Biography
Born Leon Siroto around 1921 in Salford, Lancashire, the singer who later performed as Lawrence died in February 1961 in the United States. During the 1950s he established himself as one of Britain’s leading ballad vocalists, his polished tenor placing him alongside David Whitfield as a major attraction. Both of his parents had sung with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and at sixteen he traveled to Italy for three years of operatic training. The outbreak of the Second World War brought him back to England, where he joined the Royal Tank Regiment. After demobilization he resumed performing through ENSA engagements and attracted the attention of BBC producer Roy Spear, who cast him in the radio series Beginners Please. Subsequent broadcasts found him featured with the orchestras of Stanley Black, Sydney Lipton and numerous others; he also served for a period as resident vocalist with Cyril Stapleton’s BBC Show Band. In 1955 he hosted his own Radio Luxembourg program, backed by Harry Gold’s orchestra. His debut release paired “How Can You Buy Killarney?” with “Helene,” and he later reached the British Top Twenty with “Crying In The Chapel” and “Suddenly There’s A Valley.” Leading arrangers including Ray Martin, Geoff Love, Roland Shaw and Tony Osborne supplied his orchestral accompaniments. Variety-theater audiences regularly heard him deliver such signature numbers as “With These Hands,” “Blue Tango,” “A Beggar In Love,” “Tell Me Tonight,” “The Story Of Tina,” “Falling In Love With Love” and “Lonely Ballerina,” while his theme remained “The World Is Mine Tonight.” As rock ’n’ roll dominated British charts in the late 1950s, Lawrence relocated with his family to America, where he appeared in cabaret, on television and on the Borscht circuit in the Catskills until his death at forty. One of his final British singles offered markedly uncharacteristic fare: Annisteen Allen’s “Don’t Nobody Move” on one side and the satirical “Rock ’N’ Roll Opera” on the other, a 1956 novelty that name-checked Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent and Tommy Steele among the newcomers who had displaced him from the hit parade.