|
Clodagh Rodgers (born 5 March 1947, Ballymena) is a singer from Northern Ireland, probably best known for her hit "Jack in the Box"; which was the United Kingdom's entry in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest. The song is also a running joke in the "Cycling Tour" episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Clodagh Rodgers signed for Decca records in 1961, at the age of 14. She made four singles before moving to Columbia in 1965, where she was known as "Cloda Rogers", the name under which she made the 1966 single "Stormy Weather"/"Lonely Room" . Although none of the singles she released for Decca or Columbia made the UK charts, Clodagh did succeed in becoming a regular face on British TV and appeared in the musical films Just For Fun and It's All Over Town. She also appeared in various song festivals, finishing third in the European Song Cup competition in Greece, singing Powder Your Face With Sunshine.
Her career changed dramatically when she married John Morris, who became her manager. She signed a three single deal with RCA records in 1968, with the first two singles failing. Producer Kenny Young heard one of these and realized Clodagh had the wrong material. Taking her under his creative wing and together with Morris' management, Clodagh shot to fame in 1969 with two Top 5 chart hits - Come Back And Shake Me, and Goodnight Midnight, which resulted in her being the best selling female singles artist of that year. She also won the award for "The Best Legs" in British showbusiness and insured her voice for one million pounds. The further single releases Biljo, Everybody Go Home, The Party's Over and Lady Love Bug, continued her chart success in the next few years. Many of her songs around this time were written and produced by the American songwriter, Kenny Young. In 1970 Rodgers recorded a single called Give Me Just a Little More Time with Young which enjoyed moderate success. The duo called themselves Moonshine for this release.
With Morris guiding her career, Clodagh became a major household name and TV star, even if the hits didn't quite match her profile. In 1970 she was asked to represent the UK in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, part of the reasoning behind the BBC's invitation was their concern over what reaction the UK entrant would get on the stage from the Irish public. Clodagh received death threats from the I.R.A. as a result of her appearing for the UK. . Heralded by two separate front cover features on the BBC listing's magazine The Radio Times, Clodagh appeared as the resident guest on The Cliff Richard Show from January 1971, performing one shortlisted song a week for six weeks, followed by a performance of all six on week seven and a repeat of the six songs immediately after. Viewer's would normally have been asked to send in postcard votes for their favourites, but owing to a postal strike, regional juries decided the winner, with Jack In The Box being named the winner the following week. The song that placed fourth in the UK selection, Another Time, Another Place, later became a hit for Englebert Humperdinck. For the first time, broadcasters were required to prepare a 'preview' video of the song for broadcast in all the participating Eurovision countries, helping promote the songs before the big night. In Dublin, Clodagh finished in fourth place, behind Monaco, Spain and Germany. It was the first time since 1966 that the UK had not placed first or second. The single became Clodagh's third and last Top 10 success reaching number 4. Incidentally, at Eurovision, Clodagh's sister Lavinia was one of her four backing singers. In 1982, Lavinia and brother Lewis attempted to represent the UK in the contest as part of the group Good Looks. They failed to come through the UK heat. It is also rumoured that Clodagh teamed up with Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott to record a duet which was submitted for the UK competition. The concept was shelved with Lynott's untimely death.
Despite only one more chart single, Lady Love Bug at Christmas 1971, Clodagh continued to be a major TV star in the UK, guesting on many shows, appearing in cabaret and becoming the face of "Bisto" in a series of UK TV ads. On Irish TV, 'The Clodagh Rodgers Show' won an award at the Golden Rose TV festival in Montreux, and Rodgers starred in many other shows, including Seaside Special for the BBC Television (she hosted the first ever show from Great Yarmouth), The Morecambe and Wise Show and The Two Ronnies. Clodagh also made a mark with her impressions of fellow artists such as Cilla Black, and often worked with Mike Yarwood, Des O'Connor, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse and Dickie Henderson in variety. Clodagh was a regular performer in UK resort "Summer Seasons" sharing the bill with Mike and Bernie Winters amongst others. This success was mirrored on stage, where she has starred in London's West End in her own show at the Talk of the Town (breaking Sammy Davis, Jr.'s box office record); in "Cinderella" at the London Palladium (again breaking box office records); and in two musicals (to date). These were "Pump Boys and Dinettes" at the Piccadilly and Albery, and "Blood Brothers" at the Phoenix. She also appeared in the UK tour of "Blood Brothers" between 1995-1998. She says she would like to do more musicals. Her stage career could have been more successful had she not been fired from a musical starring Tommy Steele in 1972 which damaged her theatrical reputation. Steele dismissed Rodgers from the show during rehearsals, accusing her of trying to build up her part and other stage work dried up. Despite this setback, Clodagh continued with TV work through to the late 1970's and when signed to Polydor records in 1977, it seemed her recording career would re-ignite, but despite saturation airplay and many TV appearances to promote the song, the single Save Me failed to chart. She split from her manager and husband not long after the birth of their son and opted for motherhood over performing, although she did release two singles on the Precision label in 1980. One of these tracks was My Simple Heart, which was placed on the B-Side. Shortly after its release, The Three Degrees released their version of the song and took it into the UK top ten. Similarly, Clodagh had released Stand By Your Man as the B-Side of her 1971 single Lady Love Bug. This was later a number one hit single for Tammy Wynette in 1975.
Her second husband, guitarist Ian Sorbie died in 1995, not long after their Taunton based restaurant business collapsed, leaving them bankrupt.
In 1996, the first of two CD retrospectives were issued, bringing Clodagh back into the limelight once more. In 1998, she made a rare TV appearance with other former Eurovision artists, performing comedian John Shuttleworth's Eurovision parody "Pigeon's In Flight" on BBC2, just before the 1998 contest was staged in Birmingham. In 1999, Mint Royale issued a track Shake Me which sampled Clodagh's original recording of Come Back And Shake Me. The track was featured in the UK TV production Queer As Folk. More recently, Clodagh played a recurring character in the ITV continuing drama series, The Bill.
|
