Elkie Brooks

British pop-jazz-blues vocalist Elkie Brooks, who entered the world as Elaine Bookbinder, ruled U.K. airwaves throughout the late 1970s via multiple chart-topping singles that earned her the title “the biggest-selling female album artist in the history of the British pop charts.” A native of Manchester raised in a household steeped in music, she abandoned formal education at fifteen to perform with a London dance ensemble. From there she transitioned into broadcasting and forged an extensive partnership with renowned jazz figure Humphrey Lyttelton, paving the way for her eventual pivot into mainstream pop. During the early 1960s she issued 45s on Decca and EMI while supporting acts ranging from Carl Perkins to the Beatles, yet widespread commercial recognition continued to elude her. In 1970 she became a member of the blues-rock outfit Dada, a group that later achieved wider notice after renaming itself Vinegar Joe and recruiting vocalist Robert Palmer; together they issued three well-regarded albums before the band dissolved in 1974. Following a short engagement with American Southern rock ensemble Wet Willie, Brooks renewed her pursuit of a solo path. The ensuing releases—Rich Man’s Woman, Two Days Away, Shooting Star, Live & Learn, Pearls, and Pearls II—paired with repeated sold-out engagements and a string of silver, gold, and platinum certifications, secured her standing deep into the twenty-first century.