditions included Big Spender and I Am What I Am that made Basseys career a phenomenal success.

Her solo albums which included Shirley Bassey 25th Anniversary Album as well as The Shirley Bassey Singles Albums resulted in being the 2 largest selling albums. The album known as the 25th Anniversary managed to reach platinum status and reached no 3 status on the UK Charts. Her Singles Album topped at no 2 and managed to go gold.

The album known as Something managed to become her largest selling album of all time and featured in the Top Ten in the UK. She also went onto release 2 singles that reached no 1 on the UK Charts. The names of these songs were Climb Evry Mountain/ Reach For The Stars which was a double A-sided release along with the song As I Love You. In 1997 she reached no 1 on the UK Dance Charts with her song History Repeating.

In the year 1973, Bassey went onto enjoy further success in South Africa and Australia with the song Never, Never, Never that managed to reach no one in both these countries. In the year 2007, Shirley released The Living tree in order to commemorate over 50 years in appearances on UK Singles Chart.

On the American Charts Bassey managed to land 5 singles that included History Repeating, Something, Never, Never, Never along with Goldfinger. More recently, having inspired many Shirley B soundalike shows due to her iconic status, the year 2000 saw Shirley awarded the Dame Commander from the Order Of The British Empire. She is still known today for her outstanding and powerful voice.