Born Julie Rolls on 6 April 1943 in London, England, she quit her Bermondsey secondary school in 1959 to spend an extended period dancing for work in Spain. Subsequent jobs included stints as a secretary and a ship’s stewardess, after which she joined a middle-of-the-road ensemble directed by Teddy Foster; with him she later formed a cabaret duo. Adopting a fresh stage surname, she made her radio debut in 1962 on the BBC Light Programme’s Music With A Beat. An audition for Philips A & R manager Johnny Franz led to her first single, ‘It’s Magic’, recorded in 1963. Her recording career reached its peak the next year when ‘The Wedding’—an orchestrated version of a song by Argentinian Joaquin Prieto that she had originally encountered in Spain—climbed to number 3 on the UK chart after receiving its first exposure on the ITV regional magazine programme Day By Day. In addition to selling vast quantities of sheet music, the track entered the US Top Ten, even though Anita Bryant and Malcolm Vaughan had already scored hits with it in 1961. The seasonal follow-up ‘Like A Child’ and 1965’s ‘Hawaiian Wedding Song’ achieved only modest chart success, yet Rogers continued to be sought after on the variety circuit through the remainder of the decade.
