Biography
In the United States, Lulu is frequently regarded as a one-hit wonder on the strength of her evocative 1967 chart-topper “To Sir, With Love,” a bittersweet single that never repeated its American success even though three further releases reached the Top 40. Across the Atlantic, however, the Glasgow-born singer had already amassed several hits by the time Columbia issued that same track as the B-side of “Let’s Pretend.” Her powerful, adaptable voice and buoyant personality would sustain a long career spanning pop recordings, television, theater, and film. Among the milestones were a 1974 U.K. Top Three cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” a final U.S. Top 20 entry with 1981’s “I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do),” and a 1990s resurgence highlighted by a featured vocal on Take That’s chart-topping “Relight My Fire.” A 2002 duet with Ronan Keating—a rendition of Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight” drawn from her Top Five duets collection Together—reached number four in Britain. Lulu issued her fifteenth studio album, Making Life Rhyme, in 2015. After appearing in a West End production and touring once more with Take That, she participated in the 2020 Bee Gees documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.
Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie on November 3, 1948, in Glasgow, Scotland, Lulu was the eldest of four children and displayed an early passion for singing. At the age of four she performed publicly for the first time at a Coronation party. Following numerous talent-contest victories, she joined the local group the Gleneagles at fourteen. The band soon became a fixture in Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs; one night in 1962, manager Marion Massey spotted their potential, especially the magnetic presence of the lead singer. Massey took them under her wing, rechristened Marie as Lulu, and renamed the ensemble the Luvvers. A 1964 Decca contract yielded the group’s debut single, a spirited reading of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” which climbed to number seven on the British charts. Subsequent hits—“Can’t Hear You No More,” “Here Comes the Night,” and “Satisfied”—together with constant radio, television, and concert work prompted Melody Maker to name Lulu Britain’s most promising new act of 1965.
The following year she left the Luvvers to launch a solo career, signing with EMI’s Columbia imprint and entering a production agreement with Mickie Most, renowned for his work with the Animals, Donovan, and Jeff Beck. She embarked on several tours, including a pioneering trip to Poland that made her the first British female performer to appear behind the Iron Curtain. In 1967 she made her screen debut in the coming-of-age drama To Sir, With Love, portraying student Babs, who absorbs lessons in maturity and self-respect from Sidney Poitier’s teacher. The film succeeded on both sides of the Atlantic, and Lulu’s heartfelt theme soared to number one in the United States for five weeks, although Columbia oddly relegated the track to B-side status in Britain behind “Let’s Pretend.” American success prompted a reissue of “Shout,” which vied for chart space with her new single “Best of Both Worlds”; the latter prevailed, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the U.K., “The Boat I Row,” “Let’s Pretend,” and “Love Loves to Love, Love” all scored major successes that year. Gossip columns briefly noted her romance with the Monkees’ Davy Jones during the group’s British tour, though Lulu later characterized it as “very innocent—nothing untoward happened. It faded almost as soon as it had blossomed.”
In 1968 Lulu headlined her own television series, variously titled Lulu’s Back in Town, Happening for Lulu, and It’s Lulu, which ran until 1975. Additional U.K. hits arrived with “Me the Peaceful Heart,” “Boy,” and “I’m a Tiger.” The year 1969 brought headlines when she married Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, a union that lasted four years; she also represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision, where “Boom Bang-a-Bang” secured victory and peaked at number two on the British charts. Switching U.S. labels, she joined Atco and recorded New Routes at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios with Duane Allman on guitar. In 1970 she collaborated with the Bee Gees, Blind Faith, Spike Milligan, and Eleanor Bron on the British television special Cucumber Castle, later a cult favorite, and released the Atco album Melody Fair, which included her third American hit, “Oh Me Oh My (I’m a Fool for You, Baby).” Four years later she performed the theme for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun and cut a cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” produced by Bowie himself, who also contributed saxophone; the single returned her to the U.K. Top Three. Lulu later confirmed reports of a brief affair with Bowie. A 1975 disco-tinged single, “Take Your Mama for a Ride,” achieved modest success, and the following year she married hairdresser John Frieda; the couple had a son before divorcing in 1991.
Lulu’s final U.S. hit to date, “I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do),” arrived in 1981. Domestic chart fortunes remained limited, yet she maintained visibility through television, concerts, radio hosting, and stage roles in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance and a revival of Guys and Dolls. The 1993 album Independence restored her to the British charts with four charting singles, among them the Bobby Womack duet “I’m Back for More” and the title track. A high-profile collaboration with Take That on “Relight My Fire” yielded a U.K. number one, while her composition “I Don’t Wanna Fight” became a hit for Tina Turner the same year. She made recurring appearances on Absolutely Fabulous and worked with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and in 1996 she starred in a made-for-television sequel to To Sir, With Love.
In 2000 Lulu received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire honor. Two years later she issued Together, a duets album featuring Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, Cliff Richard, and others; the Ronan Keating pairing “We’ve Got Tonight” reached number four in Britain, and the album itself matched that peak—her highest-charting release. She published the autobiography I Don’t Want to Fight in 2002 and the beauty guide Lulu’s Secrets to Looking Good in 2010. In April 2015 she returned to Decca after nearly fifty years with the album Making Life Rhyme. She appeared in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016, starred as Dorothy Brock in a 2018 West End revival of 42nd Street, and joined Take That for a three-month tour in 2019. In 2020 she contributed an onscreen interview to the documentary The Bee Gees: How Do You Mend a Broken Heart.
Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie on November 3, 1948, in Glasgow, Scotland, Lulu was the eldest of four children and displayed an early passion for singing. At the age of four she performed publicly for the first time at a Coronation party. Following numerous talent-contest victories, she joined the local group the Gleneagles at fourteen. The band soon became a fixture in Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs; one night in 1962, manager Marion Massey spotted their potential, especially the magnetic presence of the lead singer. Massey took them under her wing, rechristened Marie as Lulu, and renamed the ensemble the Luvvers. A 1964 Decca contract yielded the group’s debut single, a spirited reading of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” which climbed to number seven on the British charts. Subsequent hits—“Can’t Hear You No More,” “Here Comes the Night,” and “Satisfied”—together with constant radio, television, and concert work prompted Melody Maker to name Lulu Britain’s most promising new act of 1965.
The following year she left the Luvvers to launch a solo career, signing with EMI’s Columbia imprint and entering a production agreement with Mickie Most, renowned for his work with the Animals, Donovan, and Jeff Beck. She embarked on several tours, including a pioneering trip to Poland that made her the first British female performer to appear behind the Iron Curtain. In 1967 she made her screen debut in the coming-of-age drama To Sir, With Love, portraying student Babs, who absorbs lessons in maturity and self-respect from Sidney Poitier’s teacher. The film succeeded on both sides of the Atlantic, and Lulu’s heartfelt theme soared to number one in the United States for five weeks, although Columbia oddly relegated the track to B-side status in Britain behind “Let’s Pretend.” American success prompted a reissue of “Shout,” which vied for chart space with her new single “Best of Both Worlds”; the latter prevailed, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the U.K., “The Boat I Row,” “Let’s Pretend,” and “Love Loves to Love, Love” all scored major successes that year. Gossip columns briefly noted her romance with the Monkees’ Davy Jones during the group’s British tour, though Lulu later characterized it as “very innocent—nothing untoward happened. It faded almost as soon as it had blossomed.”
In 1968 Lulu headlined her own television series, variously titled Lulu’s Back in Town, Happening for Lulu, and It’s Lulu, which ran until 1975. Additional U.K. hits arrived with “Me the Peaceful Heart,” “Boy,” and “I’m a Tiger.” The year 1969 brought headlines when she married Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, a union that lasted four years; she also represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision, where “Boom Bang-a-Bang” secured victory and peaked at number two on the British charts. Switching U.S. labels, she joined Atco and recorded New Routes at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios with Duane Allman on guitar. In 1970 she collaborated with the Bee Gees, Blind Faith, Spike Milligan, and Eleanor Bron on the British television special Cucumber Castle, later a cult favorite, and released the Atco album Melody Fair, which included her third American hit, “Oh Me Oh My (I’m a Fool for You, Baby).” Four years later she performed the theme for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun and cut a cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” produced by Bowie himself, who also contributed saxophone; the single returned her to the U.K. Top Three. Lulu later confirmed reports of a brief affair with Bowie. A 1975 disco-tinged single, “Take Your Mama for a Ride,” achieved modest success, and the following year she married hairdresser John Frieda; the couple had a son before divorcing in 1991.
Lulu’s final U.S. hit to date, “I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do),” arrived in 1981. Domestic chart fortunes remained limited, yet she maintained visibility through television, concerts, radio hosting, and stage roles in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance and a revival of Guys and Dolls. The 1993 album Independence restored her to the British charts with four charting singles, among them the Bobby Womack duet “I’m Back for More” and the title track. A high-profile collaboration with Take That on “Relight My Fire” yielded a U.K. number one, while her composition “I Don’t Wanna Fight” became a hit for Tina Turner the same year. She made recurring appearances on Absolutely Fabulous and worked with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and in 1996 she starred in a made-for-television sequel to To Sir, With Love.
In 2000 Lulu received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire honor. Two years later she issued Together, a duets album featuring Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, Cliff Richard, and others; the Ronan Keating pairing “We’ve Got Tonight” reached number four in Britain, and the album itself matched that peak—her highest-charting release. She published the autobiography I Don’t Want to Fight in 2002 and the beauty guide Lulu’s Secrets to Looking Good in 2010. In April 2015 she returned to Decca after nearly fifty years with the album Making Life Rhyme. She appeared in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016, starred as Dorothy Brock in a 2018 West End revival of 42nd Street, and joined Take That for a three-month tour in 2019. In 2020 she contributed an onscreen interview to the documentary The Bee Gees: How Do You Mend a Broken Heart.
Albums
Singles
