Singer;
Singer;
Born: January 19, 1928; Died: September 12, 2013.
Joan Regan, who has died aged 85, was a popular singer who had a number of hits in the 1950s and 60s and had her own BBC television series.
She appeared with many of the big stars of the Sixties including Cliff Richard and Perry Como but was most famous for her partnership with the pianist Russ Conway.
Her voice was sometimes compared to Vera Lynn's and her message was always upbeat. "I like to sing songs with a positive message," she said.
She was born in Romford in Essex to Irish parents and married an American friend of her brothers when she was 18. They moved to California and had children, but the marriage did not work out and Joan returned to the UK with her two sons.
It was while she was working part time for her brother-in-law in his fruiterer business that she became friendly with the local bank manager. He was a fan of her voice and encouraged her to make a recording which led to a deal with Decca as a solo artist in the early 1950s.
Her first single was Ricochet, an up-tempo number backed by the RAF Orchestra. It reached number eight in the charts and helped establish her as a star and a touring artist. It was on these tours that she first worked with Russ Conway, who became a lifelong friend and collaborator. "He and I completed gelled musically," she said.
Other hit records followed Ricochet, including Someone Else's Roses, Happy Anniversary, If I Give My Heart to You and Open Up Your Heart, on which she was accompanied by her five-year-old son Russ.
By this time, she was a regular at the London Palladium, appearing with Billy Dainty, Max Bygraves and many others, and in 1957 she married the Palladium's box office manager Harry Claff. However, the marriage ended after Claff was arrested and imprisoned for embezzling from the theatre.
"Harry paid the penalty for what he did," said Regan, "and right to the end, he maintained that he had only borrowed the money from the Palladium and was going to pay it back. I still cared for him but we did get divorced."
In 1968, she married again, this time to a doctor, Martin Cowan, and in the 1980s they moved to Florida.
In 1984, Regan slipped in the shower, hit her head and suffered a brain haemorrhage which left her temporarily paralysed. It took two years for her memory, and her singing voice, to return.
She made many television appearances throughout her career and had her own BBC series Be My Guest which ran for four series.
She is survived by two sons and a daughter. Her husband predeceased her.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article