Lita Roza

Born in 1926, she was the eldest of seven children, and began work at an early age to support the family. She owed her sultry looks to her Spanish father, an amateur accordionist who also played piano in several Liverpool nightclubs. At the age of twelve she saw an advertisment in the local newspapers for juvenile dancers and passed the audition. By sixteen [at the hight of the Nazi Blitz-bombing raids on Liverpool she answered another advert, when she managed to secure a job as a singer in the "New Yorker" - a Southport, Merseyside club. She got that job at £5 a week, then shortly afterwards signed up with the Harry Roy Orchestra in London. She moved on from this to work with other bands of the era including that of Edmundo Ros. By the time she was eighteen war-ravaged London was still a dangerous place to work and she had decided to retire from show business - choosing marriage to an American and a life in Miami in exchange. London was full of American servicemen at the time, one of whom Roza married and off they went to safety in America. However, this did not last and shortly after WW2 she returned to the UK In 1950 she became lead female singer with the Ted Heath Band, and by 1954 had achieved enough public acclaim to leave the band and pursue a solo recording career on her own. 1956 she married the trumpet player, Ronnie Harris. She remained a top UK recording artist during the remainder of the 1950s, but her subsequent recordings never recaptured the magic she had shown while with Ted Heath.[citation needed] She was voted the 'Top British Female Singer' in the New Musical Express' pool winners charts consecutively from 1951 to 1955. Melody Maker readers also voted her their 'Top Girl Singer' in the Dance Band section of their pools in 1951 and 1952. Her 1953 number one hit record "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" afforded Roza the privilege of being the first British female singer to top the UK Singles Chart. On Wednesday March 14, 2001 a Wall of Fame was inaugurated opposite the famous Cavern Club on Mathew Street, in downtown Liverpool, with Roza presiding at the ceremony. At November 28, 2002, in Liverpool, she gave her last public performance on Radio Merseyside. Lita Roza died peacefully at home on 14 August 2008, aged 82. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.