Russ Conway

Trevor Herbert Stanford first saw the light of day on September 2, 1925, in Bristol, arriving as the youngest of three brothers. His father worked as a traveling salesman while his mother played piano; although he never received structured lessons, he absorbed her gift and later ruled the singles charts in 1959 with piano medleys that stood apart from the dominant styles of the era. While still a teenager amid World War II he enlisted in the Royal Navy, earning a Distinguished Service Medal for his service as a signalman attached to the commander of minesweeping operations. Once hostilities ended he returned to the Merchant Navy, only to lose the tip of a finger in a bread-slicer mishap while on duty. Conway would later remark that the injury actually shaped his distinctive keyboard touch instead of limiting it. He stayed in naval service until 1955; upon discharge he began performing in London nightspots, where Irving Davies discovered him and arranged engagements as the accompanist for Gracie Fields, Dennis Lotis, Joan Regan, and Rosemary Squires. These appearances caught the ear of EMI’s A&R executive Norman Newell, who placed him on the Columbia roster.

By 1956 Conway had supplied the score for a fresh television staging of Beauty and the Beast. The following year, now recording under the name Russ Conway, he issued the medley single “Party Pops.” Columbia positioned him as its counterpart to Decca’s Winifred Atwell, whose piano medleys had succeeded throughout the 1950s yet had become largely annual Christmas releases after 1954. The track offered honky-tonk renditions of older numbers including “When You’re Smiling,” “I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover,” “For Me and My Girl,” “Shine on Harvest Moon,” and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.” In the emerging market for adult long-playing records his convivial party collections appealed to listeners who bypassed rock & roll; consequently the 1958 album Pack Up Your Troubles reached number six on the broadened LP chart of 1959. He also became a recurring guest on the popular variety series The Billy Cotton Band Show. Another medley, “More Party Pops,” entered the Top Ten with selections such as “Music Music Music,” “If You Were the Only Girl in the World,” “Nobody’s Sweetheart,” “Yes Sir That’s My Baby,” and “Some of These Days.” The year 1959 brought outright chart supremacy through two self-penned number-one singles, “Side Saddle” and “Roulette,” plus the Top Ten entries “China Tea” and “Snow Coach,” and the further medley “More and More Party Pops,” which drew on “Sheik of Araby,” “Who Were You with Last Night,” “Any Old Iron,” “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” and “If You Were the Only Girl in the World.”

An expanded edition of More Party Pops topped the newly launched EP listing, while three additional albums—Songs to Sing in Your Bath, Family Favourites, and Time to Celebrate—also reached the Top Ten. As the year’s leading seller he received his own television program and performed at the London Palladium, yet comparable success never returned. Although 1960 yielded another string of singles, none climbed inside the Top Ten; two further albums, the Liberace-styled classical set My Concerto for You and the medley collection Party Time, did achieve that ranking. Throughout the remainder of the 1960s health setbacks curtailed his activities, including a nervous breakdown and a mild stroke that temporarily halted performances. In the 1980s a diagnosis of stomach cancer prompted renewed activity; Conway established the Russ Conway Cancer Fund alongside broadcaster Richard Hope-Hawkins, raising funds through gala concerts that featured himself and numerous colleagues from the entertainment world. He passed away at his residence in Eastbourne, Sussex, on November 16, 2000, aged 75.