Jimmy Young

Born Leslie Ronald Young in Cinderford near Gloucester, Jimmy Young became one of Britain’s most popular radio voices, fronting a weekday morning programme on BBC Radio 2 from 1973 until he stepped down in 2002. Earlier he had enjoyed a thriving career as a singer that produced two chart-topping singles. Uncertainty surrounds his date of birth; his autobiography gives 21 September 1921, yet those extra years were most likely added so he could enlist in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. After the conflict he signed with the Polygon label and issued his version of Nat King Cole’s Too Young, a major British seller in the year before official pop charts existed. He later moved to Decca and scored modest successes with Faith Can Move Mountains and Eternally, but his relaxed delivery brought two number-one hits in 1955: Unchained Melody, which overcame four simultaneous rival versions inside the top ten, and The Man From Laramie, drawn from the film of the same title. He never repeated that level of success; the following year only Chain Gang and More reached the top ten, his last entries in the higher chart positions. Turning to radio, he hosted Housewife’s Choice on the BBC Light Programme, a network devoted to easy-listening and middle-of-the-road music amid the beat boom of the mid-1960s. When Radio 1 launched in 1967 he joined its original roster of disc jockeys on the mid-morning show, later transferring the JY programme to the more measured Radio 2, the Light Programme’s successor, once the newer station sought a younger audience. The programme mixed records, conversation and current affairs, and over the ensuing decades he spoke with every British Prime Minister as well as royalty such as Prince Philip, The Princess Royal and Princess Grace of Monaco. His calm, unhurried manner became synonymous with Radio 2, yet by the late 1990s the station’s audience profile was shifting toward baby-boomer listeners in their forties and fifties who favoured 1970s music rather than his signature 1950s ballad style. Despite protests from listeners and MPs, the show ended in 2002; declining an offer of weekend slots, he retired and now lives with his third wife, Alicia. His honours include an OBE awarded in 1979, a CBE in 1993 and a knighthood conferred at the beginning of 2002 for services to broadcasting.