Dame Shirley Bassey explains why she never sang Moonraker live, until now
13-Mar-2006 • Bond News
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She was asked... have you ever been starstruck?
"Oh God, yes - Elvis Presley. I went backstage to see him after his show in Las Vegas and I had one of those jumpsuits that were very fashionable in those days.
There was a button there, (gestures to top of chest), and then it was open, and a button there, and then open, and a button there, and then open, right down to my navel.
He started doodling on my skin - I can't go on, I still get goosebumps just talking about it. I went to my room and got undressed and looked in the mirror and there were all these crazy drawings on me. I never washed again!"
How did you feel to be made a dame?
"I was fast asleep. My manager had arranged to wake me up very early the next morning because we had a meeting. He had the keys to my apartment, and came and twiddled my toes to wake me gently, and I said 'will you please go away, I'm so tired, I want to go back to sleep'. I thought he'd gone, because it was very quiet, and I was just going back to sleep again, and a voice said 'So you don't want to be a dame then?'. I shot bolt upright in bed and said 'I'm a dame?!'. And that's how I took the news."
When did you realise you had such a powerful voice?
"I was about 12, the first day at school choir, and I was in the front row. We started the song, and the teacher stopped and said 'Bassey, you are too loud, get back'. I went back and we started again and she said, 'Bassey, still too loud, back'. I went back until I was right at the back of the choir, and we started again and she said, 'Bassey, you are still too loud'. So I went back and back until I found myself in the hall. And I never heard from her again."
Has your career always been so glamorous?
"When I was 16, I appeared in my very first show. I turned up and expected them to have a gown for me, and they said no, and I said, 'but I don't have one'.
"I had a merry widow, which for those of you in the audience who are young, is a basque, but in those days you wore them underneath your clothing, and not outside.
"Anyway, I had the basque, and one of the girls had this beautiful long blue skirt, and another girl had a belt. I looked in the mirror, and thought 'mmm, gorgeous'.
"Then I went out on stage and it came to my last song, and on the last note, my skirt came down, so no, it wasn't always so glamorous."
What's the best advice anyone's ever given you?
"This sounds like name-dropping, but then I have met a lot of stars over the many years I've been in showbusiness - I don't know if there are that many since I'm only 29.
"When I was about 20, in the audience was my idol, Judy Garland, and she sent a waiter round to ask me to go and sit with her and have a drink.
"As I was going to America for the first time the following week, I asked her if I should change my act.
"She said 'Certainly not - you go with the act I saw. You do that, and you'll be a big success. Don't do what I did, I listened to everybody, and I had lights coming on here, lights coming on there, lights coming on there, and I looked like a damn clown. Don't do that'. So I took her advice, and went to America, and I'm happy to say the act was a big success."
How does it feel to be the only person to have recorded two James Bond themes?
"Three! Everybody thinks that I only recorded two, but Moonraker was meant for Johnny Mathis, but he couldn't make it, and John Barry called me in to do it.
And as it really wasn't my song, I didn't sing it live on stage ever.
"Until now." (Breaks into medley of her James Bond themes.)
An Audience with Shirley Bassey screened on ITV1 on Saturday 11th March 2006 at 9pm.
Thanks to `Stuart` for the alert.
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